The Monk Guibert to Hildegard
The Letters
your excellence, on the great and spacious sea so that with the sails of your eloquence filled and billowing with the Holy Spirit, we may sail on the powerful teaching of your words in the serenity of peace and the light of truth.
About the seat and placement of our abbey, our judgments and counsel waver and fluctuate. How I wish that something might be revealed through your prayers about what, in accordance with God's will, ought to be done concerning this uncertain matter so that through your solution our vows may come together again, and our desires grow quiet We joyfully received your book that you sent out to us, holy lady, and we are reading it zealously and embracing it affectionately. We bless God, the bestower of all grace, giving thanks to Him for those gifts with which he sustains you on every side and calls you to salvation. It is He Who with blessed grace inspired you to write that book, for the emendation of those who read or hear it.
Farewell. Do not cease to pray God's compassion for us.
The Monk Guibert to Hildegard
Informing Hildegard that Siger is again preparing for a pilgrimage to St. Rupert, through whom presumably this letter will be conveyed, Guibert, again, exhorts
Hildegard to address their queries, and send the answers back to them through this messenger. Note once again the high praise of Hildegard, where Guibert uses scriptural echoes of the words used to the Holy Virgin.
Brother Guibert of Gembloux along with the brothers and sons of the church at Villers to Hildegard, the beloved bride of Jesus Christ, with their prayer that she walk in the spirit and humility of the Mother Virgin, and fulfill the time of the separation from the body in the holiness and justice of the blessed virgins.
We bless the God of Heaven, who has not despised our times, and through the radiance of your splendor has put to rout the darkness of this world, lest our generation lack a miracle of virtue or a model of future glorification. The Holy
Spirit has miraculously illumined you with visions, inspiring you with the means of expounding them and with pure judgments, wholly consonant with our Catholic faith. And through you He has revealed the hidden secrets of His wisdom to His little ones [cf. Ps 50.8] in various ways. Through the grace of God you have become His chosen vessel [cf. Acts 9.15], dear to God, pleasing to the angels, indispensable to men, and beloved to those who direct the feet of others onto the path of life so that they might learn the magnificence of God's eternal power.
For they understand that the female sex has been divinely honored through the
The Letters of Hildegard of Bingen sacred merits of your excellence, and they see your glory, the glory of a woman given new life by the Father, full of grace and truth [cf. John 1.14].
Hail, therefore, lady full of grace, after Mary, the Lord is with you. Blessed are you among women [cf. Luke 1.28] and blessed the speech of your mouth, which conveys the secrets of invisible things to men, and couples the heavenly to the earthly, and joins the divine to the human. Believing this with our whole heart, we confess with our mouth that you are the fountain of gardens, the well of living water that flows from Libanus [cf. Cant 4.15]. We earnestly beseech you in the name of Him who has made you such a one—turn the streams of your learning to the profundities of our queries and, pouring forth the cup of life to our desires, infuse our thirsting spirits with the sober inebriation of the Spirit
Know, beloved lady, that your intent scrutiny of this abstruse matter will be pleasing to us, "above thousands of gold and silver" [Ps 118.72],
Your beloved son, brother Siger, is here with us, and, marvelously freed, has heeded your counsel and announced his contempt for the glory of this world.
He is preparing to make a devout pilgrimage once again to the sweet breasts of your consolation. Through him, we, in our humility, send our greetings to you in the love of Christ, and commend ourselves to your holy prayers with full devotion. Furthermore, we beg wholeheartedly that you send back the responses to our questions through him as envoy. We await the reply to our inquiries with the joy of exultation. Now, for the glory of Christ and the profit of the whole
Church, ponder diligently and send forth your response so that the expression of thanks and the voice of praise will resound from generation to generatioan.
108a The Monk Guibert to the Community of St. Rupert
Although it is not addressed specifically to Hildegard, this letter1 is included here as a kind of addendum to the preceding one, outside the regular numbering system, because of its inherent interest. Guibert writes, rather, to the nuns of St. Rupert, because he has heard that Hildegard has died. It is perhaps typical of Guibert that he opens the letter not on the death of the saint but on the matter of the questions submitted to her. He does add, however, that it is mere rumor that they have heard, and that perhaps it is not true. But even if true, he knows that her soul is with the Lord.
Brother Guibert of Gembloux, monk, to the holy sisters of the church of the Blessed Mary and of St. Rupert in Bingen, with his prayer that they enjoy perpetual fellowship with the holy virgins in Heaven.
The Letters
Without my knowledge, the brothers at Villers, on different occasions, sent two copies of that letter previously written under my name to my lady, your holy mother Hildegard. The first was entrusted to a certain elderly lady, while I was still at Gembloux, and the second to Lord Siger, their brother and our mutual friend, while I was spending time at Bingen with you. When Siger discovered that I was there, as he had hoped, he was very glad, and he had me present that letter to my lady and to you, as you will recall.
But, to return to the other messenger. The old lady I mentioned came from Villers to Gembloux the previous year, and showed me the first copy from the brothers, as well as certain secret matters, which required our assistance. After I had read the letter I was really quite exhilarated, both on account of the pleasing words of the senders and on account of their reverence for the recipient. Furthermore, I rejoiced that, finally, we were about to receive answers to those questions we had posed to our lady, as soon as this elderly messenger returned.
I am really surprised, however, that we were not informed of the death of my venerable lady, your holy abbess Hildegard, which had been reported to us some days ago, unless, by chance, the report is false. Indeed, even if it were true, those brothers would have discounted it, since no reliable messenger from your monastery had reported it. In fact, even if we were hidden away in the forest, I believe that a rumor of this sort could not have been kept secret, this rumor that has been noised far and wide among us and has distressed many people and caused their ears to tingle [cf. I Sam 3.11; II Kings 21.12;Jer 19.3].
All the same, my grief is not excessive because, on the one hand, the rumor has not yet been confirmed, and, on the other, even if it is true, I know that the luminous soul of that holy woman has been brought to the Father of lights [cf.
James 1.17] and has been embraced by His Son, her Bridegroom, Jesus Christ, and is now enjoying eternal brightness. It is for this reason, dear sisters, that I am directing the present letter not to an individual, as has been my habit, but to your entire community. We pray that you will write us to confirm this matter one way or the other, so that if, on the one hand, the light of your eyes is still among you, we may rejoice with you, but if, on the other, that light of the world has been removed, we may share in your sorrow, while, at the same time, rejoicing with her for the crown of justice [cf. II Tim 4.8] she has received, in this way fulfilling the duties of affection and friendship.
But if indeed the blessed mother is still alive, please urge and beseech her, as requested by the brothers of Villers, to give full consideration to the questions asked and completely satisfy our expectation, omitting nothing necessary in such great matters, nor for the sake of brevity hastily passing over anything that ought to be spoken.2 If, however, she is really dead, please write back to inform us on what day she parted the body, in what place, and by what persons she was given burial. Moreover, please be kind enough to send back to us both the present letter and the one I sent her on the previous Lent, along with the appended questions and whatever answers she had given to any of them before her death. For I would like to combine into one volume both our letters to her and hers to us, so as to provide for our eyes and ears a pleasing remembrance of her.