New Article: “The prophetess and the pope: St. Hildegard of Bingen, Pope Benedict XVI, and prophetic visions of church reform”

Nathaniel M. Campbell, “The prophetess and the pope: St. Hildegard of Bingen, Pope Benedict XVI, and prophetic visions of church reform,” postmedieval: a journal of medieval cultural studies 10.1 (2019), 22-35; read online for free here.

Just published in a special issue devoted to “Prophetic Futures,” this article explores the affinities between St. Hildegard of Bingen and Pope Benedict XVI that may have led him to canonize her and declare her a Doctor of the Church in 2012. It pays special attention to their views on the Church’s prophetic mission and prophecy’s role in reforming it.

Abstract

Now Published: St. Hildegard of Bingen’s The Book of Divine Works

I am pleased to announce that my translation of The Book of Divine Works by St. Hildegard of Bingen is now available from The Catholic University of America Press. This is the first time that the Visionary Doctor’s final and most important visionary work has been issued in a complete and scholarly English translation. The volume includes:

• a Select Bibliography, with editions and translations of Hildegard’s works and secondary scholarship;
• a 22-page Introduction;
• black-and-white reproductions of the ten famous illustrations for the work from the thirteenth-century Lucca manuscript (online color gallery here);
• extensive explanatory notes and references to Scripture, Hildegard’s corpus, and other works of the Christian tradition;
• special indices of Scriptural citations (with exegetical passages marked in bold) and References to Hildegard’s Works.

You can get it directly from CUA Press here; through through Amazon here; European distribution can be accessed here, or email here.

I’ve been working on this project for nearly five years now. My oldest son was born at its beginnings, and my wife’s patience has been tested throughout. I owe my whole family the deepest debt of gratitude and reparations for its burden. Friends, too, have provided invaluable support, especially in accessing research materials unavailable to me. To all those who have helped: a big thank you!

O vas speculativum: A Chronogram for the Feast of St. Hildegard

St. Hildegard of Bingen recording her visions
in the Liber Divinorum Operum (I.1),
from Lucca, MS 1942, fol. 1.

o Vas speCVLatIVVM
LVCIs VIVentIs:
praesta nobIs opVs DeI
In VerbIs et sIgnIs tVIs raCIonaLIbVs.

O mirroring vessel
of the Living Light:
set before us the Work of God
with your reasoned words and signs.

O Sibylla vera Rhenensis: A Chronogram for the Feast of St. Hildegard of Bingen

St. Hildegard of Bingen recording her visions
in the Liber Divinorum Operum (I.1),
from Lucca, MS 1942, fol. 1.

o sIbyLLa Vera rhenensIs
VerbIs LVCIs VIVentIs CorVsCans,
VIrtVte tVa eXpLICa
qVare nos CarItate
qVasI tVnICa DIVInItatIs InDVtos
opVs IpsIVs
In ItInere aeqVo
perfICere oportet.

O true Sibyl of the Rhine,
shimmering with the words of the Living Light,
by your virtue set forth
how we, clothed with love
as with the tunic of Divinity,
are to achieve
its work
upon the even way.

O vox nunc in caelo: A Chronogram for the Feast of St. Hildegard of Bingen

St. Hildegard of Bingen (1098-1179).
Detail from painting by Cynthia Large.

o VoX nVnC In CaeLo
CantICa sonans sVperna,
sVper qVae anIMae nostrae
VeLVt pennae VoLant:
ora In obtVtV tVo pro nobIs,
Vt VIrtVs ChrIstI
qVasI CantICI noVI
In VIrga fLorentIs
nos VIrentes roboret.

O voice that echoes now
celestial songs in heaven,
on which our souls
as feathers fly,
in your beholding pray for us,
that the power of Christ
as of the New Song
that blooms upon the branch
might strengthen us as we flourish.

O vox praeclara: A Chronogram for the Feast of St. Hildegard of Bingen

St. Hildegard of Bingen (1098-1179)
Stained-glass window (restored),
Rochuskapelle / Museum am Strom.

o VoX praeCLara,
VIDens In LVCe VIVente:
praeCepta DeI
nobIs persones,
Vt opera eIVs VIrIDa
In nobIs fLoreantVr.

(O vox praeclara, videns in luce vivente: praecepta Dei nobis persones, ut opera eius virida in nobis floreantur.)

(O illustrious voice, seeing within the Living Light: ring out for us the precepts of God, so that his verdant works might flourish within us.)

O prophetissa teutonica: A Chronogram in Honor of St. Hildegard of Bingen

Portrait of St. Hildegard.
Rupertsberg Scivias, fol. 1r
(Protestificatio)

o prophetIssa teVtonICa
et DoCtrIX beata eCCLesIae,
VIsIones tVae nobIs
VIrtVtes VIrIDItatIs
In VIa Vera ostenDant.

