Saint Hildegard of Bingen

On January 25, 2021, Pope Francis ordered the inscription of Saint Hildegard of Bingen, Virgin and Doctor of the Church, into the General Roman Calendar.  St. Hildegard is celebrated each year as an Optional Memorial on September 17.

The Holy See released the proper liturgical texts in Latin (see pages 7-9), and on September 30, 2024, the Dicastery for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments confirmed the English translation of those texts. (An approval and confirmation process is still required for a Spanish translation.)

The proper texts in English for the liturgical celebration of St. Hildegard of Bingen are provided below:

Roman Missal

From the Common of Virgins: For One Virgin, or the Common of Holy Men and Women: For a Nun.

Collect

O God, fount of life,
who imbued the Virgin Saint Hildegard
with a spirit of prophecy,
grant us, we pray, by her example and intercession,
to know your ways,
and in the darkness of this age
to perceive the splendor of your light.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
God, for ever and ever.

Lectionary for Mass

Aside from the usual Mass readings of the day, any Lectionary readings from the Common of Virgins or Common of Holy Men and Women may be used for St. Hildegard of Bingen. The following readings are also recommended by the Holy See, and will appear in a future edition of the Lectionary for Mass. (Current citations from the Lectionary's Common of Virgins and Common of Holy Men and Women are provided for convenience.)

641A – Saint Hildegard of Bingen, Virgin and Doctor of the Church

From the Common of Virgins, or the Common of Holy Men and Women, or:

First Reading – Song of Songs 8:6-7 (no. 731-1)
Stern as death is love.

Responsorial Psalm – Psalm 45:11-12, 14-15, 16-17 (no. 733-1)
R/. Listen, O daughter; pay heed and give ear.
or:
R/. The bridegroom is here; let us go out to meet Christ the Lord.

Gospel Acclamation – Matthew 5:8 (no. 741-3)
Blessed are the clean of heart,
for they will see God.

Gospel – Matthew 25:1-13 (no. 742-11)
Behold, the bridegroom! Come out to meet him!

Liturgy of the Hours

From the Common of Virgins: For One Virgin or the Common of Holy Women: For Religious.

Biography

Hildegard was born at Bermersheim in Germany in 1098, and made her religious profession in 1115 at the Benedictine Abbey of Mount Saint Disibod. Around 1150 she founded and governed as abbess the Monastery of Rupertsberg near Bingen. Learned in the natural sciences and the art of music, she devoutly described in many writings to the clergy and the people the revelations she experienced in mystical contemplation, preached acts of penance, and refuted doctrinal errors, so that even rulers and Roman Pontiffs eagerly sought her advice. Afflicted by an illness, she died in 1179.

Office of Readings

Second Reading
From the letters of Saint Hildegard, Virgin and Doctor of the Church
(Ep. LII: Wernerio de Kircheim, cum ceteris societatis suae fratribus: PL 197, 269-271)

The image of the Church

While lying in a sick bed in the year of our Lord 1170, fully alert in body and soul, I saw a most beautiful image in the form of a woman, who was outstanding in charm and supremely attractive, of such great beauty that no human mind could ever grasp it, and whose height reached from earth to heaven.

Also, her face shone with the greatest splendor as she gazed heavenwards. She also wore a garment of purest white silk and was wrapped in a cloak adorned with the most precious stones, namely, emerald, sapphire, and pearls too, with onyx shoes on her feet. But her face had been streaked with dirt, and her garment had been torn on the right side, her cloak had lost its elegant beauty, and her shoes had been dirtied.

And with a great and mournful voice she was crying out to the highest heaven, saying, "Hear, O heaven, for my face is sullied; and weep, O earth, for my garment is torn; and tremble, O netherworld, for my shoes are dirty." And again she said, "I lay hidden in the heart of the Father until the Son of Man, who was conceived and born in virginity, poured out his blood, and who with that same blood betrothed me to himself and paid my dowry."

For the nail print of my Bridegroom's wounds is raw and gaping as long as sinners' wounds lie open. These same wounds of Christ are contaminated by Priests, who run from church to church in their excessive greed but who ought to make me radiant and serve me in purity. In this way they also tear my dress because they are traitors to the Law and the Gospel and their own Priesthood, and they soil my cloak because they neglect in every way the precepts that they were taught, neither willingly and perfectly fulfilling these precepts in abstinence like an emerald, nor in generous almsgiving like a sapphire, nor in other good and righteous works whereby God is honored as with other kinds of gems. Instead, my shoes are dirtied all over because these men do not keep true to the hard and rough paths of justice, nor do they give good example to those in their charge, although I keep for certain others the purity of truth concealed within my shoes as in a hiding place.

And I heard a voice from heaven saying, "This image represents the Church. For this reason, you, O mortal, who see and hear these words of lamentation, offer them to the Priests, who are appointed and ordained to govern and teach the People of God, and to whom, along with the Apostles it was said: Go into the whole world and preach the Gospel to every creature (Mk 16:15)."

Responsory
Dn 2:21-22; 1 Cor 12:11

The Lord gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to those who have understanding;
— He reveals deep and hidden things, and light dwells with him.

One and the same Spirit accomplishes everything, distributing to each as he wishes.
— He reveals deep and hidden things, and light dwells with him.

Prayer

O God, fount of life,
who imbued the Virgin Saint Hildegard
with a spirit of prophecy,
grant us, we pray, by her example and intercession,
to know your ways,
and in the darkness of this age
to perceive the splendor of your light.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
God, for ever and ever.

Excerpts from the English translation of Liturgical Texts for Doctors of the Church © 2023 International Commission on English in the Liturgy Corporation. All rights reserved.