The Monk Heinrich to Hildegard
The Letters
We have heard good things about you, O servant of Christ, have heard, and give thanks to the Giver of all good. Therefore, since I have some hope that I will be heard, whatever my condition, I send this letter to you, and request the singular support of your prayers. For I have an arduous and worrisome duty, that is, the governance of souls, and so I request, I beseech, I implore help from the Lord, through you, for a happy outcome.
I trust that it will not be too burdensome or trivial for you to write back to me so that my body and soul might be instructed, comforted, and consoled.
Farewell.
The Monk Heinrich to Hildegard Before 1170 Heinrich praises Hildegard highly, and asks for her prayers.
To Hildegard, the beautiful olive tree [cf. Ecclus 24.19] and pearl of great price
[cf. Matt 13.46], Heinrich, unworthy monk in Maulbronn, with a prayer that she go out to meet the celestial Bridegroom with burning lamp [cf. Matt 25.1ff].
"O how beautiful is the chaste generation with glory: for the memory thereof is immortal: because it is known both with God and with men" [Wisdom 4.1].
From that beautiful, blessed generation, it is clear that you have arisen as the daughter of the mighty King, adorned with blazing proofs of virtue, for you bear in the outward appearance of your notable work the beauty of your inner person. The resemblance to your mother is reflected by the great beauty of your virtue, for, following her example, you have sought wool and flax [cf. Prov 31.13], and you have woven "clothing of tapestry" [cf. Prov 31.22] as the covering of your spirit Indeed, each faithful soul puts on clothing of tapestry when it is clothed with the virtue of love, into whose fabric is woven many various images. In clothing such as this, regal Humility, Obedience, Piety, Restraint, Chastity, and Saintliness stand resplendent, along with many thousand qualities like those I have just named. Garbed in this variety of virtues you stand at times at the right hand of the mighty King, like that queen named in prophecy [cf. Ps 44.10], since you have found the priceless treasure of wisdom [cf. Ecclus 1.26ff; Col 2.3], from which you have shown to mankind, as if from the abyss, the brightness of eternal light
[cf. Wisdom 7.26].
"Hearken, O daughter, and see, and incline thy ear" to me [Ps 44.11 ] so that with the salvific aid of your prayers (for love consists in esteem for one's neighbor) I may find perfected in me what I now perceive to be less than perfect I am absolutely convinced that His special attention is on you and that it has fallen to you to be forever in His gaze. Sister and lady, I also ask that you graciously send