Saint Hildegard of Bingen, Virgin and Doctor of the Church

Hildegard was born about 1098 at Bermersheim near Alzey in the Rhineland-Palatinate, of noble parents Mechtild of Merxheim-Nahet and Hildebert of Bermersheim. Sickly from infancy and traditionally counted the youngest of their children, she later testified that from earliest childhood she beheld "the Shade of the Living Light." At a tender age her parents offered her as an oblate to the Benedictine monastery of Disibodenberg. She was placed under the care of the anchoress Jutta of Sponheim; together they were enclosed, and on All Saints Day 1112 Bishop Otto of Bamberg received their vows. Jutta taught her to read and write and to recite the psalms; Hildegard also learned handiwork, care of the garden and the sick, and the beginnings of sacred music. In 1115 she made her religious profession.

From youth she experienced visions that multiplied with the years, yet she long kept silence out of humility, confiding only in Jutta, who told the monk Volmar. After Jutta's death in 1136 the sisters unanimously elected Hildegard magistra of their community. Abbot Kuno wished her to remain prioress under his authority; she sought greater independence and leave to move the nuns to Rupertsberg. When he refused, she obtained the approval of Archbishop Henry of Mainz. Still opposed, she was struck by a paralysis she attributed to God's will that the move take place. Only when the abbot himself could not lift her did he yield. About 1150 she and some twenty nuns settled at Rupertsberg near Bingen; Volmar served as provost, confessor, and scribe. In 1165 she founded a second house for her nuns at Eibingen.

In 1141, at about forty-two, she received a command from God to write what she saw and heard. Hesitating still, she fell ill until, aided by the noble maiden Richardis von Stade and by Volmar, she began Scivias ("Know the Ways"). Over ten years she set down the heavenly visions, not by invention of her own heart but as mysteries received from God. Between November 1147 and February 1148 at the synod of Trier, Pope Eugenius III heard of her writings and gave papal approval that she record them as revelations of the Holy Spirit. She went on to compose further theological works, letters, hymns and antiphons, poems, botanical and medical treatises, and the liturgical drama Ordo Virtutum; she also devised the constructed language called Lingua Ignota and supervised the illuminations of the Rupertsberg Scivias manuscript. More of her chants survive than those of any other medieval composer; she wrote both words and music.

Despite frail health she undertook many journeys to ecclesiastical and political leaders, bearing witness to the Word of the Lord and promoting the Christian faith. Popes and bishops, kings and princes esteemed her; the common people likewise sought her counsel. She shone especially in persevering obedience, simplicity, charity, and hospitality, drawing her life from Scripture, the liturgy, the Fathers, and the Rule of Saint Benedict, and placing her keen intelligence wholly at the service of belonging to the Lord. When Richardis was elected abbess elsewhere, Hildegard pleaded that they not be parted, yet accepted the separation; after Richardis's holy death she cherished her with divine love. Near the end of her life the clergy of Mainz demanded the removal from sacred ground of a man buried at Rupertsberg who had once been excommunicated; Hildegard refused, affirming that he had been reconciled before death and that to cast him out would be sin.

On 17 September 1179 she died at Rupertsberg and was buried there. Her sisters reported that two streams of light appeared in the sky and crossed over the room where she lay dying. Relics are kept at the convent of Eibingen, which she had founded. Regional calendars long honored her as a saint. On 10 May 2012 Pope Benedict XVI extended her liturgical cult to the universal Church by equivalent canonization; on 7 October 2012 he proclaimed her Doctor of the Church, recognizing the holiness of her life and the originality of her teaching. Blessed John Paul II had already called her "light of her people and of her time."

May Saint Hildegard obtain for us a share in her courage to write and live what God shows, and let us practice today the persevering obedience that kept her wholly the Lord's.

APOSTOLIC LETTER

Saint Hildegard of Bingen, Professed Nun of the Order of Saint Benedict, is proclaimed a Doctor of the Universal Church

BENEDICT PP. XVI FOR EVERLASTING MEMORY

1. "Light of her people and of her time": with these words Blessed John Paul II, Our venerated Predecessor, defined Saint Hildegard of Bingen in 1979, on the occasion of the 800th anniversary of the German mystic's death. And truly, on the horizon of history, this great figure of a woman stands out with luminous clarity for the holiness of her life and the originality of her doctrine. Indeed, as with every authentic human and theological experience, her authority decisively transcends the boundaries of an era and a society and, despite the chronological and cultural distance, her thought manifests a perennial relevance.

