Body, Soul, and You

What I found interesting about Hildegard’s narrative in and surrounding her visions was her focus in the body. Hildegard seems change what is usually what is thought of as important in visions and shift emphasis to her body among what is seen.

One factor that plays a large role in Hildegard’s account is her own womanhood. She sees this as a limitation, and she sees this as a limitation in everyone else’s eyes as well. She discounts herself, giving others ground to discount her as well. Although everyone is seen as unworthy in the eyes of God in the catholic tradition, she takes the brunt of this herself, and puts the majority of this blame on her womanhood. Hildegard consistently repents for her unworthiness and repeats creeds of apologies for her knowledge’s limitations, forgetting these are never expected from male counterparts. A point she makes that runs pretty much perpendicular to this one, however, is the redemptive argument she makes for Eve. Once a story used against pointed to as evidence against womankind, she exonerates the once guilty Eve by recounting her vision of the Devil possessing her innocent body. She sticks her neck out to make sure the blame is taken away from women for the original sin. It is not that the woman’s body is inherently corrupt, it is that a blameless figure was, in short, dominated by evil.

Additionally, Hildegard acknowledges the presence of her own body in time, recounting her own age at the time of the visions and sharing with the audience the physicality the visions had. When thinking of visions, one would usually only focus on what was seen, but she feels herself in the vision, maintaining her shape in the process. Along with this, she acknowledges the progressions the Christian body takes throughout the sacraments. Sacraments enter the body, work with the body, and therefore manipulate the body. Sacraments are a physical representation of Jesus moving through your body, entering your body and being within the Christian. Hildegard sees this and realizes its magnitude. Prior to her section on the sacraments, she expresses something close to frustration regarding the fact that her body, her temple isn’t what she thinks it should be. If she’s a creature created by the Lord to house a divine soul, why isn’t this physically portrayed? Why isn’t she glowing a la Christ? Why isn’t her skin gold leaf? She then twists what she sees as her own shortcomings into metaphors of the sacraments and the journey of the Christian body though the evolution of faith; in baptism, ones skin is glowing gold. In confirmation, ones temple then becomes adorned on jewels. This isn’t shown on the outside, but in the soul, in the tabernacle. Again, this can only be seen through Christ. This is something I feel is worth mentioning, because I think the Hilegard mentioned it both explicitly and implicitly quite often. In order to see holiness from the scale of the Trinity to yourself, you need to faith to call it out.

Hildegard's idea of Confirmation

Something brought up in class that I found especially interesting was the glory and regard she held towards virgins. In one of her visions and in her description, they are held above pretty much everyone else, notably royalty and people who would be held in higher standing in any other class-differentiation discussion. However, to Hildegard, virgins are the tops. I was thinking about how this ideology connected to the rest of her principles and realized this probably had something to do with her absorption with the body as well. A possible reason virgins could be so highly regarded to Hildegard, along with the obvious Christian, religious argument, could be the complete control one has to have over ones body. Virginity implies complete control over the body and mind, not giving into carnal, earthly desires and essentially remaining heavenly.

Before reading Hildegard’s visions, I found the concept of the Trinity incredibly confusing. All three parts seemed to be operating within and outside of time, undulating in and out of each other in this glob of Being I couldn’t conceptualize.  This was made all the more difficult considering that, in the Christian tradition, there are basically no images of either the father or the holy spirit. And these are the two most complicated parts of the Trinity! Jesus is a figure whose history is extremely fleshed out (thanks to Mary): his creation, his incarnation, his glory in heaven… we basically know a lot about Jesus. His story, much like Spiderman’s, has been told over and over again. But how was God created? What is the holy spirit?

By delaying the conversation about the Trinity until after the incarnation, Hildegard makes much more sense of this complicated concept, although in a way that seems controversial. Through the incarnation, or through the inhabitation of the body, Christ can finally be seen, thereby making the Trinity visible. From reading Hildegard’s vision of the Trinity, it seems as though they all materialized through each other and continue to do so, not necessarily having separate entities or responsibilities but working together visible through Christ. I found this quote that God said to Hildegard particularly illuminating:

“Let no division take place in this sacrament, as I, remaining undivided in Three Persons, am One Indivisible God; in the same way that thought, will and deed are in one human being, and without them that person is not” (Scivias, II, 6, 44).

In all, I enjoyed the way Hildegard approached the complicated nuances of the Christian faith. She’s continuously hard on herself for being “unlearned”, but I believe that allows her to approach faith with a pure love, admiration, and devotion. 

-ID