The "correspondence" referred to in the encyclopaedia is that of her Letters. Since she was of such great fame, many texts were attributed to her to give them greater station, in addition to her authentic writings. That's what the encyclopaedia is warning readers about in the paragraph that you quoted in the above post, to beware spurious texts circulated under her name. All of the letters that modern scholarly works rely upon are her authentic ones, not the spurious. Unfortunately, a lot of spurious works float around on the net under her name that were not by her. I've been rebutting them repeatedly and directing interested readers to the authentic writings. St. Hildegard believed that all of her visions were revealed to her directly by God. Her authority as a Doctor of the Church rests in her epic visionary theology. In Scivias, she wrote about the mode by which many of these "visionary experiences" were transmitted to her: https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=8zJOQ52E4GMC&pg=PA106&dq=The+visions+I+saw+I+did+not+perceive+in+dreams,+or+sleep,+or+delirium,+or+by+the+eyes+of+the+body,+or+by+the+ears+of+the+outer+self&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwie3-f50q7VAhUoKsAKHURTBv8Q6AEIJzAC#v=onepage&q=The visions I saw I did not perceive in dreams, or sleep, or delirium, or by the eyes of the body, or by the ears of the outer self&f=false When I was forty-two years and seven months old, Heaven was opened and a fiery light of exceeding brilliance came and permeated my whole brain, and inflamed my whole heart and my whole breast, not like a burning but like a warming flame, as the sun warms anything its rays touch. And immediately, I knew the meaning of the exposition of the scriptures... But I had sensed in myself wonderfully the power and mystery of secret and admirable visions from my childhood - that is from the age of five years - up to that time, as I do now... The visions I saw I did not perceive in dreams, or sleep, or delirium, or by the eyes of the body, or by the ears of the outer self, or in hidden places; but I received them while awake and seeing with a pure mind and the eyes and the ears of the inner self, in open places, as God willed it. How this might be is hard for mortal flesh to understand. St. Hildegard differentiates between the "inner" and "outer" senses, as many other medieval Catholic theologians did before and after her. She claimed to receive her visions via the mind's eyes and ears: auribus interioris hominis, mediated not through dreams or hallucinations but in a waking vision interiorly, in a manner beyond the comprehension of the physical senses. This is what St. Paul referred to in 1 Corinthians 2:9 - What no eye has seen, what no ear has heard, and what no human mind has conceived -- the things God has prepared for those who love him This is the same manner in which the Beatific Vision of the Divine Essence will be enjoyed by the blessed in heaven, as another Doctor of the Church St. Thomas Aquinas explained in his Summa Contra Gentiles: "...If God's essence is to be seen, the intelligence must see it in the divine essence itself, so that in such vision the divine essence shall be at once the object which is seen and that whereby it is seen. This is the immediate vision of God that is promised us in Scripture: 'We see now in a glass darkly, but then face to face' (i Cor. xiii, 2): a text absurd to take in a corporeal sense, as though we could imagine a bodily face in Deity itself, whereas it has been shown that God is incorporeal...Nor again is it possible for us with our bodily face to see God, since the bodily sense of sight, implanted in our face, can be only of bodily things. Thus then shalt we see God face to face, in that we shall have an immediate vision of Him, as of a man whom we see face to face. By this vision we are singularly assimilated to God, and are partakers in His happiness: for this is His happiness, that He essentially understands His own substance. Hence it is said: 'When He shall appear, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is' (i John iii, 2). And the Lord said: 'I prepare for you as my Father hath prepared for me a kingdom, that ye may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom' (Luke xxii, 29). This cannot be understood of bodily meat and drink, but of that food which is taken at the table of Wisdom, whereof it is said by Wisdom: Eat ye my bread and drink the wine that I have mingled for you (Prov. ix, 5). They therefore eat and drink at the table of God, who enjoy the same happiness wherewith God is happy, seeing Him in the way which He sees Himself..." - Saint Thomas Aquinas (1225–1274), Summa Contra Gentiles St. Hildegard considered herself to be God's mouthpiece.
