O virgo Ecclesia (Symphonia 66)

For Holy Week, an Antiphon for the Church by St. Hildegard of Bingen^[1]

Scivias II.6: The Crucifixion.
Rupertsberg MS, fol. 86rr.

O virgo Ecclesia, plangendum est, quod sevissimus lupus filios tuos   de latere tuo abstraxit. O ve callido serpenti! Sed o quam preciosus est       sanguis Salvatoris, qui in vexillo regis Ecclesiam ipsi      desponsavit, unde filios illius requirit.

O Virgin Mother Church, lament and mourn! A savage wolf has snatched your children from your side. O woe to serpent’s trickery! But O, how precious is       the Savior’s blood that with the royal banner sealed his bridegroom’s promise      to the Church, whose children he is seeking.

O spectabiles viri (Symphonia 31)

For the Feast of the Prophet Ezekiel, an Antiphon for Patriarchs and Prophets
by St. Hildegard of Bingen ^[1]

Scivias III.4: The Pillar
of the Word of God.
Rupertsberg MS, fol. 145v.

O spectabiles viri qui pertransistis occulta, aspicientes per oculos spiritus et annuntiantes in lucida umbra acutam et viventem lucem in virga germinantem, que sola floruit de introitu radicantis luminis: Vos antiqui sancti, predixistis salvationem exulum animarum que inmerse fuerant morti, qui circuisti ut rote, mirabiliter loquentes      mistica montis qui celum tangit, pertransiens ungendo      multas aquas, cum etiam inter vos surrexit lucida lucerna, que ipsum montem precurrens          ostendit.

O men of sight—what a sight! Through mysteries you’ve passed with gaze of spirit’s eyes, to announce in shining shadow a living, piercing light that buds upon that single branch that flourished at the entrance of deep-rooted light: You saints of old! You have foretold salvation of souls in exile plunged, in death immersed. You circled, spun like wheels as wondrously proclaimed      the mountain’s mysteries whose top the heavens touched and passed through many waters      with anointing— yet still among you arose a shining lamp that raced ahead, that mountain      to reveal.

O successores (Symphonia 40)

For the Feast of St. Isidore of Seville, an Antiphon for Confessors
by St. Hildegard of Bingen ^[1]

Initial D: Lion of Judah
Stammheim / Hildesheim
Missal (ca. 1160-70), fol. 111v.
J. Paul Getty Museum

O successores fortissimi leonis, inter templum et altare dominantes in ministratione eius   sicut angeli sonant in laudibus et sicut assunt populis      in adiutorio, vos estis inter illos qui hec faciunt, semper curam habentes      in officio Agni.

Successors of the mighty Lion, between the temple and the altar commanding in his service: as angels sing in praise resounding and quicken to defend the people      with their aid— so you among them as they do these things, keep ever carefully the office      of the Lamb.

O tu illustrata (Symphonia 23)

For the Feast of the Annunciation, an Antiphon for the Virgin
by St. Hildegard of Bingen^[1]

Chastity, from
Scivias III.8: The Pillar
of the Savior's Humanity.
Rupertsberg MS, fol. 178r.

O tu illustrata de divina claritate, clara Virgo Maria, Verbo Dei infusa, unde venter tuus floruit de introitu Spiritus Dei, qui in te sufflavit et in te exsuxit quod Eva abstulit in abscisione puritatis, per contractam contagionem        de suggestione diaboli.

Illumined by God’s clearest brightness, O Virgin Mary bright, and flooded with the Word of God: your womb then flourished at the entrance of God’s Spirit— he breathed within you, within drew out the loss of Eve, a purity cut off and silenced by that disease contracted at the Devil’s sly persuasion.

O vos imitatores (Symphonia 39)

For the Feast of Pope St. Gregory the Great, a Responsory for Confessors
by St. Hildegard of Bingen ^[1]

Scivias II.6: Eucharist.
Rupertsberg MS, fol. 86v.

V. O vos imitatores      excelse persone in preciosissima et gloriosissima significatione,      o quam magnus est      vester ornatus, ubi homo procedit, solvens et stringens in Deo pigros et peregrinos, R. etiam ornans      candidos et nigros et magna onera remittens.

V. O actors, you who play      the Highest Role within that precious drama, that glorious sacrament! How great and beautiful      your vested costume, as steps forth such a man to loose and bind in God the slacker and sojourner, R. the shining and the squalid      both to beautify and all their heavy burdens to remit.

Vos flores rosarum (Symphonia 38)

For the Feast of Sts. Perpetua and Felicity, a Responsory for Martyrs
by St. Hildegard of Bingen^[1]

Agony in the Garden.
Drawing from the Abbey of
St. Walburg, Eichstätt, ca. 1500.
(From J. Hamburger,
Nuns as Artists, plate 8)

V. Vos flores rosarum, qui in effusione sanguinis vestri   beati estis in maximis gaudiis, redolentibus et sudantibus in emptione que fluxit de interiori mente consilii manentis ante evum R. in illo, in quo non erat constitutio a capite. V. Sit honor in consortio vestro,   qui estis instrumentum ecclesie et qui in vulneribus vestri sanguinis undatis: R. In illo, in quo non erat constitutio a capite.

V. You blooms of roses, within your blood outpoured you’re blessed in joys supreme— the fragrance and distilled perfume of that redemption that flowed from th’ inmost heart of counsel kept before all time R. in him who was unfounded at the start. V. An honor in your fellowship! The Church’s instrument you are as in your wounds, your waves of blood, you surge and gush: R. in him who was unfounded at the start.

Cum erubuerint infelices (Symphonia 14)

For Ash Wednesday, an Antiphon for the Virgin by St. Hildegard of Bingen^[1]

Scivias I.2: The Fall.
Rupertsberg MS, fol. 4r.

Cum erubuerint infelices in progenie sua, procedentes in peregrinatione             casus, tunc tu clamas clara voce, hoc modo homines elevans de isto malicioso casu.

While downcast parents blushed, ashamed to see their offspring wand’ring off into the fallen exile’s      pilgrimage, you cry aloud with crystal voice, to lift up humankind from that malicious fall.

O cruor sanguinis (Symphonia 5)

A Good Friday Antiphon by St. Hildegard of Bingen^[1]

Scivias II.6: Christ's
Sacrifice and the Church.
Rupertsberg MS, fol. 86r.

O cruor sanguinis qui in alto sonuisti, cum omnia elementa se implicuerunt in lamentabilem vocem cum tremore, quia sanguis Creatoris sui    illa tetigit, ungue nos de languoribus nostris.

O streaming blood, to heaven’s height you cried, when every element enwrapped itself within a voice of woe with trembling misery, for their Creator’s blood had covered them: Anoint us and heal our feebleness.