illuminations a novel of hildegard von bingen

Female prophets crowd the books of the Old Testament. But the seeress’s might is not just a relic of pagan times. In those heathen times, her people revered her as a goddess, for she foretold their victory against the Romans. She took no husband but lived in a tower. Once, centuries before my existence, there lived in these Rhineland forests a woman named Weleda, she who sees. The most ancient and enduring power of women is prophecy, my gift and my curse, the birthright I carry in my heart. Illuminations: A Novel of Hildegard von Bingen Hildegard von Bingen’s vision of the Feminine Divine, from Scivias, III, 4.15, translated by Mother Columba Hart, O.S.B.

But she is with everyone and in everyone, and so beautiful is her secret that no person can know the sweetness with which she sustains people, and spares them in inscrutable mercy. For she is terrible with the terror of the avenging lightening, and gentle with the goodness of the bright sun and both her terror and her gentleness are incomprehensible to humans. (Oct.She is so bright and glorious that you cannot look at her face or her garments for the splendor with which she shines.

Though confined primarily to the abbey and peopled by a small cast, Sharratt’s gripping story, like Ann Patchett’s Bel Canto, is primarily about relationships forged under pressure. Nevertheless, years spent captive with Jutta strengthened Hildegard’s resolve, and she dutifully perseveres, composing 78 songs penning a book and hundreds of letters to emperors, popes, and royalty and going on to found two monasteries. When her anchoress finally dies, Hildegard is granted “free passage in the abbey,” but her newfound liberty is accompanied by intensified visions and a desire to make those revelations manifest, an impulse roundly quelled by zealous monks. Entombed in an anchorage in what is now Germany as brides of Christ under Benedictine rule, Hildegard and Jutta endure their monastic imprisonment for 30 years, during which time Hildegard experiences divine visions. As the 10th child, Hildegard is given to the church as a tithe at age eight, whereupon she becomes a handmaiden to the devout and troubled Jutta von Sponheim. Sharratt (Daughters of the Witching Hill) offers up an imaginative retelling of the fascinating life of the 12th-century nun Hildegard von Bingen.

Illuminations a novel of hildegard von bingen