Also today, Hildegard of Bingen, canonized by Pope Benedict XVI in 2012.
She’s in the Loyola Kids Book of Saints.
Who else is in “Saints are People Who Create?” – Fra Angelico, Miguel Pro & St. John of the Cross.
At the New Liturgical Movement, there’s a post about her music:
Hildegard wanted her nuns to become holy through a rich liturgical life, and so she composed at least seventy hymns (both the music and the lyrics, which is rare) for her convent, making her one of the best and most prolific composers of the Middle Ages.
One musical accomplishment in particular stands out in her corpus: the theatrical performance Ordo Virtutum. The play is groundbreaking. It is the world’s first morality play, wherein the Soul and Virtues are personified as characters on the stage. It consists of 87 different songs, all of which draw from Gregorian chant, but which depart strikingly from the centonate chant of the Roman Graduals and Tracts….
…Although the play has a simple, even simplistic, plot, it evinces profound insight into the moral psychology of a soul that turns away from God. And Hildegard’s depictions of the virtues are as counterintuitive as they are sagacious, for she characterizes the virtues as God must see them, not as sinful humans do. The lowly virtue of Humility, for example, is the Queen of the virtues, Contempt-for-the-World has a radiant zest for life, and Chastity, far from being a prude, burns to enter the King’s embrace. Ordo Virtutum is an excellent example of the artistic impact of the biblical narrative of creation-fall-redemption, and likewise, of the sacred liturgy as a schooling of desire and imagination.
Three substantive talks from B16 on Hildegard. First, two in his series of General Audiences focused on great figures of the Church:
….The Pope authorized the mystic to write down her visions and to speak in public. From that moment Hildegard’s spiritual prestige continued to grow so that her contemporaries called her the “Teutonic prophetess”. This, dear friends, is the seal of an authentic experience of the Holy Spirit, the source of every charism: the person endowed with supernatural gifts never boasts of them, never flaunts them and, above all, shows complete obedience to the ecclesial authority. Every gift bestowed by the Holy Spirit, is in fact intended for the edification of the Church and the Church, through her Pastors, recognizes its authenticity.
I shall speak again next Wednesday about this great woman, this “prophetess” who also speaks with great timeliness to us today, with her courageous ability to discern the signs of the times, her love for creation, her medicine, her poetry, her music, which today has been reconstructed, her love for Christ and for his Church which was suffering in that period too, wounded also in that time by the sins of both priests and lay people, and far better loved as the Body of Christ. Thus St Hildegard speaks to us; we shall speak of her again next Wednesday. Thank you for your attention.
Hildegard’s mystical visions have a rich theological content. They refer to the principal events of salvation history, and use a language for the most part poetic and symbolic. For example, in her best known work entitled Scivias, that is, “You know the ways” she sums up in 35 visions the events of the history of salvation from the creation of the world to the end of time. With the characteristic traits of feminine sensitivity, Hildegard develops at the very heart of her work the theme of the mysterious marriage between God and humanity that is brought about in the Incarnation. On the tree of the Cross take place the nuptials of the Son of God with the Church, his Bride, filled with grace and the ability to give new children to God, in the love of the Holy Spirit (cf. Visio tertia: PL 197, 453c).
Finallly, from his proclamation of her as a Doctor of the Church, in 2012:
The teaching of the holy Benedictine nun stands as a beacon for homo viator. Her message appears extraordinarily timely in today’s world, which is especially sensitive to the values that she proposed and lived. For example, we think of Hildegard’s charismatic and speculative capacity, which offers a lively incentive to theological research; her reflection on the mystery of Christ, considered in its beauty; the dialogue of the Church and theology with culture, science and contemporary art; the ideal of the consecrated life as a possibility for human fulfilment; her appreciation of the liturgy as a celebration of life; her understanding of the reform of the Church, not as an empty change of structure but as conversion of heart; her sensitivity to nature, whose laws are to be safeguarded and not violated.
For these reasons the attribution of the title of Doctor of the Universal Church to Hildegard of Bingen has great significance for today’s world and an extraordinary importance for women. In Hildegard are expressed the most noble values of womanhood: hence the presence of women in the Church and in society is also illumined by her presence, both from the perspective of scientific research and that of pastoral activity. Her ability to speak to those who were far from the faith and from the Church make Hildegard a credible witness of the new evangelization.