In her letter to Guibert, St. Hildegard described her visions of the "Living Light" in greater detail: http://homes.chass.utoronto.ca/~young/reply.html A reply from Hildegard to the monk Guibert, AD 1175 I am not speaking these words as from myself or from another human person, but I reveal them as I have received in a heavenly vision... O faithful servant, I, poor as I am in womanly form, am speaking these words to you again in true vision. If it pleased God to console my body as He does my soul in this vision, the fear would still not recede from my mind and heart, because I know that I am still a mere mortal, although from my infancy I have been in enclosure. Moreover many wise men have been so infused with wondrous deeds that they opened many hidden things but, as a result of vainglory, they attributed those deeds to themselves and so they fell. But those who draw off wisdom from God in the lifting up of their soul and account themselves as nothing become the columns of heaven, just as happened in Paul's case... God works where He wills, to the glory of His Name not that of earthly man. Indeed I have always a trembling fear, since I know no safety of any possibility in myself. But I stretch out my hand to God that I might be upheld by Him as if by a wing that lacks every weight of force and flies through the wind. Nor can I perfectly know the things that I see, as long as I am a being of corporeal function and invisible soul, since mankind is deficient in these two respects. Moreover from my infancy, when my bones and sinews and veins had not yet grown strong, I always have enjoyed the gift of this vision in my soul, right up to the present time, although I am now more than seventy years old. But my spirit, just as God wishes, climbs in this vision to the height of the firmament and the changeability of the variable air and broadens itself among various peoples although they are remote from me in far-off districts and places. And since I see these things in such a way, therefore I also observe them according to the changeability of the clouds and of other created things. Moreover, I do not hear these things either with bodily ears or with the thoughts of my heart nor do I perceive them by any combination of my five senses but only in my soul, while my outer eyes are open, so that I never undergo in these visions the defect produced by ecstasy. But I see them in wakefulness day and night. And I am continually constrained by my infirmities and bound by pains that are sometimes so severe as to threaten death. But until now God has sustained me. The light that I see is not spatial, but far brighter than a cloud that bears the sun and nor can I regard in it height, length nor width. And I call it the shadow of the Living Light and just as the sun, moon, and stars appeared reflected in water, so the Scriptures, words, virtues, and some works formed by humans shine in it for me. And in the same light I perceive, sometimes and not frequently, another light that I call the Living Light, which I am surely much less capable of revealing as I see than the former light. And in the meantime, while I am contemplating it, all my sadness and all pain are taken from my memory so that then I act like an unaffected girl and not an old woman... Moreover whatever I shall have seen or learned in this vision, I retain a memory of it for a long time, so that I recollect that I saw and heard it at one time. And at the same time I see and hear and also know and as it were in a moment I learn what I know. For what I do not see, that I do not know, since I am not learned. And the things that I write I see and hear in that vision. Nor do I put down words other than the ones that I hear and I reveal them in unpolished Latin words just as I heard them in that vision, since I am not taught in this vision to write as philosophers write. And the words that I see and hear in that vision are not like the words that sound from human lips at all but like flickering flame and as a cloud moved in the clear air. Also I cannot understand the form of this light in any way, just as I cannot perfectly see the sphere of the sun... And I did not speak and write my own experiences or those of any person, but as I saw and heard them on high in the heavenly places and received them through the secrets of His mysteries. At the end of Scivias, St. Hildegard stated rather forcefully: But whoever rashly conceals these words written by the finger of God, madly abridging them, or for any human reason taking them to a strange place and scoffing at them, let him be reprobate. So she really was convinced that these visions came from God. The Church has seen fit to both canonize and honour her as a Doctor of the Church, which means that we should treat her authentic writings with the same degree of reverence that we do those by St. Augustine, St. Bonaventure, St. Thomas Aquinas, St. Catherine of Siena, St. John of the Cross, St. Teresa of Avila and other doctors. We must always bear in mind, nevertheless, that while the vision may be true, the visionary is still a fallible human being who might not comprehend or have properly understood the full import of a given vision, especially if it does concern future events many centuries removed from the recipient. The world has changed much since St. Hildegard's time, so we must situate her visions firstly in the context in which they were revealed as with all visionaries, approved or unapproved. In this respect, St. Hildegard herself notes in the above: "Nor can I perfectly know the things that I see, as long as I am a being of corporeal function and invisible soul, since mankind is deficient in these two respects." Consider this part, in particular, from the aforementioned Letter: But my spirit, just as God wishes, climbs in this vision to the height of the firmament and the changeability of the variable air and broadens itself among various peoples although they are remote from me in far-off districts and places... Moreover, I do not hear these things either with bodily ears or with the thoughts of my heart nor do I perceive them by any combination of my five senses but only in my soul, while my outer eyes are open, so that I never undergo in these visions the defect produced by ecstasy. But I see them in wakefulness day and night This is how she claimed that future events, among many other things, were revealed to her - "people remote from" her in time and space are made known to her mind/soul but not through sensual, corporeal means, because in essence God is pure spirit and not flesh, so he communicates in the highest way Spirit-to-spirit.
