Hildegard of Bingen: Scivias

About the book: Scivias (1990) is an illustrated work by Hildegard von Bingen (c 1098-1179), completed in 1151 or 1152, describing 26 religious visions she experienced. It is the first of three works that she wrote describing her visions, the others being Liber vitae meritorum and De operatione Dei (also known as Liber divinorum operum). 

The title comes from the Latin phrase Sci vias Domini ('Know the Ways of the Lord'). The book is illustrated by 35 miniature illustrations, more than that are included in her two later books of visions.

The work is divided into three parts, reflecting the Trinity. The first and second parts are approximately equal in length, while the third is as long as the other two together. 

The first part includes a preface describing how she was commanded to write the work, and includes six visions dealing with themes of creation and the Fall. 

The second part consists of seven visions and deals with salvation through Jesus Christ, the Church, and the sacraments. 

The third part, with thirteen visions, is about the coming kingdom of God, through sanctification, and increased tension between good and evil. 

The final vision includes 14 songs, plus a portion of the music drama which was later published as the Ordo Virtutum, the oldest surviving play.

In each vision, she first described what she saw, and then recorded explanations she heard, which she believed to be the "voice of heaven." (Source: Wikipedia)

Scivias was translated from the Latin/German by Mother Columba Hart of the Abbey of Regina Laudis in Bethlehem, Connecticut, and Jane Bishop, Assistant Professor of Ancient and Medieval History at The Citadel, Charleston, South Carolina. 

About Saint Hildegard of Bingen: Hildegard was an abbess, artist, author, composer, mystic, pharmacist, poet, preacher, theologian - where to begin in describing this remarkable woman?

Born into a noble family, Hildegard of Bingen was instructed for ten years by the holy woman Blessed Jutta. When Hildegard was 18, she became a Benedictine nun at the Monastery of Saint Disibodenberg. Ordered by her confessor to write down the visions that she had received since the age of three, Hildegard took ten years to write her Scivias (Know the Ways).

Pope Eugene III read it, and in 1147, encouraged her to continue writing. Her Book of the Merits of Life and Book of Divine Works followed. She wrote over 300 letters to people who sought her advice; she also composed short works on medicine and physiology, and sought advice from contemporaries such as Saint Bernard of Clairvaux.

Hildegard of Bingen’s visions caused her to see humans as “living sparks” of God’s love, coming from God as daylight comes from the sun. Sin destroyed the original harmony of creation; Christ’s redeeming death and resurrection opened up new possibilities. Virtuous living reduces the estrangement from God and others that sin causes.

Like all mystics, Hildegard saw the harmony of God’s creation and the place of women and men in that. This unity was not apparent to many of her contemporaries.

Hildegard was no stranger to controversy. The monks near her original foundation protested vigorously when she moved her monastery to Bingen, overlooking the Rhine River. She confronted Emperor Frederick Barbarossa for supporting at least three antipopes. Hildegard challenged the Cathars, who rejected the Catholic Church claiming to follow a more pure Christianity.

Between 1152 and 1162, Hildegard often preached in the Rhineland. Her monastery was placed under interdict because she had permitted the burial of a young man who had been excommunicated. She insisted that he had been reconciled with the Church and had received its sacraments before dying. Hildegard protested bitterly when the local bishop forbade the celebration of or reception of the Eucharist at the Bingen monastery, a sanction that was lifted only a few months before her death.

In 2012, Hildegard was canonized and named a Doctor of the Church by Pope Benedict XVI. Her liturgical feast is celebrated on September 17. (Source: Franciscan Media)