Hildegard of Bingen: A Spiritual Reader

by Carmen Acevedo Butcher

“Humanity, take a good look at yourself. Inside, you’ve got heaven and earth, and all of creation. You’re a world – everything is hidden in you.” –Hildegard of Bingen
She was a Benedictine abbess, artist, composer, dietician, naturalist, poet, travelling preacher, mystic, and political consultant. She was a self-doubter with acute certainty in a merciful and mysterious God; a gifted healer who suffered from illness her whole life. Meet the incomparable Hildegard of Bingen. Nourishing, challenging, and idea-bursting, her writings will stir and awaken your soul.
This essential reader captures the vibrant spirit and intelligence of Hildegard with selections from her songs, theological texts, liturgical music, and letters. Combined with an introduction to Hildegard’s life and era, a map of Hildegard’s Germany, chronology, and a thorough bibliography/discography, Hildegard of Bingen provides the ideal introduction to the thought of this fascinating medieval mystic.

Genres: Biography, Spirituality, Nonfiction, History, Christianity, Religion, Medieval

183 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2007

Reviews

[Monique]

I read it all, except The Play of the Virtues. St. Hildegard's poetry seems to defy translation but I appreciated the glimpses given. Her letters are what I want to read more of, to read in full.

[Jean · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is another one f those books I bought over a decade ago, and I am finally getting around to reading it. This IS a spiritual biography; however, Hildegard was also quite a literary woman! In the 13th century, 50 years before Chaucer, 150 years before "Everyman" was composed anonymously, 200 years before Julian of Norwich, Hildegard composed the first morality play, "The Book of Life's Merits."

Hildegard, born in 1098, was a Benedictine nun. However, don't let her religious vocation fool you!
She was an "abbess, artist, cosmologist, composer, counselor, dietician, epistoler, healer, linguist, mystic, naturalist, philosopher, poet, political consultant, preacher, prophet, and visionary. She wrote theological, naturalistic, botanical, medicinal and dietary texts, as well as letterers, liturgical songs, poems and the morality play [xvi]. This book gave a sample of each of these.

Who said nuns are boring?

[Kate · Rating 5 out of 5]

Easy intro to St. Hildegard’s life. I chose her as my “study saint” this year but didn’t want to dive into her Scivas right away, so read this while listening to some of her gorgeous, haunting chant music.

[Gregg Koskela · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the best place to start as an introduction to Hildegard. Brilliant, alive translations of excerpts of her work. Good history, analysis, context. Covers a lot of her varied life.

[Magen · Rating 3 out of 5]

This short collection of selected readings from Hildegard von Bingen is a decent introduction to the saint, but suffers from its generalizations too much to leave a lasting impact on understanding. The selections from Hildegard's writings, for one, lack any direct commentary. Why these particular excerpts? Butcher gives us an overview of each collection, but no real answer for that question.

I also didn't love the way the songs were translated. The justification for making them read more lyrically is fine, but it feels rather unnecessary in light of the fact that Butcher doesn't correlate them to their Latin texts. I had hoped that it would be easy to look up the songs on a music app to listen to as I read the lyrics, but I don't know Latin well enough to guess the Latin titles because Butcher took so many liberties. So really, the oversimplification of the lyrics wasn't justified at all and I feel deprived.

[Carrie · Rating 5 out of 5]

My daughter chose St. Hildegard as her Confirmation saint. I'm was delighted to get to know the saint more through this book! Hildegard reminds me of a 12th century Mother Angelica. She's humble, honest, smart, direct, witty, a little kooky, on fire with God's love, and utterly fascinating!

The author did a great job of translating Hildegard's writing for modern readers, and giving us adequate, but not overwhelming, historical context.

I so enjoyed this book!

[Brace1737 · Rating 3 out of 5]

A great thinker has been overlooked until recently. She is Hildegard of Bingen and you may have heard of her based on her musical compositions. This book is a basic introduction to Hildegard's life and work It contains some of her writings and a list of books for further reading. Be prepared to make friends with new ideas from the 1150's, over 900 years ago.

[Denise · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is three stars of respect. I ended up skipping most of the letters because Hildegard was heavy handed and a person of her time (modern psychology disagrees with some things). There was a lot of good supportive material but I also feel it was a bit much. Yes, a reader presents snippets with commentary but I felt bogged down by the commentary at times.

[Andrea · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hildegard wrote with remarkable authority on a great many subjects. This book includes some of her poetry, a virtue play, letters to significant historical figures of her time and more. Her writings are a rare opportunity to look into the mind of a medeival woman.

[Stephen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not as meaty as I hoped, but not terrible either. This book provides a brief summary of the life of Saint Hildegard, as well as somewhat altered versions of her writings and compositions (for the sake of clarity in translation, as it is explained).

[Daniel Morgan · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was great! I see why this she is a Doctor of the Church.

I appreciate the amount of work the author put into making these translations beautiful. Because they are not clunky or strange, the English is magnificent, conveying poetry and depth. I strongly recommend this book.

