A Companion to Hildegard of Bingen

162 kienzle and stevens
memory enjoyed great favor in German religious communities, and later
women visionaries claimed the authority of his inspiration.122 Hildegard’s
self-comparison to John the Evangelist appears near the beginning of this
development. In her vita, Hildegard described the “soft raindrops” that
were sprinkled on her soul’s knowledge, extinguishing her corporal sensuality
(sensualitas corporis mei) and turning her knowledge to another
mode (in alium modum), unknown to her: “The Holy Spirit imbued the
evangelist John in a similar way when he sucked the deepest revelation
from the breast of Jesus. Then his understanding was so afffected by the
holy divinity that he opened up hidden mysteries and deeds.”123
Hildegard’s self-association with John the Evangelist occurs elsewhere
in her works.124 For the most part, Hildegard names John upon introducing
passages from John’s Gospel, the letters, or the Apocalypse.125 He
stands as the revealer of Christ as truth incarnate and as the exemplar and
authority of love. A few of these introductory phrases evoke the divine
inspiration or visionary prophecy that unites John the Evangelist and Ezekiel
in the medieval imagination.
The many references to Ezekielian imagery in Hildegard’s writings
speak to the rich intertextuality of her opera, and the ties between the
seer’s works and her contemporary visual culture. Her audience would
be familiar with the influence of the visionary prophet and the visionary
evangelist whom she and her biographer Theodoric claimed as her predecessor
and her inspiration. The analysis of her exegesis of the prophet’s
book further establishes the richness of her biblical interpretation. Hildegard’s
identifijication with Ezekiel enhances her claim to prophetic authority,
as do her references to John the Evangelist and the two prophetic
fijigures together.
122 See Hamburger, The Deifijied Evangelist.
123 V. Hild., 2.16, p. 43, ll. 1–10: “Subsequenti demum tempore mysticum et mirifijicam
uisionem uidi, ita quod omnia uiscera mea concussa sunt et sensualitas corporis mei
extincta est, quoniam scientia mea in alium modum conuersa est, quasi me nescirem. Et
de Dei inspiratione in scientiam anime mee quasi gutte suauis pluuie spargebantur, quia
et Spiritus Sanctus Iohannem euangelistam imbuit, cum de pectore Iesu profundissimam
reuelationem suxit, ubi sensus ipsius sancta diuinitate ita tactus est, quod absconsa mysteria
et opera aperuit, ‘In principio erat uerbum,’ et cetera.” Life of Hildegard, pp. 66–67.
124 In a letter to Guibert of Gembloux, she contrasts herself with the wise, who fall out
of vainglory, while she likens her own humility to the Evangelist’s; Epistolarium, II, 103R,
p. 260, ll. 44–52.
125 The magistra often refers to John as John the beloved (dilectus meus), or John the
beloved evangelist. See Scivias 1.2, p. 31, l. 634; Scivias 1.3, p. 58, l. 619; Scivias 2.2, p. 126,
l. 70; Scivias 2.5, p. 198, l. 898; Scivias 3.11, p. 595, l. 668; Scivias 3.11, p. 603, l. 912; Scivias 3.7,
p. 470, ll. 287–88.