Dolours, Yes, exactly. Hence, my two questions. I did not ask the questions to raise doubt about Saint Hildegard but to take note of this which I believe is rare. I found this on the Miracle Hunter website, Visionary: St. Hildegard von Bingen (1098 - Sept. 17, 1179) Hildegard of Bingen was born the tenth and last child of noble parents. When she was eight years old Hildegard was sent to a Benedictine monastery to be educated an. In 1116 she became a nun there and twenty years later she was made the head of the monastery. From her early childhood Hildegard had visions, but soon realized she was unique in this ability and hid the gift for many years. However, in 1141, she had a series of visions in which God gave her instant understanding of the meaning of the religious texts. God commanded Hildegard to write down everything she observed in the visions and she devoted the next ten years doing this (including 26 drawings of things she had seen during the visions). In a vision, Hildegard saw the universe as a cosmic egg surrounded by flames, which represents God burning everywhere. In the center is air full of water, giving moisture to the entire egg. In the globe, a mountain divides darkness from light. When experiencing a vision, Hildegard would see a bright light - more brilliant than a cloud over the sun - inside which an even brighter light which she called "the living light" sometimes appeared. But she didn’t see the visions with her bodily eyes, which remained open, but in her soul. She also claimed to hear words, spoken in Latin. As news of her visions began to spread and gain fame, Pope Eugenius III decided to sent a commission to inquire into her work. This commission found her teaching orthodox and her insights authentic, and reported so to the Pope, who sent her a letter of approval. Hildegard of Bingen has been called one of the most important figures in the history of the Middle Ages and was a woman of many extraordinary and diverse talents. Besides being the abbess of a large and influential Benedictine abbey, she was a prominent preacher, healer, scientist, and artist as well as a composer and theologian, writing nine books on theology, medicine, science, and physiology, as well as 70 poems and an opera. During a time when few women were accorded respect, Hildegard was consulted by and advised bishops, popes and kings, and spoke out openly against corruption in the church. She was made a Doctor of the Church by Pope Benedict XVI in 2012. http://miraclehunter.com/marian_apparitions/approved_apparitions/apparitions_1100-1199.html The more I learn about her, the more extraordinary she appears to be. That last line which I highlighted really caught my attention!
Vouthon, Oddly, I honestly did not see your two replies to Dolours when I posted mine. I suppose it is possible that I needed to refresh my screen. I want to explain what happened because it was not my intention to repeat what you stated. I believe in the following quote, which you have posted, she expresses her humility: "Nor can I perfectly know the things that I see, as long as I am a being of corporeal function and invisible soul, since mankind is deficient in these two respects."
Thank you, Vouthon, for taking so much trouble to answer our questions. Regarding the above paragraph from your post, wouldn't her visions be more reliable than others because she was told what to write rather than giving her own interpretation of what she saw and heard. She said that they were not her own words but the words dictated to her in Latin.
Your welcome, that is an excellent point! You may be right there, I don't know. I just think its always a good rule of thumb to remember the fallibility of any, and every, private revelation/visionary where human mediation is involved. St. Hildegard cautions this herself ("Nor can I perfectly know the things that I see"): that while her visions are direct from God and she wrote as directed by the Holy Spirit, she herself may not have fully comprehended everything that she saw and may not have been able, in her own exceedingly humble estimation, to explicitly articulate the full majesty of the Divine mysteries that were imparted to her or properly understand the words. I think we will never completely understand exactly how St. Hildegard, or other great mystics, received their revelations. They try to explain to us but language inevitably eludes them, since they are like the philosophers from Plato's Allegory of the Cave: we are like prisoners chained up in a cave who have never seen the world outside it and don't know what sunlight looks or feels like, and because we are chained we are unable to turn our heads. All we can see is the wall of the cave. Behind us burns a fire, which casts shadows on the wall that we all take to be the truth. Whereas Plato's philosophers (great mystics like St. Hildegard) have been outside the cave and seen the real light of the Sun. When they "come back down" to explain it to us, they often fail to adequately do so, given that we have no knowledge of