Hildegard to the Abbot Manegold
The Letters of Hildegard of Bingen
Hildegard to the Abbot Manegold 1156–65 A brief letter of reiterated praise.
My father and the pastor chosen by God to rule over the blazing flock of your sheepfold, hear. I see you in a bright light and your community as a glowing radiance, as I told you before.
Now live, and be perfect [cf. Matt 5.48] in the viridity of the virtues of God.
Hildegard to Abbot Manegold(?) 1156-65 In this allegorical letter, Hildegard recommends patience to the abbot so that he might realize his full potential.
In your works and morals I see you as a tree that has great viridity in its leaves.
One branch, however, is drying up. And the elements say: We have come to you on account of the blend of your viridity, but storms injure us. These storms are the doubts and the moral vacillation, which, on account of your tribulations, cause you to go in circles, like a mill wheel.
But let it not be so. Look to the farm land, which is tilled and plowed and fertilized so that it might bring forth much fruit This is Patience, which produces humidity and viridity in all good works. Patience's house is harsh and bitter, but it gives great rewards and opens the gate of the heavenly kingdom.
And so draw Patience to you, and diligently avoid the jacinth and the beryl, which do not flash with brilliance; and keep yourself from those flowers that lack the viridity of virtues and therefore quickly wither, for these love you not for the love of penitence but for the discord of disobedience.
That monastery in which you live is pleasing to God. Therefore, embrace and kiss Patience, and do not put her aside, for you have the potential to wash clean the wounds of men, and thereby to set up a ladder into heaven. And you will live forever.