For the physical accompaniments and phenomena of Hildegard’s visions we
have three separate lines of evidence: her own account; the statements
of her contemporary biographers, Theodoric and Godefrid; and the
miniatures of the Wiesbaden Codex B, probably prepared under her
supervision.
It is clear that despite the length and activity of her life, Hildegard
did not enjoy normal health. From a very early age she was the subject
of trances and visions, and from time to time she was prostrated with
protracted illness.
‘God punished me for a time by laying me on a bed of sickness so
that the blood was dried in my veins, the moisture in my flesh
and the marrow in my bones, as though the spirit were about to
depart from my body. In this affliction I lay thirty days while my
body burned as with fever, and it was thought that this sickness
was laid upon me for a punishment. And my spirit also was ailing,
and yet was pinned to my flesh, so that while I did not die, yet
did I not altogether live. And throughout those days I watched
a procession of angels innumerable who fought with Michael and
against the dragon and won the victory.... And one of them called
out to me, “Eagle! Eagle![114] why sleepest thou?... All the eagles
are watching thee.... Arise! for it is dawn, and eat and drink.”
And then the whole troop cried out with a mighty voice,... “Is not
the time for passing come? Arise, maiden, arise!” Instantly my
body and my senses came back into the world; and seeing this, my
daughters who were weeping around me lifted me from the ground and
placed me on my bed, and thus I began to get back my strength.
‘But the affliction laid upon me did not fully cease; yet was my
spirit daily strengthened.... I was yet weak of flesh, timid of
mind, and fearful of pain ... but in my soul I said, “Lord! Lord!
all that Thou puttest upon me I know to be good ... for have I not
earned these things from my youth up?” Yet was I assured He would
not permit my soul to be thus tortured in the future life....[115]
Thus was my body seethed as in a pot ... yet gave I thanks to God,
for if this affliction had not been from Him I had surely not lived
so long. But although I was thus tortured, yet did I, in supernal
vision, often repeat, cry aloud, and write those things which the
Holy Spirit willed to put before me.
‘Three years were thus passed during which the Cherubim pursued me
with a flaming sword ... and at length my spirit revived within me
and my body was restored again as to its veins and marrows, and
thus I was healed.’[116]
This illness of Hildegard was the longest and the most typical, but
by no means the only one through which she passed. She describes her
affliction as continuing for long periods, but there can be little
doubt, from her history, that during much of the time she was able to
carry on some at least of her functions as head of a religious house.
[Illustration: WIESB. COD. B. fo. 213 v