the world outside the cave and so analogies using concepts familiar to our senses tend to fail in adequately conveying it, because we only know about the shadows on the wall, not "the Living Light". As St. Paul noted: "we see through a glass darkly". Like the fire that casts light on the walls of the cave, the human condition is forever bound to impressions received through the senses. But God in His essence is pure spirit. That's why Pope St. Gregory the Great said of contemplative prayer: In contemplation the mind must first have learned to shut out from its eyes all the phantasmata [mental images or representations of objects] of earthly and heavenly images, and to spurn and tread underfoot whatever presents itself to its thought from sight, from hearing, from smell, from bodily touch or taste, so that it may seek interiorly as it is without these sensations Pope. St Gregory the Great (Homilies on Ezechiel II.V.), published in AD 593 To have received a revelation that comes from beyond such sense-impressions and is imparted to the visionary without coming through the physical senses of sight and hearing and touch and the like, as St. Hildegard did, is so impossibly difficult to the explain to the rest of us. That's why St. John of the Cross, another Doctor of the Church, wrote: Where no knowing is I entered, yet when I my own self saw there without knowing where I rested great things I understood there, yet cannot say what I felt there, since I rested in unknowing, all knowledge there transcending. I was left there so absorbed, so entranced, and so removed, that my senses were abroad, robbed of all sensation proved, and my spirit then was moved with an unknown knowing, all knowledge there transcending. It is of such true excellence this highest understanding, no science, no human sense, has it in its grasping. Or as St. Catherine of Genoa put it: I see without eyes, and I hear without ears. I feel without feeling and taste without tasting. I know neither form nor measure; for without seeing I yet behold an operation so divine that the words I first used, perfection, purity, and the like, seem to me now mere lies in the presence of truth. . . . Nor can I any longer say, “My God, my all.” Everything is mine, for all that is God’s seem to be wholly mine. I am mute and lost in God...So long as any one can speak of divine things, enjoy and understand them, remember and desire them, he has not yet arrived in port; yet there are ways and means to guide him thither. ...This is the beatitude that the blessed might have, and yet they have it not, except in so far as they are dead to themselves and absorbed in God. They have it not in so far as they remain in themselves and can say: `I am blessed.' Words are wholly inadequate to express my meaning, and I reproach myself for using them. I would that every one could understand me, and I am sure that if I could breathe on creatures, the fire of love burning within me would inflame them all with divine desire. O thing most marvelous!" - Saint Catherine of Genoa (1447-1510), (Life, 50) When St. Hildegard speaks of "unpolished Latin", I believe that she is being typically self-deprecating: suggesting that God used her own "lowly" command of the language (in truth, she was an exquisitely sophisticated writer and intellect with a brilliant command of Latin) to convey the message. But I'm fallible too, so I might be interpreting her wrongly in this respect! In any respect, she is probably about as authoritative as it gets in terms of weighing the relative merits of a private revelation. I don't think any other visionary has took such great care in explaining themselves and the mode of delivery as she has.
Thanks again, Vouthon, for sharing your knowledge with us. Just one one question: According to New Advent, St. Hildegard was taught to read and chant the Psalms but she never learned to write. I know that the monk who was her spiritual director and friend helped her write what she saw and heard, but do you know whether she did learn to write when she was an adult? It seems strange that she didn't teach herself or have someone else teach her to write.
I believe that while she was initially illiterate in the medieval (not modern) sense of having had no formal training in Latin grammar, rhetoric or dialectic, she did become - indisputably - an enormously accomplished and literate reader, writer and speaker of Latin, although she was always embarrassed by her perceived lack of proficiency in Latin. Quite how she made that transformation is disputed among historians. There is a vast literature on her "literacy". She was uneducated by 12th century standards but probably not completely "illiterate" as we would know it today.
I have a question that I am hesitant to ask but here it goes, how do you think Saint Hildegard's prophecies differentiate between pagans and heathens? I am speaking of her mentioning the conversion of pagans and heathens in her vision of the five ages, which is the period of time beginning in the 12th century until the eschaton.