In Saint Hildegard of Bingen, one notes an extraordinary harmony between doctrine and daily life. In her, the search for God's will in the imitation of Christ is expressed as a constant exercise of the virtues, which she practiced with the utmost generosity and nourished at biblical, liturgical, and patristic roots in the light of the Rule of Saint Benedict: the persevering practice of obedience, simplicity, charity, and hospitality shines forth in her in a special way. In this desire for total belonging to the Lord, the Benedictine abbess knew how to involve her uncommon human gifts, her acute intelligence, and her capacity for penetrating heavenly realities.

2. Hildegard was born in 1089 in Bermersheim, near Alzey, of noble parents and wealthy landowners. At the age of eight, she was accepted as an oblate at the Benedictine abbey of Disibodenberg, where in 1115 she made her religious profession. Upon the death of Jutta of Sponheim, around 1136, Hildegard was called to succeed her as *magistra*. Frail in physical health but vigorous in spirit, she worked hard for the proper renewal of religious life. The foundation of her spirituality was the Benedictine Rule, which sets spiritual balance and ascetic moderation as paths to holiness. Following the increase in the number of nuns, due above all to the great esteem in which she was held, around 1150 she founded a monastery on the hill called Rupertsberg, near Bingen, where she moved along with twenty fellow sisters. In 1165, she established another at Eibingen, on the opposite bank of the Rhine. She was abbess of both.

Within the cloister walls, she cared for the spiritual and material good of her sisters, fostering in a special way community life, culture, and the liturgy. Externally, she actively engaged in reinvigorating the Christian faith and strengthening religious practice, countering the heretical tendencies of the Cathars, promoting Church reform through her writings and preaching, and contributing to the improvement of the discipline and life of the clergy. At the invitation first of Adrian IV and then of Alexander III, Hildegard exercised a fruitful apostolate—not very common at the time for a woman—undertaking journeys not free from hardships and difficulties, to preach even in public squares and various cathedral churches, as occurred among other places in Cologne, Trier, Liège, Mainz, Metz, Bamberg, and Würzburg. The profound spirituality present in her writings exerts a significant influence both on the faithful and on great personalities of her time, involving theology, liturgy, natural sciences, and music in an incisive renewal.

Stricken by illness in the summer of 1179, Hildegard, surrounded by her sisters, passed away in the odor of sanctity at the Rupertsberg monastery, near Bingen, on September 17, 1179.

3. In her numerous writings, Hildegard dedicated herself exclusively to setting forth divine revelation and making God known in the clarity of His love. Hildegardian doctrine is considered eminent both for the profundity and correctness of its interpretations and for the originality of its visions. The texts she composed appear animated by an authentic "intellectual charity" and highlight density and freshness in the contemplation of the mystery of the Most Holy Trinity, the Incarnation, the Church, humanity, and nature as a creature of God to be appreciated and respected.

These works stem from an intimate mystical experience and offer an incisive reflection on the mystery of God. The Lord had made her a partaker, from her childhood, of a series of visions, the content of which she dictated to the monk Volmar, her secretary and spiritual advisor, and to Richardis von Stade, a fellow nun. But particularly illuminating is the judgment given by Saint Bernard of Clairvaux, who encouraged her, and above all by Pope Eugene III, who in 1147 authorized her to write and to speak in public. Theological reflection enabled Hildegard to thematicize and understand, at least in part, the content of her visions. Besides books of theology and mysticism, she also composed works on medicine and natural sciences. Numerous as well are her letters—around four hundred—which she addressed to simple people, religious communities, popes, bishops, and civil authorities of her time. She was also a composer of sacred music. The corpus of her writings, for its quantity, quality, and variety of interests, has no parallel with any other female author of the Middle Ages.

Her principal works are the Scivias, the Liber vitae meritorum, and the Liber divinorum operum. All of them recount her visions and the task she received from the Lord to transcribe them. The Letters, as the author herself was well aware, are no less important and bear witness to Hildegard's attention to the events of her time, which she interpreted in the light of the mystery of God. To these must be added 58 sermons, addressed exclusively to her fellow nuns. These are the Expositiones evangeliorum, containing a literal and moral commentary on Gospel passages related to the principal celebrations of the liturgical year. Works of an artistic and scientific character focus specifically on music with the Symphonia armoniae caelestium revelationum; on medicine with the Liber subtilitatum diversarum naturarum creaturarum and the Causae et curae; and on natural sciences with the Physica. Finally, one also notes writings of a linguistic character, such as the Lingua ignota and the Litterae ignotae, in which words appear in an unknown language of her own invention, though composed predominantly of phonemes present in the German language.

