Today is St. Hildegard‘s Feast Day. Maybe it would be interesting to contemplate her contributions to the development of Christianity, and how our faith might be different without her teachings.
She was described as “the first of the great German mystics.” (cited here) That made me wonder how many of them we have known and who they are. First, we should probably define what a mystic is. According to one source, “Mysticism = Unity with God.” So a mystic was someone completely devoted to achieving unity with God.
Without going on a huge tangent into studying all of these people, I think I’ll just list the names that I’ve found identified as great German mystics. They are Meister Eckhart, John Tauler, Henry Suso, John of Sterngassen, Gerard of Sterngassen, and Nicholas of Strasbourg. (the list found here) It seems that they were around a couple hundred years after St. Hildegard, and I didn’t see her mentioned in those articles that aimed to list them.
Then again, it took more than 800 years for her to be canonized. That seems like a long time, especially since her reports of visions were widely accepted and admired even during her lifetime, In fact, she was considered an expert in the faith and was consulted by high ranking men in the Church and in positions of political leadership.
I wonder what took so long? Evidently, there were many miracles attributed to her after her death. The biography at catholic.org was written before she was formally canonized in 2012. It stated that her name was inserted in the Roman Martyrology in the 15th century. I found an online version of the Martyrology, and this is how it is described:
“…this calendar commemorating the heroic faith, the holy deeds, the exemplary lives, and in many cases the glorious deaths of these Milites Christi, or Soldiers of Christ, who gave every fiber of their being to God for His glory, for the sanctification of His Holy Catholic Church, for the conversion of sinners both at home and in partibus infidelium 1, for the salvation of souls, and for the proclamation of the Gospel of Jesus Christ…” (found here)
So here’s my question. If she was worthy of entry in the Martyrology in the 15th century, why wasn’t she canonized until 2012? Was there hesitation because of some of her controversial involvements? For example, she allowed the burial of a young man who had been excommunicated in a blessed church cemetery. She insisted he had reconciled with the Church and received sacraments before his death, but her monastery was sanctioned, in that the local bishop forbade the celebration of or reception of the Eucharist there. She still declined orders to have his body moved, but continued to argue her case. The sanction was lifted a few months before her death.
Although I can’t decide why it took almost a thousand years for her to be canonized, I suppose that detail isn’t the most important part of the story. We can take inspiration from yet another woman who gave her life completely to God and used His messages and direction to enlighten the world.
(I used this site to get the most useful descriptions of her written works, which are described below.)
In her first book, Liber Scivias Domini (Know the Ways) Hildegard describes 26 of her visions, and through them she tells the complete story of God and man. Scivias “portrays a magnificent history of salvation, from creation through the order of redemption and the development of the Church, to perfection at the end of times.” She ends with the “Symphony of Heaven,” an early version of one of her musical compositions.
Ordo Virtutum (Order of the Virtues) paints a picture of the struggle between good and evil, and it includes 69 musical compositions, each with its own poetic text. Liber vitae meritorium (Book of Life’s Merits) is, in some ways, a continuation of Ordo Virtutum, addressing virtue and vice as similar to good and evil. This is one of the earliest works that describes Purgatory, as a stop before heaven to allow souls to be cleansed of their debts.
Around that time, Hildegard began to study healing through natural remedies. She originally published one work called the Book of the Subtleties of the Diverse Nature of Creatures, but it was later separated into two voluemes, Physica , which focused on description of medicine and natural remedies, and Causae et Curae, which focused on the causes of disease along with various treatments.
This is a partial list of her formal writing. Add to that hundreds of letters and less formal writing, and we have a beautiful collection of Hildegard’s efforts to share the teachings she received from God. Maybe some day when I retire, I can read all of them! In the meantime, I am intrigued by the story of this remarkable woman of faith.
Lord God, thank you for sharing Your divine teachings through St. Hildegard. Help us to also hear Your messages to us, and guide us to follow Your will in our lives.