HILDEGARD OF BINGEN (1098-1179)
by Dr. Deborah Vess
Director of Interdisciplinary Studies
Associate Professor of History
Brief Overview:
We will look at the illuminations of Hildegard of Bingen within their cultural and theological context. In this unit, we will look at Hildegard's use of color and shape to convey a feminine vision of the Divine.Background: Who was Hildegard of Bingen?
Hildegard was an abbess, prophetess, poet, healer, theologian, and musician. She was born in one of the most innovative and creative centuries of the Middle Ages, and is herself symbolic of the apex of medieval culture. One of the most educated, prolific women of all time, she preached against heresy and corruption, wrote massive works on medicine and visionary theology, was a prolific and highly original composer, and commanded the respect of an entire continent. Although she called herself but a "simple creature," and "a poor little womanly creature," she was known to others in her age as the Sibyl of the Rhine and Old Wrinklegard.
The tenth child of a noble family, Hildegard was given by her parents to the monastery of Disibodenberg, a cloistered community of men and women, when she was seven or eight years old. When her mentor died in 1136, she was unanimously elected abbess of the community. Twelve years later, she broke from the male monastery and established a convent near Bingen known as Rupertsberg. In an era when female communities were progressively dominated by their male counterparts, Hildegard fought for the independence of her community by seeking the protection of the Archbishop of Mainz and the Emperor Frederick Barbarosa. Under her leadership, the community became economically successful. In 1165 she established a sister community of Eibingen on the other side of the Rhine from Rupertsberg.
She corresponded with popes, emperors, bishops and well-known abbots such as Bernard of Clairvaux. Never afraid to challenge authority when she believed it to be misguided, she intervened in Barbarosa's difficulties with the papacy and at one point, refused to disinter a corpse from her cemetery when it was ordered removed. She went on four preaching missions against the Cathar heresy, unheard of for a woman of her times. These achievements alone would merit a study of Hildegard as a woman who challenged the norms of her age, but her achievements carried her well beyond the boundaries of ordinary thought and knowledge, and into the sublime realm of visionary prophecy. Hildegard articulated a vision of God as a pulsating life force present in our lives, and this force was interpreted as essentially feminine.
The Illuminations of Hildegard
Hildegard's depiction of her visions
Approximately four or five years after Hildegard became abbess of Rupertsberg, she experienced a profound series of visions after a severe illness. Hildegard was afflicted with serious pain throughout her life, but it was her visions which gave her strength. Although she had had her visions from the age of five, she had been afraid of recording them. The visions she had in her forties commanded her to write what she had seen.
She says that she wrote of her experiences only with extreme awkwardness, as she was not well educated in Latin. She was assisted by Volmar,a monk of Disobodenberg, and Richardis von Stade, a nun of her community. She directly oversaw their work, as well as the creation of the illuminations of her visions. After the process of recording the visions was begun, she recovered from her illness.
In a letter to a monk, she tells us of the nature of her visions: "When I was 42 and seven months old, a bringing light of tremendous brightness coming from heaven poured into my entire mind, like flame that does not burn but enkindles. It inflamed my entire heart and breast, like the sun that warms an object with its rays." She said that she "did not hear them with physical ears, nor understand them with my heart's thoughts, nor {does she] perceive them with any of [her] five senses, but only in [her] soul" (Letter to Guibert of Gembloux). Notice the use of red in this illumination, especially in the tongues of fire coming down from heaven to illuminate her. Red is a powerful, vibrant color which conveys a sense of strength and vitality. Hildegard suggests that divine illumination is strong, vibrant, and pulsating with life.
Hildegard said that her knowledge came not from books, but as an inner knowledge which is simple and intuited: "All at once I was able to taste the understanding of the books- - The Psalter, the Evangelists, and the books of the Old and New Testaments." This knowledge was for her, and her age, a manifestation of divine revelation. This simple knowledge differed from knowledge gained by rational speculation, as this sort of knowledge had, even in her day, led many into error.
These visions became the basis for Scivias, or Know the Ways of the Lord, one of her major works. Other visions formed the basis of The Book of the Merits of Life and the Book of Divine Works. For Hildegard, all creation is part of a harmonious whole, which is everywhere interconnected and pulsating with life. This vision of the universe is clearly seen in the following illuminations. Please click on the links to view the illuminations below.
Conclusion
Hildegard wrote many chants, and even an entire mystery play, the Ordo Virtutem. They are expansive in range, and carry us to unimaginable heights of ecstasy and celebration of the life which we have in the Divine. For Hildegard, chant captures the harmony of the spheres and is the image of the Divine. We will focus in more detail on Hildegard's chant in our unit on medieval cathedrals.
Hildegard called herself a "small sound of the trumpet from the living light." In her chants, she created the heavenly, and vibrated in sync with the rhythm of the universe. She calls us to do the same, to reflect God and be a mirror for others. Her music and her writings continue to speak to us today, in many different ways. She awakens the rhythm of the cosmos in us. Her music still symbolizes the interconnectedness of the universe in which we live and all ages past, present and future. Some have felt the universal rhythm in as musical a way as Hildegard did, and have translated her thought into new wave music. By listening to this, or by taking her chant and translating it into our terms, does she not continue in dialogue with us today and with the universe which gave her such extraordinary gifts?
copyright © Dr. Deborah Vess 1998-2001, Georgia College & State University and the Board of Regents of the University System of Georgia. All rights reserved. Rights to chapters authored by contributing faculty members reserved to Georgia College & State University, to the Interdisciplinary Studies Program at GC&SU, and to the individual faculty authors.