Hildegard's language, characterized by an original and effective style, readily employs poetic expressions of strong symbolic power, with dazzling insights, incisive analogies, and evocative metaphors.

4. With acute sapiential and prophetic sensitivity, Hildegard fixes her gaze upon the event of revelation. Her inquiry develops starting from the biblical page, to which, in successive phases, she remains firmly anchored. The gaze of the mystic of Bingen does not limit itself to addressing individual questions, but seeks to offer a synthesis of the entire Christian faith. In her visions and subsequent reflection, therefore, she summarizes the history of salvation, from the beginning of the universe to the eschatological consummation. God's decision to accomplish the work of creation is the first stage of this immense journey, which, in the light of Sacred Scripture, unfolds from the constitution of the heavenly hierarchy down to the fall of the rebellious angels and the sin of our first parents. This initial framework is followed by the redemptive Incarnation of the Son of God, the action of the Church which continues through time the mystery of the Incarnation, and the struggle against Satan. The definitive advent of the kingdom of God and the universal judgment will be the culmination of this work.

Hildegard poses to herself and to us the fundamental question of whether it is possible to know God: this is the fundamental task of theology. Her answer is fully positive: through faith, as through a door, man is able to draw close to this knowledge. Nevertheless, God always retains His aura of mystery and incomprehensibility. He makes Himself intelligible in creation, but this, in turn, is not fully understood if it is detached from God. In fact, nature considered in itself provides only partial information, which not infrequently becomes the occasion for errors and abuses. Therefore, even within the natural cognitive dynamic, faith is necessary, otherwise knowledge remains limited, unsatisfactory, and misleading.

Creation is an act of love, thanks to which the world can emerge from nothingness: thus the entire scale of creatures is traversed, like the current of a river, by divine charity. Among all creatures, God loves man in a particular way and confers upon him an extraordinary dignity, giving him that glory which the rebel angels have lost. Humanity, therefore, can be considered as the tenth choir of the angelic hierarchy. Now, man is capable of knowing God within himself, that is, His individual nature in the trinity of persons. Hildegard approaches the mystery of the Most Holy Trinity along the lines already proposed by Saint Augustine: by analogy with his own structure as a rational being, man is capable of having at least an image of the intimate reality of God. But it is only in the economy of the Incarnation and the human history of the Son of God that this mystery becomes accessible to man's faith and awareness. The holy and ineffable Trinity in supreme unity was hidden from the servants of the ancient law. But in the new grace it was revealed to those liberated from servitude. The Trinity revealed itself in a special way in the cross of the Son.

A second "place" where God makes Himself knowable is His word contained in the books of the Old and New Testaments. Precisely because God "speaks," man is called to listen. This concept offers Hildegard the opportunity to set forth her doctrine on singing, particularly liturgical singing. The sound of God's word creates life and manifests itself in creatures. Even beings devoid of rationality, thanks to the creative word, are involved in the creaturely dynamism. But, of course, man is that creature who, with his voice, can respond to the voice of the Creator. And he can do so in two main ways: in voce oris, that is, in the celebration of the liturgy, and in voce cordis, that is, with a virtuous and holy life. The entire human life, therefore, can be interpreted as a harmony and a symphony.

5. Hildegard's anthropology begins from the biblical page of the creation of man (Gen 1:26), made in the image and likeness of God. Man, according to Hildegardian cosmology founded on the Bible, encompasses all the elements of the world, because the entire universe is recapitulated in him, who is formed from the very matter of creation. Therefore, he can consciously enter into a relationship with God. This happens not through a direct vision, but, following the famous Pauline expression, "as in a mirror" (1 Cor 13:12). The divine image in man consists in his rationality, structured into intellect and will. Thanks to the intellect, man is capable of distinguishing good and evil; thanks to the will, he is impelled to action.

Man is seen as a unity of body and soul. One notices in the German mystic a positive appreciation of corporeity, and even in the aspects of fragility that the body manifests, she is able to grasp a providential value: the body is not a burden to be rid of, and, even when it is weak and fragile, it "educates" man to the sense of creatureliness and humility, protecting him from pride and arrogance. In a vision, Hildegard contemplates the souls of the blessed in paradise, who are awaiting reunion with their bodies. Indeed, just like the body of Christ, our bodies are also oriented toward glorious resurrection, for a profound transformation for eternal life. The very vision of God, which eternal life consists of, cannot be definitively attained without the body.

