The Year of the Eucharist & Hildegard of Bingen.

During the Year of the Eucharist (Oct. 2004-Oct. 2005, see Dec. CI, pp. 24-25), it is fitting to consider anew the lives of the saints who stood out for their devotion to the Most Holy Sacrament of the Altar. Such saints include Catherine of Genoa (1447-1510), Peter Julian Eymard (1811-1868), and Pope Pius X (1835-1914).

An uncanonized but remarkable Benedictine nun who also exemplified this devotion was Hildegard of Bingen (1098-1179). In Butler's Lives of the Saints, she is described as "the first of the great German mystics, a poet and a prophet, a physician and a political moralist, who rebuked popes and princes, bishops and lay-folk, with complete fearlessness and unerring justice."

Under obedience, Hildegard recorded her insights in a book called Scivias, short for Nosce vias Domini ("Know the ways of the Lord"). Ten years in the making, the book consists of 26 visions dealing with the Creation, the Redemption, and the Church, mixed with prophecies, warnings, and outbursts of divine praise. Among those who knew Hildegard personally and held her book in high regard was St. Bernard of Clairvaux (1090-1153), Doctor of the Church.

At bottom, Hildegard taught solid Catholic truths, worded however in rather dense symbolic language. Vision Six of Scivias deals with the Holy Eucharist. Hildegard emphasizes the wonder of this Sacrament, the divine power that makes it possible, the dignity of the priest acting in persona Christi, the certainty of Transubstantiation, the inability of human flesh to perceive what is really happening, and the efficacy of the Sacrament in advancing the salvation of believers.

The following excerpt from Vision Six illustrates Hildegard's style and perspective:

The Church, continuously straining to leave the mark of her examples, offers her dowry--clearly the body and blood of the Word of God--with the deepest of devotion, to the Creator of all things. She offers her dowry for all to look at with living and burning lights--clearly the celestial cities. And she does this in humble obedience. What does this mean? As the body of the Only-Begotten of God sprang up in purity in the womb of the Virgin Mary and then was handed over for the salvation of men, so even now this body has grown in the uncorrupted purity of the Church and is given for the sanctification of the faithful ... As a result, the Church is strengthened with the happiest freshness.

Hildegard saw a strong and positive correlation between clerical discipline, liturgical beauty, and the mercy of God upon His people. This is why she became seriously annoyed when priests seemed infected with worldliness. The Year of the Eucharist provides an opportunity to open up the treasury of her reflections.

Source: Scivias by Hildegard of Bingen. The English Translation from the Critical Latin Edition. Translated by Bruce Hozeski, Bear & Company, Santa Fe, New Mexico, 1986.

Lise Anglin works as a researcher at a mental health centre in Toronto. She collects books on traditional Catholic spirituality.