[Richard Millsap · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nice Introduction to Hildegard von Bingen via well-selected Readings representing this very special saint's extant works. I'd love to see a new edition with the selected content fleshed out a bit. Certainly deserves a place on my bookshelf, and I'll be reading/referring to it again. ~RKM

[Mary Foxe · Rating 4 out of 5]

Skimmed.

[Jen · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the perfect book for anyone who wants to read selections from St. Hildegard's major works and get a good background on her life.

[Kate · Rating 3 out of 5]

Cool to read a woman doctor of the church’s writings. Started out more interesting than the end.

[Alisa]

Richard Rohr

[Derek Emerson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hildegard of Bingen (1098-1179) was a Benedictine abbess, composer, and mystic. She is known by many today because of her music, but her creativity was born of mystical experiences which found their expression in a variety of ways. The book, Hildegard of Bingen: A Spiritual Reader, is a reader which includes selections from her songs, theological texts, drama, liturgical music, and letters. Each section is introduced by the translator and editor, Carmen Acevedo Butcher, who also provides an introduction to this German woman who challenged the Church while producing in an astonishing range of artistic outlets.

Her songs can be especially moving, and Butcher says we may take that as a sign of being written in happy times. "But there were no such periods for this nun. She lived from illness to illness, conflict to conflict, responsibility to responsibility, and perhaps that is why we feel close to her, because, despite Hildegard's many accomplishments, her life was clearly filled with the daily grind we all experience; and she through it."

One example, her song "The Most Sanguine Moment" (Note: she did not give them titles -- this is from the translator):

When the Creator actually spilled
His blood on the elements,
earth, air, water, and fire
screamed,
collapsed with grief,
shook from sadness.
Now, Father, with this gift
anoint our weaknesses.

Her letters show a very human side, and she never hesitated to direct people (including royalty and Popes) as she thought best. Her drama seems unusual to our modern ears, but is worth reading as it is the earliest known morality play ever recorded.

It is in the theological works where her mystic self, as seen in visions, is most clear. She has tremendous visions which she describes in detail, and then explains. Giant people, piles of excrement, and speaking fire, water, earth, and air, are all part of what she sees. At times, her visions seem grand for the simple lessons, but at times they make us rethink our most basic beliefs. In explaining how one vision teaches us about the soul's power, she says, "A person's physical body is bigger than their literal heart, just as the soul is stronger than the body. This is what I mean: A person's heart lies hidden within their body, just as the physical body is surrounded by and hidden in the soul's powers, which cover the entire globe. Your body is in your soul, not your soul in your body."

In both her visions and her life, she was willing to turn things upside down to help profess God's word. Although she battled with Church leaders, she was greatly respected and is now recognized as a Saint. In 2012, Pope Benedict the XVI recognized her as a Doctor of the Church, meaning one to study as well as imitate.

As such, this book is a great introduction as it provides a wide selection of her work, and just enough background to give it some context.

[Othy · Rating 3 out of 5]

This collection includes poems, excerpts from letters, a morality play, and selections from visionary accounts by Hildegard of Bingen, who lived during the 12ts century. The selections are good (for all I know of Hildegard) and the translations comfortable and easy to read, though Butcher's method as she explains it leaves something to be desired. For one, she "cleans up" Hildegard's poems, taking out things that she feels are boring or unnecessary, claiming that they wouldn't be good for modern readers. Further, she tidies up her Latin in a similar way. I'm not a translator, and the little I know if it makes me wonder how poems could ever be translated, but over modernization of 1,000 year old poems makes me a little uncomfortable. Luckily Butcher doesn't use any modern idioms, though I wonder just how much she did change, since the originals aren't published alongside the translations. Also, though this isn't as big a deal, I would have liked more information on where each selection came from, as at times it seems that the author/editor collected Hildegard's works to put in this book based on what she liked, not caring much to reference where exactly they came from (though I only care because I read this book for academic reasons, perhaps not the author's original intention...).

In all, Butcher's presentation is made for those who want to slip into a medieval visionary woman's experience without much concern for particulars of scholarship. Thus it was easy to read though, for me, it was too east at times. Reading medieval texts doesn't have to be this comfy, though, again, it was a welcome read from the usually thick editions of most medieval texts.

[Craig Bergland · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent, with lively translations of Hildegard's writings. If I had it to do over, I would probably read a more general biography of Hildegard to set this book in better context first, still I would be reluctant to steer anyone away from this work for any reason.

[Barbara · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a delightful book! Carmen Butcher does an excellent job explaining Hildegard's remarkable life and accomplishments. This is an excellent "taste" of Hildegard's work.

[Shawna · Rating 4 out of 5]

Accessible and provocative.

[Sarah Yasin · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a nice intro to the great mystic and soon to be Doctor of the Church. Hildegard's insight into true humility and obedience is mind-bending.

[Hella]

niet helemaal uitgelezen, viel me toch wat tegen. Voornamelijk veel vertalingen van Hildegards teksten, en dat dan erg geautoriseerd.

[Gerhard Venter · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting if you're into Medieval mystics. Don't read it if you're not.