Man exists in the male and female form. Hildegard recognizes that a relationship of reciprocity and a substantial equality between man and woman are rooted in this ontological structure of the human condition. In humanity, however, the mystery of sin also dwells, and it manifests itself for the first time in history precisely in this relationship between Adam and Eve. Unlike other medieval authors, who saw the cause of the fall in Eve's weakness, Hildegard perceives it above all in Adam's immoderate passion for her.

Even in his condition as a sinner, man continues to be the recipient of God's love, because this love is unconditional and, after the Fall, assumes the face of mercy. Even the punishment that God inflicts upon the man and the woman brings forth the merciful love of the Creator. In this sense, the most precise description of the human creature is that of a being on a journey, homo viator. In this pilgrimage toward his homeland, man is called to a struggle in order to constantly choose good and avoid evil.

The constant choice of good produces a virtuous existence. The Son of Man made man is the subject of all virtues; therefore, the imitation of Christ consists precisely in a virtuous existence in communion with Christ. The strength of the virtues derives from the Holy Spirit, poured into the hearts of believers, which makes a consistently virtuous behavior possible: this is the purpose of human existence. In this way, man experiences his Christlike perfection.

6. To enable man to reach this goal, the Lord has given the sacraments to His Church. The salvation and perfection of man, in fact, are not accomplished solely through an effort of the will, but rather through the gifts of grace that God grants within the Church.

The Church herself is the first sacrament that God places in the world so that she may communicate salvation to men. She, who is the \"building of living souls,\" can rightly be considered as virgin, bride, and mother, and thus is closely assimilated to the historical and mystical figure of the Mother of God. The Church communicates salvation first of all by guarding and proclaiming the two great mysteries of the Trinity and the Incarnation, which are like the two \"primary sacraments,\" and then through the administration of the other sacraments. The summit of the Church's sacramentality is the Eucharist. The sacraments produce the sanctification of believers, salvation and the purification of sins, redemption, charity, and all the other virtues. But, once again, the Church lives because God within her manifests His intra-Trinitarian love, which was revealed in Christ. The Lord Jesus is the mediator par excellence. From the Trinitarian bosom He comes to meet man, and from the bosom of Mary He goes to meet God: as the Son of God He is incarnate love, as the Son of Mary He is the representative of humanity before the throne of God.

Man can even come to experience God. The relationship with Him, in fact, is not consumed solely within the sphere of rationality, but totally engages the person. All the external and internal senses of man are involved in the experience of God: \"Homo autem ad imaginem et similitudinem Dei factus est, ut quinque sensibus corporis sui operetur; per quos etiam divisus non est, sed per eos est sapiens et sciens et intellegens opera sua adimplere. [...] Sed et per hoc, quod homo sapiens, sciens et intellegens est, creaturas cognoscit; itaque per creaturas et per magna opera sua, quae etiam quinque sensibus suis vix comprehendit, Deum cognoscit, quem nisi in fide videre non valet\" [\"For man was created in the image and likeness of God, so that he might act through the five senses of his body; thanks to them he is not divided, and is able to know, understand, and fulfill what he must do (...) and precisely because of this, for the fact that man is intelligent, he knows creatures, and thus through creatures and great works, which he can scarcely comprehend with his five senses, he knows God, that God who cannot be seen except through the eyes of faith\"] (Explanatio Symboli Sancti Athanasii: PL 197, 1073). This experiential path, once again, finds its fullness in participation in the sacraments.

Hildegard also sees the contradictions present in the lives of individual the faithful and denounces the most deplorable situations. In a particular way, she emphasizes how individualism in doctrine and practice by both the laity and ordained ministers is an expression of pride and constitutes the main obstacle to the Church's evangelizing mission toward non-Christians.

One of the peaks of Hildegard's magisterium is her heartfelt exhortation to a virtuous life, which she addresses to those who commit themselves to a state of consecration. Her understanding of consecrated life is a true "theological metaphysics," because it is firmly rooted in the theological virtue of faith, which is the source and constant motivation for deeply committing oneself to obedience, poverty, and chastity. In living out the evangelical counsels, the consecrated person shares in the experience of Christ who was poor, chaste, and obedient, and follows in His footsteps in daily life. This is the essence of the consecrated life.

7. Hildegard's eminent doctrine echoes the teaching of the Apostles, patristic literature, and contemporary authors, while finding a constant point of reference in the Rule of Saint Benedict of Norcia. Monastic liturgy and the internalization of Sacred Scripture constitute the guidelines of her thought, which, focusing on the mystery of the Incarnation, is expressed in a profound unity of style and content that intimately runs through all her writings.