In her writings she sometimes uses the phrase, "whether bad Christians, Jews or pagans", alternating 'pagan' with 'heathen'. Heathens or pagans were thus generalised terms for anyone who wasn't a Jew or Christian. I don't think that "heathen" and "pagan" are references to different groups, rather they are mutually interchangeable terms for anyone outside Judaism and Christianity in her lexicon. Her prophecies also predict that many "bad Christians" will lead holy lives during the period of peace in the Age of the Lion and that both Bishops and Princes (world leaders) will return to "the first dawn of justice", particularly (according to her Trier letter) this leading Prince whom she refers to, rather obliquely, as "the Warrior" or "Man of War" and who is effectively her version of the Great Monarch. This "Warrior" (since I've brought him up) is not referred to in the LDO (that'll be my shorthand from now on when discussing her Liber Divinorum Operum "Book of Divine Works"), where she speaks only of "Princes" in the plural sense, he obviously being the foremost amongst them; while amongst the "Bishops" of the world that she mentions, the Pope - the Bishop of Rome - would presumably be the foremost as well. So she refers explicitly to the GM, if obliquely in certain texts, but only implicitly to the Holy Pontiff of other prophecies. In her lifetime, she developed a great distrust for, and lack of faith in, those wielding worldly authority, whether secular or ecclesiastical in nature, which is why she is parsimonious with her references to any great imperial and papal figure (prevalent tropes in many other medieval prophecies), respectively - preferring to speak in the plural of a company of the world's "princes" and "bishops".
Vouthon, I hope to bring the Saint Hildegard discussion back over to this thread and not cloud up your other thread pertaining to WWIII too much. The above was not the prophecy or statement that I was thinking of but thank you again. I may never find it but that's ok. I have a question related to the following from the prophecy though, "Those who disobey this command will be killed with their own weapons..." . Isn't this in opposition to what our beliefs are about the death penalty? Thank you once again.
It is but you'll note that she added: "or exiled to some remote region". This, I think, is the more probable. Anyone who tries to subvert or disturb the peace will be cast away to somewhere remote. I think that the essence of this part of the prophecy is simply to emphasise how much this society will have turned against weapons of war, such that it is seen as the greatest crime to be caught possessing a weapon of any kind that's not intended for some non-violent purpose which can "benefit humanity", such as agriculture.
See the full statement again: The princes and everyone else will put God's decrees into proper practice. They will forbid all weapons used to kill people and only tolerate such iron tools as are needed in farming and for the benefit of humanity. Those who disobey this command will be killed with their own weapons or cast away in some remote place
Vouthon, In your opinion during the period of the Yellow Lion, will there still be the need for police and military? If so, that possibly could explain the statement above also. It seems that it would be a rare occasion but possibly still necessary, in self defense, etc. I still consider myself a new student in the study of all of these things but I think the era of peace must still have some flaws because the only time we will have complete peace is after the Eschaton. I think this is church teaching and that is what I am forgetting in regards to the era of peace. Please correct me, if I am wrong. TY.
That's a great question Carol. I imagine that militaries or standing armies may become defunct for the duration of the peace, although police officers armed with minimally harmful devices like stun-guns that do not kill would still exist, since men remain with the propensity to sin and violent crimes will still be committed as they are today. But weapons that can or are designed to kill will be internationally outlawed without exception, according to St. Hildegard. Peace on earth will "never be attained once and for all". If someone claims this, then I agree - its heretical. The struggle against sin and human foibles will never cease before the end of time. For as long as their is history, it will be a history of continual striving against evil, the definitive completion of which will be in the next world, not in this one. The peace also ends with a resurgence in heresy and conflict again, in the Age of the Pale Horse according to St. Hildegard. Consider this from the Vatican II constitution Gaudium et Spes: http://www.vatican.va/archive/hist_.../vat-ii_cons_19651207_gaudium-et-spes_en.html "...Peace results from that order structured into human society by its divine Founder, and actualized by men as they thirst after ever greater justice. The common good of humanity finds its ultimate meaning in the eternal law. But since the concrete demands of this common good are constantly changing as time goes on, peace is never attained once and for all, but must be built up ceaselessly. Moreover, since the human will is unsteady and wounded by sin, the achievement of peace requires a constant mastering of passions and the vigilance of lawful authority..." But one is wrong to think that this means human civilization cannot "improve" and become more aligned to the will of the Almighty. That has always been in our power to do. That's not a radical break in history, its a potential we have always had as a collective if we simply embrace the Kingship of Christ. We can never improve "definitively" but we can improve in relation to what has come before. Millenarianism posits an end to the "struggle," as such it posits an end to history within history - which is a nonsense. History can only end beyond history in the Eschaton. But the Church proclaims a different possibility. The text from Vatican II continues: "...That earthly peace which arises from love of neighbor symbolizes and results from the peace of Christ which radiates from God the Father... Insofar as men are sinful, the threat of war hangs over them, and hang over them it will until the return of Christ. But insofar as men vanquish sin by a union of love, they will vanquish violence as well and make these words come true: "They shall turn their swords into plough-shares, and their spears into sickles. Nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more" (Isaiah 2:4)... It is our clear duty, therefore, to strain every muscle in working for the time when all war can be completely outlawed by international consent. This goal undoubtedly requires the establishment of some universal public authority acknowledged as such by all and endowed with the power to safeguard on the behalf of all, security, regard for justice, and respect for rights. But before this hoped for authority can be set up..."
