Beverly Mayne Kienzle - Hildegard of Bingen: Homilies on the Gospels (Cistercian Studies)

Hildegard of Bingen

CISTERCIAN STUDIES SERIES NUMBER TWO HUNDRED FORTY-ONE

Hildegard of Bingen

Homilies on the Gospels

Translated with Introduction and Notes by

Beverly Mayne Kienzle

Cistercian Publications

www.cistercianpublications.org

LITURGICAL PRESS

Collegeville, Minnesota

www.litpress.org

A Cistercian Publications title published by Liturgical Press

Cistercian Publications

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2011 by Order of Saint Benedict, Collegeville, Minnesota. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form, by print, microfilm, microfiche, mechanical recording, photocopying, translation, or by any other means, known or yet unknown, for any purpose except brief quotations in reviews, without the previous written permission of Liturgical Press, Saint Johns Abbey, PO Box 7500, Collegeville, Minnesota 56321-7500. Printed in the United States of America.

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Hildegard, Saint, 1098-1179.

Mayne Kienzle.

into English. 3. Sermons, Medieval. 4. Catholic ChurchSermons.

I. Kienzle, Beverly Mayne. II. Title.

BS2555.54.H5513 2011

226.0609021dc23

2011019850

For all who have aided this work: students, staff, colleagues, and especially for Edward, Kathleen, and the cats, when at home we sit and find, entertainment to our mind. (Pangur Ban, ninth-century poem)

Contents

Abbreviations

Preface

The English translation of Hildegard of Bingens Expositiones euangeliorum follows my coediting of the text, with Carolyn A. Muessig and George Ferzoco, published in Corpus Christianorum Continuatio Mediaevalis (Hildegardis Bingensis Opera minora, 2007), and my book, Hildegard of Bingen and Her Gospel Homilies (Turnhout: Brepols, 2009). My comprehension of Hildegards method and theology of exegesis and her use and interpretation of sources has grown during the process of editing the texts and reflecting and commenting on them and their historical and monastic context. Still, the Expositiones, described by the fifteenth-century monastic scholar Johannes Trithemius (14621516) as quite obscure and intelligible only to the learned and devout, pose a formidable challenge to the translator.

I wish to acknowledge first my mentors in monastic spirituality, the scholars in Cistercian studies who first welcomed and encouraged me and guided my work in the sessions at the International Congress on Medieval Studies in Kalamazoo beginning in the 1980s. My research on Hlinand of Froidmont and especially on Bernard of Clairvaux paved the way for my study of Hildegard and Benedictine monasticism. It seems most appropriate to have the translation published jointly by Cistercian Publications and Liturgical Press. I am grateful to Fr. Mark Scott and the editors at Liturgical Press for their thoughtful and capable editing.

Barbara Newman first made me aware of the need for work on the Expositiones euangeliorum over a decade ago, when I was searching for evidence that medieval religious women preached to their sisters. Carolyn A. Muessig, my coeditor of the Expositiones, and George Ferzoco provided important insights on the Riesenkodex that bear on the analysis of the Expositiones and thus on the translation. Discussions with Carolyn over the meaning and appropriate punctuation of the Latin edition, and the interweaving of patristic sources, helped elucidate the possible ways of interpreting the Latin text and translating it. The editor of the Opera minora for Brepols, Luc Jocqu, raised important questions that shed light on the reading of the homilies. Stephen DEvelyn, a scholar working primarily on Hildegards Symphonia, was a teaching assistant in my 2005 course on Hildegard and the Gospels and a valuable discussion partner for the translations we looked at in class. I am grateful also to my colleagues Franois Bovon and Kevin Madigan, who invited me to their courses on exegesis for fruitful discussions of the Expositiones. Bovon, a New Testament scholar, guided my first efforts at analyzing Hildegards exegesis. Bernard McGinn shared his insights on Hildegards visionary exegesis.