The teaching of the holy Benedictine nun stands as a guide for the homo viator. Her message appears extraordinarily timely in the contemporary world, which is particularly sensitive to the set of values she proposed and lived. Let us think, for example, of Hildegard's charismatic and speculative capacity, which presents itself as a vibrant incentive for theological research; of her reflection on the mystery of Christ, considered in His beauty; of the dialogue of the Church and of theology with contemporary culture, science, and art; of the ideal of the consecrated life as a possibility for human fulfillment; of the appreciation of the liturgy as the celebration of life; of the idea of Church reform not as a sterile change of structures, but as conversion of the heart; and of her sensitivity toward nature, whose laws are to be protected rather than violated.

Therefore, the conferral of the title of Doctor of the Universal Church upon Hildegard of Bingen has great significance for today's world and extraordinary importance for women. In Hildegard, the noblest values of femininity find expression: thus, the presence of woman in the Church and in society is also illuminated by her figure, both from the perspective of scientific research and that of pastoral action. Her ability to speak to those who are far from the faith and from the Church makes Hildegard a credible witness of the new evangelization.

By virtue of her fame of sanctity and her eminent doctrine, on March 6, 1979, Cardinal Joseph Höffner, Archbishop of Cologne and President of the German Bishops' Conference, together with the cardinals, archbishops, and bishops of the same Conference—among whom We Ourselves were present as Cardinal Archbishop of Munich and Freising—submitted a petition to Blessed John Paul II asking that Hildegard of Bingen be declared a Doctor of the Universal Church. In the petition, the eminent cardinal highlighted the orthodoxy of Hildegard's doctrine, recognized in the 12th century by Pope Eugene III, her sanctity constantly perceived and celebrated by the people, and the authority of her treatises. To this petition of the German Bishops' Conference, others were added over the years, first and foremost that of the nuns of the Eibingen monastery, named after her. To the common desire of the People of God that Hildegard be officially proclaimed a saint, there was thus added the request that she also be declared \"Doctor of the Universal Church.\"

With our consent, therefore, the Congregation for the Causes of Saints diligently prepared a *Positio super canonizatione et concessione tituli Doctoris Ecclesiae universalis* for the Mystic of Bingen. Since she is a renowned master of theology, who has been the subject of many authoritative studies, we granted a dispensation from the provisions of Article 73 of the Apostolic Constitution *Pastor bonus*. The case was then examined with a unanimously positive outcome by the Cardinal and Bishop Fathers gathered in the Plenary Session of March 20, 2012, with His Eminence Cardinal Angelo Amato, Prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, serving as the relator of the cause. In the audience of May 10, 2012, the same Cardinal Amato informed Us in detail about the *status quaestionis* and the unanimous votes of the Fathers of the aforementioned Plenary Session of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints. On May 27, 2012, Pentecost Sunday, we had the joy of communicating in Saint Peter's Square to the multitude of pilgrims gathered from all over the world the news of the conferral of the title of Doctor of the Universal Church upon Saint Hildegard of Bingen and Saint John of Ávila at the beginning of the Assembly of the Synod of Bishops and on the eve of the Year of Faith.

Today, therefore, with God's help and the applause of the whole Church, this is done. In Saint Peter's Square, in the presence of many cardinals and prelates of the Roman Curia and of the Catholic Church, confirming what has been done and fulfilling with great pleasure the desires of the petitioners, during the Eucharistic Sacrifice we pronounced these words:

«We, welcoming the desire of many Brothers in the Episcopate and of many the faithful from the whole world, after having sought the opinion of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, after having long reflected and having reached a full and certain conviction, with the fullness of apostolic authority declare Saint John of Ávila, diocesan priest, and Saint Hildegard of Bingen, professed nun of the Order of Saint Benedict, Doctors of the Universal Church, In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit».

These things we decree and order, establishing that this letter is and shall remain ever certain, valid, and effective, and that it shall attain and obtain its full and intact effects; and so it shall be suitably judged and defined; and whatever may be attempted otherwise regarding this by anyone with whatever authority, knowingly or out of ignorance, shall be vain and without foundation.

Given in Rome, at Saint Peter's, under the ring of the Fisherman, on October 7, 2012, the eighth year of Our Pontificate.

BENEDICT PP. XVI

On May 10, 2012, the Holy Father inscribed Hildegard of Bingen in the General Roman Calendar of the Church and extended her liturgical cult to the Universal Church.

On May 27, 2012, the same Benedict XVI announced that on the following October 7 he would proclaim Saint Hildegard of Bingen a Doctor of the Universal Church, together with the Spanish saint John of Avila.