(O prophetissa teutonica et Doctrix beata Ecclesiae, visiones tuae nobis virtutes viriditatis in via vera ostendant.)

(O German prophetess and blessed Teacher of the Church, may your visions reveal to us the virtues of viridity upon the true way.)

O Sancta Hildegardis: A Chronogram for the Feast of St. Hildegard of Bingen

Portrait of St. Hildegard.
Rupertsberg Scivias, fol. 1r
(Protestificatio)

o sanCta hILDegarDIs,
LVX opVsqVe VIVentes
LVCeant nobIs
per VIsIones tVas
In VIa DoCentes.

(O sancta Hildegardis, lux opusque viventes luceant nobis per visiones tuas in via docentes.)

(O Saint Hildegard, may the Living Light and the Living Work shine upon us through your visions as they teach upon the way.)

Hildegard of Bingen and the Doctoral Stars

Liber Divinorum Operum I.2:
Macrocosm and Microcosm.
(Lucaa MS 1942)

In the second vision of St. Hildegard of Bingen’s final and most important work, the Liber Divinorum Operum, she lays out a vast schematic of the universe, structured around a series of swirling spheres that nest, one inside the other, down to the globe of the earth at their center. Evenly spaced around and within its outermost sphere, which she describes as a “circle of bright fire”, she sees sixteen principal stars that “strengthen each part of the firmament with their powers,” and “simultaneously hold [it] together (...) with the rightness of an even and necessary but not excessive number. Like the nails that hold together the wall in which they are fixed, these cannot be moved from their places but orbit with the firmament as they keep it solidly fixed together.” (Liber Divinorum Operum I.2.39)

Hildegard then proceeds to offer an allegorical interpretation of the place of each physical feature of the universe within the life of faith and the history of salvation. Of these sixteen principal stars arranged along the outer circumference of the sky, she writes:

These signify that in the pure wholeness of divine power exist the principal teachers (doctores) who have taught and continue to teach that the ten commandments of the law are to be fulfilled throughout the six ages of the world. (…) For these teachers exhort the faithful throughout the four parts of the world to tremble at the fear of the Lord (…), so that because of this holy dread, they should stop sinning.
         —Liber Divinorum Operum I.2.42

Little could Hildegard have known that one day, her name would be added to the catalogue of these great and stellar teachers of the faith.

Women’s Ordination, Part 2: More Thoughts and Reconsiderations

St. Hildegard of Bingen,
Scivias II.5: Orders of the Church.
Rupertsberg MS, fol. 66r.

After offering an initial set of thoughts in my last post on the possibilities for using ancient notions of ordination to expand the authority of women in today’s Church while also preserving the sacramental reasons for the male priesthood, I had a lively conversation with various friends and colleagues that brought to light several areas of concern, reconsideration, and clarification:

1. An Order of Doctors? The magisteria of bishops and of theologians

Women’s Ordination: Teaching Authority, Sacramentality, and the Priesthood

Scivias II.6:
Ecclesia offers the Eucharist.
Rupertsberg MS, fol. 86r.

With the declaration of St. Hildegard of Bingen as the fourth female Doctor (Teacher) of the Church last year, my thoughts have turned repeatedly to the question of how women have exercised teaching and other institutional authority within the Church, and to how the examples of the past might shape the future of the Body of Christ. As western society has moved decisively over the last century to break down the structural inequalities of patriarchy that had for so long held women inferior to men, the silence that the Church still seems to command of women in its own institutional structures deafens ever more with the cries of injustice. Indeed, several commentators noticed the seeming disconnect between Pope Benedict’s canonization and valorization of Hildegard, on the one hand, and the nearly simultaneous criticism of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, on the other. How can the Church authorize one of her most stridently critical prophetic voices as one of her most important teachers of the faith, and yet continue to bar entry into its modern magisterium to the women who serve that faith today?

Doctor Ecclesiae: A Chronogram in Honor of St. Hildegard of Bingen

Portrait of Hildegard of Bingen.
From the Rupertsberg Scivias, fol. 1r.

o hILDegarDIs prophetIssa
DoCtor eCCLesIae:
Vera VIsIo XrIstI
sIt nobIs LVX opVsqVe
In VIa.

(O Hildegardis prophetissa, Doctor Ecclesiae: Vera visio Xristi sit nobis lux opusque in via.)

(O Hildegard, prophetess and Doctor of the Church: May the true vision of Christ be for us light and task upon the way.)

