The following was included in the last post on St. Hildegard of Bingen, but it is so important that it is worth its own post here.

St. Hildegard’s experience of the Holy Spirit commanding her to speak, write, and describe the words and visions that she would receive, which she describes below, was undeniable. She obeyed with great trepidation, because at that time, for women to speak out in an authoritative manner was frowned upon and could even lead to charges of heresy and excommunication. Even so, the call to “be the mouthpiece” of the Holy Spirit, as it were, compelled her to start on the improbable task that was assigned to her.

In 1141 at the age of 43, she received the sudden vision commanding her to write what she saw and heard from the Holy Spirit. Her master work, Scivias, was written over a period of ten years, containing more than thirty-five visions with accompanying images. This work, which she described as taking dictation from the Holy Spirit, eventually came to the attention of the Pope and received his approval. In Scivias, she described this vision in the foreword:

“Declaration: These Are True Visions Flowing from God

“In the forty-third year of my earthly course, as I was gazing with great fear and trembling attention at a heavenly vision, I saw a great splendor, in which resounded a voice from Heaven, saying to me,

‘O fragile human, ashes of ashes, and filth of filth! Say and write what you see and hear. But since you are timid in speaking, and simple in expounding, and untaught in writing, speak and write these things not by a human mouth, and not by understanding of human invention, and not by requirements of human composition, but as you see and hear them on high in the heavenly places in the wonders of God. Explain these things in such a way that the hearer, receiving the words of his instructor, may expound them in those words, according to that will, vision and instruction. Thus, therefore, O human, speak these things that you see and hear. And write them not by yourself or any other human being, but by the will of Him Who knows, sees and disposes of all things in the secrets of His mysteries…Speak therefore of these wonders, and being so taught, write them and speak.’”

As with many of the mystics who came before her and after her, she experienced this command to write down the words she heard from the Holy Spirit, a command that she had resisted until she became ill and the compelling voice became undeniable. It is worth noting that many such visions occur suddenly and unexpectedly, when the person least expects it.

In this painting, St. Hildegard is shown receiving communications from the Holy Spirit within her cell, and then relaying the messages to her colleague, a monk who wrote Latin. St. Hildegard was the last of the famous women mystics to try to write in Latin, the language of the church. St. Hildegard’s command of Latin was adequate but not expert, and thus the monk improved on the Latin without changing the meaning. Thereafter, the women mystics wrote in their native languages, in the vernacular, which enabled them to describe for us their inner process in a more natural way.

How often do human beings hear or feel the calling of the Holy Spirit to some course of action or to speak some truth. We may need to be called several times before we give in. We may think we are not up to the job, not talented enough, or not good enough. But the Holy Spirit prevails, saying “Say and write what you see and hear.”

More on St. Hildegard in the next post. For further reading, the Wikipedia article on her is excellent.

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