Hildegard to the
The Letters of Hildegard of Bingen 7.
8. Sympbonia 8, 1-16, p. 110.
9. Sympbonia9, 1–18, p. 112. Newman's remarks about this song (p. 271) are illuminating: "The first lines of this responsory illustrate Hildegard's taste for the mixed metaphors that give her poems some of their freshness and quirkiness. Five hundred hymnodists might point out that Eve inflicted wounds on the soul, but only Hildegard would say that she built them, and only she would hear not the victim but the wounds themselves sobbing. Such compressions seem to arise spontaneously from the intense
Symphonio 23, p. 136. and synesthetic character of her perceptions."
10. Symphonia 11, p. 116.
11. Symphonia 12, p. 116.
12. Symphoniall, 1-14, p. 134.
13. That is, at the Harrowing of Hell, but also with the sense of breaking the bonds of sin for mortal—and, therefore, sinful—mankind.
Hildegard to the Congregation of Nuns Before 1173 A letter of exhortation to her nuns in allegorical terms.
Now, listen again, my daughters, and hear the words of the Living Light, which has no darkness: Keep yourselves from evil in all things. For the whispers of the devil will come, and the whispers of many storms. Indeed, in a time yet to come the Chaldeans will grow weak, the Greeks will become stronger, the Romans with the other Romans1 will become silent, like a blazing fire that is extinguished, and the Gauls will become new recruits.' But these things too will pass. A part of this transitory world runs in three directions, where kings and princes will endure a flood of disturbances. Yet a king who desires great battle will arise, but no one will help him, except an armed company of a thousand circumcised soldiers.b
Thus humankind will grow weary.
Yet God will not destroy your monastery, O my daughters. But He will cast all arrogant and negligent beggars out of it, and He will cleanse it of schisms and terrors. Neither will the blind and lame who seek to devour it prevail, for the sparks of examination will sift them out
Therefore, in your minds be like one who looks at a garden where flowers and apple trees grow so that he may enjoy their aroma and eat the apples. The "aroma of flowers" means a man who desires to emulate the goodness of the righteous by abstaining from sin, and "eating the apples" represents a person who faithfully governs those under his authority, and who, by the grace of God, dis-