Hildegard to the Abbot Conrad
The Letters
Hildegard to the Abbot Conrad 1153-65 Hildegard advises the abbot to put all his energies into caring for his flock, but that if he sees only flaws there, to give up his office.
Since your eye has sight and your knowledge is watchful, why do you sleep as if wearied by the obligation of looking after your sheepfold? Encircle them, therefore, and take good care of them, so that you do not, to your loss, hide your talent [cf. Matt 25.14ff]. For it is not profitable for you to cast aside the obligation by which you are bound while you have in your care two eyes, or even one, or any semblance of life. But if you see no eye of life among your subordinates, but see only their limping,1 then flee and cast your office aside.
Note 1. Is Hildegard remembering here Matthew 18.8-9? All the individual elements are here—the casting aside, the limping, one eye, two eyes, etc.—although associated differently.
Kappenberg
A Prelate to Hildegard 1159–73 Fearful of coming to Hildegard in person, the writer sends a messenger to inquire about the present state of the Church.
To his revered lady, virgin, and bride of Christ, Hildegard, Brother N., prelate of the servants of God in Kappenberg, with a prayer that she attain the reward and everlasting crown of holy virginity and the religious life.
The fame of your devotion and your way of life, approved of God, has spread throughout the Church, and delights many people more than the fragrance of balsam and other spices. Even we in our cells, in the very caverns under the earth, as it were, have at last begun to get a whiff of it. Thus I, least of all men [cf. I Cor 15.9], desired to follow that fragrance, and so I decided to come to you. But impeded by the great storms and tempests that now shake