St. Hildegard of Bingen made Doctor of the Church: Coverage Round-Up

Here's a round-up of the various coverage--news, commentary, arts, and tributes--of Pope Benedict XVI's declaration St. Hildegard of Bingen as a Doctor of the Church on Sunday, October 7.  I have also corralled at the bottom all of the audiences, speeches, etc. in which Pope Benedict has made major mention of St. Hildegard.

News Reports:

• Apostolic Letter Proclaiming St. Hildegard of Bingen a Doctor of the Universal Church (Pope Benedict XVI, 10-7-2012)
• Pope opens Synod: The Church exists to evangelize (Vatican Radio, 10-7-2012)
• Pope Benedict creates two new Doctors of the Church (Catholic News Agency, 10-7-2012)
• Pope launches drive to reclaim lapsed Western Catholics (Reuters, 10-7-2012)
• Pope names 2 church doctors at start of synod on re-spreading faith to areas where it’s fallen (AP, as printed by The Washington Post, 10-7-2012)
• St. Hildegard of Bingen and St. John of Avila are now Doctors of the Church (Rome Reports [Video], 10-7-2012)

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.

Doctor Viriditatis? St. Hildegard of Bingen’s Doctor of the Church Name

Hildegard of Bingen's portrait.
Rupertsberg Scivias (facs.), fol. 1r.

In commemoration of the Feast of St. Hildegard of Bingen, who died on this day (September 17) in 1179, and in consideration of Pope Benedict XVI’s upcoming declaration of her as the thirty-fifth Doctor of the Church, one thing we might wonder about is what her doctoral “nickname” will be.  While not all Doctors of the Church have such monikers, many—especially the medieval and early modern thinkers—are lovingly referred to by these unofficial titles.  For example, the thirteenth-century mendicant-scholastics St. Thomas Aquinas and St. Bonaventure are known as the Doctor Angelicus (Angelic Doctor) and Doctor Seraphicus (Seraphic Doctor), respectively.

The Pope and the Prophetess: Benedict XVI, Hildegard of Bingen, and the Reform of the Church (Part 2)

Liber Divinorum Operum III.5,
from the Lucca MS.

Update: A much expanded and revised version of this essay appeared in 2019 in the journal postmedieval, accessible online here.

Part 1 of this post can be found here.

There are two aspects of Joseph Ratzinger’s reformist vision of the Church that find particularly striking parallels in Hildegard of Bingen’s thought: the political relationship between Church and Empire (or secular world), and the renewal of the Church as a purified but dramatically reduced institution.  Although Hildegard’s own reformist thought must be situated within the legacy of the Gregorian reform of the eleventh century, what is most striking are the ways in which she departs—sometimes radically—from a Hildebrandian vision of the Church; and in those departures, Ratzinger follows her, as much as that might be to the chagrin of traditionalists today.

The Pope and the Prophetess: Benedict XVI, Hildegard of Bingen, and the Reform of the Church (Part 1)

Portrait of Hildegard of Bingen.
From the Rupertsberg Scivias, fol. 1r.

Update: A much expanded and revised version of this essay appeared in 2019 in the journal postmedieval, accessible online here.

Today, Pope Benedict XVI formally authorized the liturgical commemoration of St. Hildegard of Bingen (1098-1179) and inscribed her name in the catalogue of the saints—effectively concluding the cause for her canonization started 800 years ago.  Later this year he will declare her a Doctor of the Church—an extraordinary honor for a woman whose name was practically unknown (at least in Anglo-American circles) until the latter part of the twentieth century.  Yet, her meteoric rise to superstardom in these last few decades—propelled, first by her music, and then by her talents in other areas of art, natural medicine, feminism, and mysticism—is really only a rebirth.  For most of the centuries between her death in 1179 and the latter twentieth century, Hildegard was known primarily as a visionary prophet of the end times.

Hildegard of Bingen to be named Doctor of the Church

Portrait of Hildegard of Bingen.
Rupertsberg MS, fol. 1r.

Update: On May 10, 2012, Pope Benedict XVI formalized Hildegard of Bingen's saintly status in a process known as equivalent canonization, by which the Pontiff authorized the universal church to observe the veneration of a holy person (“Servant of God”) according to the rites of full canonization by inscription in the universal calendar of saints. Hildegard’s veneration within the dioceses of Germany was approved by what is now the Congregation for the Causes of the Saints in 1940, although her name appeared in the Roman Martyrologium beginning in the sixteenth century, and indulgences for local veneration in the Rhineland can be found throughout the later Middle Ages. Her feast day is September 17 (the date of her death in 1179). On May 27, in his Regina Caeli address for the Solemnity of Pentecost, Benedict announced that on October 7, 2012, Hildegard and St. John of Avila will join the thirty-three other Doctors of the Church, thirty men and three women.