A Companion to Hildegard of Bingen

206 leigh-choate, flynn, and fassler
the mountaintop that will not be leveled—against the wiles of the devil.
These references suggest evangelical activity, the preparation of others to
receive God. In this, they reflect Disibod’s legendary status not only as a
righteous, mountain-dwelling hermit, but as one of the region’s apostles.
The melodic parallels between the settings of plantationem and preparatione
suggest that Hildegard viewed Disibod’s founding of a monastic
community, represented by the image of the vineyard, as integral to his
preparatory work. Moreover, she calls this plantatio (and presumably the
saint for whom it was named) a “pillar that glistens on high,” perhaps
reflecting the common symbolism of the apostles as pillars of the Church:
in Hildegard’s words, “a mighty row of pillars supporting the Lamb’s
bride.”27 Her responsory thus bolsters the idea that the placement of the
Disibod songs among those for the apostles had to do with the saint’s
local apostolic work in establishing his religious community, but it also
suggests a link to the biblical apostles.
A closer look at Hildegard’s other works and a consideration of the
chronology of their composition and compilation may add to our understanding.
In Scivias 2.5, Hildegard relates the Church’s apostolic teaching
to the work of local bishops:
Thus you see that a splendor white as snow and translucent as crystal shines
around the image of that woman [Ecclesia] from the top of her head to her
throat. . . .
The apostolic teaching shone around the head of the Church when the
apostles fijirst began to build her up by their preaching; moving through
diffferent places, they collected workers who would strengthen her in
the Catholic faith and make themselves into priests and bishops and all the
ecclesiastical orders, to establish faithfully the rights of men and women
who married and all other such institutions. . . . Hence also the apostles
chose those orders with which, by heavenly inspiration, they adorned the
Church. What does this mean?
That their followers, who took their places, [i.e. the priests and bishops]
faithfully traverse streets and farms and cities and other places, regions and
lands, carrying the health-giving chrisms and announcing the divine law to
the people.28
27 Compare “in excelso resplendat / ut statuta columna” with “fortissimumque genus
columnarum, / sponsam Agni sustentans” in Hildegard’s responsory O lucidissima apostolorum
turba, Symph., 34, p. 420; Symph. (Eng.), 34, pp. 164–65, ll. 11–12. Unless otherwise
indicated, all translations of Hildegard’s songs are from Symph. (Eng.).
28 Scivias (Eng.), pp. 202–3; Scivias 2.5, p. 177: “Unde etiam uides quod praefatam muliebrem
imaginem quidam splendor albus ut nix et tamquam crystallus perlucidus a uertice
usque ad guttur eius circumfulget. . . .