O virga ac diadema (Symphonia 20)

For the Feast of Our Lady of Lourdes,
A Sequence for the Virgin by St. Hildegard of Bingen^[1]

Virgin Mary, Queen of Heavens'
Symphony. Scivias III.13,
Rupertsberg MS, fol. 229r

1a. O virga ac diadema purpure regis que es in clausura tua sicut lorica: 1b. Tu frondens floruisti in alia vicissitudine quam Adam omne genus        humanum produceret.

1a. O branch and diadem, in royal purple clad, who in your cloister strong stand like a shield: 1b. You burst forth blooming but with buds quite different than Adam’s progeny— th’ entire human race.

O magna res (Symphonia R 407ra)

For the Octave of the Epiphany, a Verse for the Incarnate Word
and His Virgin Mother by St. Hildegard of Bingen ^[1]

Hand of God. Frontispiece,
Uta Codex, ca. 1025.
Munich, Staatsbibliothek
MS Clm 13601, fol. 1v.

1a. O magna res que in nullo constituto latuit,    ita quod non est facta nec creata ab ullo, sed in se ipsa permanet. lb. O vita que surrexisti in aurora, in qua magnus rex      sapientiam que in antiquo apud virum sapientem fuit misericorditer manifestavit, quia mulier per foramen      antiqui perditoris mortem intravit.

1a. O greatness that no creature formed could hide— not made indeed, created not by anyone, within itself abides. 1b. O life that rose upon the dawn, the dayspring when      the mighty King in mercy made his Wisdom known— of old she dwelt together with the sage— for once a woman entered death through the ancient slayer’s      darkened door.

O Verbum Patris (Symphonia R 404va)

A Verse for Word and Wisdom by St. Hildegard of Bingen^[1]

Scivias II.1: Creation
Rupertsberg MS,
fol. 41v (detail)

O Verbum Patris, tu lumen prime aurore in circulo rote es, omnia in divina vi operans. O tu prescientia Dei, omnia opera tua previdisti, sicut voluisti, ita quod in medio potencie tue latuit    quod omnia prescivisti, et operatus es quasi in similitudine rote cuncta circueuntis, que inicium non accepit nec in fine prostrata est.

O Word of the Father, you are the first dawn’s light within the circuit of the wheel, performing all in energy divine. O God’s foreknowledge, you have foreseen your every deed according to your will— all that you have foreknown lay held within your power’s heart. Your working is as like a wheel that all encompasses— beginning kept it not nor ever was it wound down to an end.

O virtus Sapientie (Symphonia 2)

An Antiphon for Divine Wisdom by St. Hildegard of Bingen^[1]

Scivias III.5: The Zeal
or Jealousy of God.
Rupertsberg MS, fol. 153r.

O virtus Sapientie, que circuiens circuisti, comprehendendo omnia in una via que habet vitam, tres alas habens, quarum una in altum volat   et altera de terra sudat et tercia undique volat. Laus tibi sit, sicut te decet, O Sapientia.

O Wisdom’s energy! Whirling, you encircle and everything embrace in the single way of life. Three wings you have: one soars above into the heights, one sweeps about the earth, and with the third you fly      throughout. Praise be to you, as is your due, O Wisdom.

Caritas, Humilitas, and Pax: Theophany of the Fountain in St. Hildegard of Bingen’s Liber Divinorum Operum III.3

Liber Divinorum Operum III.3:
Theophany of Caritas, Humilitas,
& Pax in the fountain.
(From the Lucca MS)

As we celebrate this weekend St. Hildegard of Bingen’s declaration as a Doctor of the Church, we should reflect on how Hildegard understood her theological vocation to be rooted in the self-revelatory relationship between God and Creation.  I have chosen to translate below one of the visions from Hildegard’s last and greatest work, the Liber Divinorum Operum (Book of Divine Works), in which she offers just such a meditation.  In this work, Hildegard returns to the history of salvation that formed the structure of her first work, Scivias—but this time, prompted by an extraordinary experience of the divine in the early 1160’s, she envisions and explores it through the dynamic relationship between human and divine.