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| 'The Six Days of Creation' by Hildegard von Bingen |
Quite by accident I discovered at the close of day that today the Church celebrates the feast of the German abbess and mystic, Hildegard von Bingen. It is her death anniversary. She is known as the 'Sibyl of the Rhine' owing to her capacity of seeing visions.
I was more interested in reading the Gospel of today of the unnamed woman who washes the feet of Jesus with perfume in an alabaster jar. The homily at Mass this morning was about how Jesus handles the situation as he reclines on a sofa in the house of Simon, a Pharisee. (Luke 7: 36-50)
I first came to know about Hildegard when I listened to an audio cassette of her soaring Latin chants in college. Hildegard von Bingen widened the scope of plainchant - melody without musical accompaniment - as it existed and added a more diverse range of musical notes. Her chant music is ethereal, holy, and lofty. In O Virtus Sapientiae / O Power of Wisdom (2:19) the lyrics present wisdom as encompassing everything and being worthy of praise.*
Today I was able to also see the mystical paintings of Hildegard which reminded me of the paintings of William Blake. Her paintings are inspired by visions and can be viewed in a collection titled Scivias. She was, like Goethe (also a German) a polymath. She was a Benedictine abbess, a composer of music, and a writer on plants and natural cures. She had the courage to reprove Pope Anastasius IV in 1153/54 for his inability to stop corruption in the medieval church.
The unnamed woman and Hildegard von Bingen impacted society in their own ways in their own time. Both had an extraordinary love for God and chose to express it in their unique ways. Instead of condemning the nameless woman, Jesus uses it as an occasion to chide Simon for not welcoming him as she did and only trying to find fault in others. Devotion, Jesus seems to say, needs to be shown in action, not in lip service.
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*Gregorian chant was named after Pope Gregory I (540 - 604) who compiled the melodies of the Christian world. After him King Charlemagne (748 - 814) tried to standardize Gregorian chant across his empire to unify the church under one faith and one liturgy. Updated 18/9/26.
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