Saint Hildegarde gave speeches in important cathedrals and wrote several works containing mystical revelations. She declared that after the ruin of the papacy and the empire, a new people will arise and live together with the Angels.
Newsroom (13/06/2023 15:00, Gaudium Press) After the death of Blessed Eugene III, in 1153, Anastasius IV took over the papacy and sent a letter to the Saint, asking for advice. In her reply, she reproaches the pontiff for having neglected to combat the wicked, and urges him to do so lest “you be accused of not having purified your flock of its filth.”[1]
In addition to directing the monastery of which she was abbess, writing hundreds of letters to highly placed people, she lectured in cathedrals such as Cologne, Trier, Mainz, Bamberg and Wurtzbourg (Germany); Metz (France); Liège (Belgium).
In Cologne Cathedral, Saint Hildegarde denounced the Cathar heretics who, among other nefarious things, claimed that there were two gods: the good and the bad. The good god created the invisible world of spirits; the evil god produced matter. They condemned the birth of children because the proliferation of matter is essentially bad, and they preached sacred suicide. Contrary to all that Catholic Doctrine teaches, Catharism was a heresy that, at bottom, aimed at the destruction of humanity.[2]
Voice of Adam Before Original Sin
In addition to 400 letters, she is the author of several works of which the most important is entitled Scivias, short for Sci vias Domini – Know the ways of the Lord. It is a true treatise where she addresses issues such as: Unity and Trinity of God, the Angels, man – his fall and rebirth -, the Church, the end of the world.
Before original sin, she says, Adam possessed a “divine voice that was fully in harmony with the voices of the Angels in praise of God. With his fall he lost this gift and retained only a vague memory of those angelic harmonies.
But God, in his mercy, sent prophets who composed hymns and provided for the manufacture of musical instruments in order to recall the singing of Adam and the Angels.[3]
Says Msgr. João Clá: “The fundamental function of the prophet is not to predict the future, but to be a guide to the people and point them in the direction of their path.”[4]
As for hymns and musical instruments, we mention Gregorian chant and the organ, which evoke the Angels, elevate souls, help them increase their knowledge and love of God.
The Saint affirms that the “devil is hostile to the singing that comes from the Holy Spirit and strives to suppress or weaken, in the heart of every man and also in the Church, the confession and the beauty of divine praise.
Man’s life is a Constant Battle
She composed close to 70 musical works, among which Ordo virtutum – Order, disposition of virtues -, a theatrical play where the virtues are represented by people attacked by the devil and counterattacked. And figures full of beauty appear to characterize the good: precious stones, ivory trumpets.
In fact, man’s life is a constant battle as St. Paul the Apostle warns us:
“Be alert, your waist girded with truth, your body clothed with the breastplate of righteousness, and your feet shod with readiness to proclaim the Gospel of peace. Above all, embrace the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the fiery darts of the Evil One. Finally, take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, that is, the Word of God” (Eph 6:14-17).
St. Hildegarde wrote two treatises on medicine in which she states: The spiritual decay of a person, who does not seriously combat his defects, is reflected in his health by giving rise to disorders in the body such as depression.
An Ensemble of Orchestras Singing God’s Glory
For St. Hildegarde, “all Creation is a symphony of the Holy Spirit.
Dr. Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira said: God created as it were several great orchestras – Angels, men, animals, plants and minerals – which sing his glory. He causes his glory to reside, not so much in one creature, but in the whole of them, because the whole is better than each part.
Genesis says that “God rested on the seventh day, considering his work. This rest is exactly the joy of feeling that the creation is giving Him glory, seeing that each thing was good and the whole was great.”[6]
St. Hildegarde, who was a prophetess, wrote, “The fallen papacy and empire […] will collapse. From their ruins the Holy Spirit will bring forth a new people; conversion will be general, and the Angels, confident, will again dwell among the children of men.“[7]
This conversion of humanity will usher in the Kingdom of Mary, where men will dwell among the Angels, commanded by their Queen, Our Lady.
St. Louis Marie Grignion de Montfort, in his Treatise on True Devotion to the Blessed Virgin, “foresaw in clear terms the advent of an authentic historical era of light and peace, in which the face of the earth would be renewed and reformed by Holy Church, and in which Mary Most Holy would be universally recognized as Sovereign.“[8]
This great mystic and prophetess died in the Bingen Monastery on September 17, 1179, at the age of 80. At nightfall, two very bright arcs of different colors appeared in the sky, with a larger and smaller cross, which stretched across the firmament. Her grave exuded a sweet perfume, and many miracles took place there.
By the Apostolic Letter of October 7, 2012, Benedict XVI proclaimed her a Doctor of the Church and stated:
“Her message is extraordinarily current in the contemporary world, […] in the idea of reform of the Church, not as a sterile change of structures, but as a conversion of the heart.”
By Paulo Francisco Martos
Notions of Church History
[1] PERNOUD, Régine. Saint Hildegarde of Bingen – mystic and Doctor of the Church. Dois Irmãos (RS) : My catholic library. 2020, p. 93.
[2] Cf. DANIEL-ROPS, Henri. The Church of the cathedrals and the Crusades. São Paulo: Quadrante. 1993, v. III, p. 589-591.
[3] Cf. PERNOUD. Op. cit., p. 191-192.
[4] CLÁ DIAS, João Scognamiglio. EP. The Unpublished on the Gospels. Vatican: Libreria Editrice Vaticana; São Paulo: Lumen Sapientiae Institute, 2012, v. VI, p. 147.
[5] DICTIONNAIRE DE THÉOLOGIE CATHOLIQUE. Paris: Letouzey et Ané. 1914, v. 6-II, column 2476.
[6] CORRÊA DE OLIVEIRA, Plinio. The History of the Universe and its doctrinal interpretation. In Dr. Plinio. Year XIV, n. 159 (June 2011), p. 21.
[7] DANIEL-Rops. Op. cit.
[8] CLÁ DIAS, João Scognamiglio, EP. The gift of wisdom in the mind, life and work of Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira. Vatican City: Libreria Editrice Vaticana; São Paulo: Lumen Sapientiae Institute. 2016, v. II, p. 176.
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Compiled by Florence MacDonald