Author(s): St Hildegard of Bingen; Mother Columbia Hart (Translator); Jane Bishop (Translator); Barbara J. Newman (Introduction by); Caroline Walker Bynum (Preface by)

Mysticism

This work contains the 26 visions of Hildegard of Bingen (1098-1179), who was the first of the great German mystics, as well as a poet and a prophet, a physician and a political moralist.

“I saw a great mountain the colour of iron, and enthroned on it, one of such great glory that it blinded my sight. On each side of him there extended a soft shadow, like a wing of wondrous breadth and length. Before him, at the foot of the mountain, stood an image full of eyes on all sides, in which, because of those eyes, I could discern no human form."

Hildegard of Bingen, twelfth-century German nun, mystic, prophet and political moralist, was widely consulted as an oracle and wrote prolifically on doctrinal matters, as well as on secular matters like medicine. She publicly preached monastic reform, founded two nunneries, and was embroiled in the politics surrounding popes and anti-popes. Scivias, her major religious work, consists of twenty-six visions, which are first set down literally as she saw them, and are then explained exegetically. A few of the topics covered in the visions are the charity of Christ, the nature of the universe, the kingdom of God, the fall of man, sanctification, and the end of the world. Special emphasis is given to the sacraments of Marriage and the Eucharist, in response to the Cathar heresy. As a group, the visions form a theological summa of Christian doctrine. At the end of the Scivias are hymns of praise and a short play, probably an early draft of Ordo Virtutum, the first known morality play.