Vouthon, When you get a chance I was wondering if you could verify that I have put the proper events in the correct age and the general description for each age is appropriate in your opinion. I kept basically the same outline that you have in your post with some minor changes I believe. Thank you. SAINT HILDEGARD's FIVE AGES OF THE ENDTIMES 1. FIERY HOUND (From a weakness of Faith to a minor apostasy) Justice, moral integrity, and the dignity of the virtues grew stronger through the prophets from the days of the flood until the Lord’s coming, and then they gleamed for a long time in the Church through the apostles and teachers—but though now they are corrupted, after these days that languish in injustice, they will again be reformed among people before the end and after many tribulations. 2. YELLOW LION (From a minor apostasy to Renewal of Faith/Peace/Abundance - including a minor chastisement (purgation) and a large conversion of Jews*) For when the heavenly Judge once receives Justice’s complaint, he will bring his vengeance upon the transgressors of equity, and in particular upon the wicked leaders of the Church through many disastrous judgments, until, purged by penitence in the trial they have earned, they recover their senses; and thus each rank will be restored to uprightness and returned to the honor of its dignity. When the ordinance of justice and peace has been settled by God’s vengeance and the correction of transgressors, tranquility will gleam before the Lord’s second coming just as it had before his first, and some part even of the Jews will be converted and will rejoice and confess that he has come whom now they deny. The words of the prophet Isaiah attesting to the Lord’s first coming (Is 4:2),[17] which will be most especially fulfilled in his second coming with the illumination of the Jews, who, blinded by the stumbling block of Christ, with his suffering withered away from the virility of the faith and good works. Because of the restoration of Justice, the various ranks of the Church will enjoy for a brief time in the next-to-last days both a great plenty of temporal things and a great abundance of spiritual goods, while that portion of the Jews and heretics who persist in evil will exult with pernicious presumption at the Antichrist’s impending arrival. *world unity in truth 3. PALE HORSE (From Renewal of Faith/ Peace/Abundance to the Great Apostasy - including a time of miracles and a large conversion of heathens/pagans) But because people attribute this quiet peacetime and fruitful abundance to themselves and not to God and meet once more with lethargy when it comes to religion, so many tribulations will again follow as have never before seethed within the world. For in that time, when the Christian people has been driven to repentance and exhausted by many afflictions for their sins, divine grace will come to their aid through many miracles, just as it once did for God’s people of old; and after their enemies are subdued, it will join a great multitude of the pagans to their faith. In those days, as the Roman Emperors fall away from their pristine strength, the imperial power in their hands will over a short time diminish and fail, and even the mitre of the apostolic office will be divided, and different masters or archbishops will replace the others in various places. Again, in that time, after wickedness has been put down and justice revived, honorable discipline and the laws of ancient customs will spring forth anew and be observed, and there will be many prophets and the hidden things of the Scriptures will lie open to the wise—nevertheless, everywhere heresies will bubble up to declare that the Antichrist’s coming is near. 4. BLACK PIG (From Great Apostasy to the time of The Antichrist including a falling away from the Faith) On the kind of judgments of the divine power that are to be manifested near the end of the world, especially because then a very great portion of humanity will abandon the integrity of the catholic faith and be converted to the son of perdition. 5. GREY WOLF (The Time of The Antichrist including a persecution of the faithful) Then the Last Things - Eschaton including the Second Coming, the Death of The Antichrist & his followers and the Last Judgement. This information has been taken from an outline of new book by Nathaniel Campbell which will be available this summer. More information can be found on the following link, http://www.hildegard-society.org/p/liber-divinorum-operum.html#n17
The following is from Matthew Fox's book, "Hildegard of Bingen's Book of Divine Works with Letters and Songs". This is the description of the age of the Fiery Dog/Hound from this book. Some people believe that we are in this age now and we are about to move into the next age, the Yellow Lion, soon: Vision 10:15 [The age of injustice was described in the book of Scivias under the sign of the fiery dog. Men and women will have to suffer as if they were among the hungry wolves, where there should be physicians, none will be found. And yet justice will triumph.] Vision 10:16 After justice brought its complaint before the highest judge, God received its accusation. According to the divine decree, God will allow punishment to strike all who have exceeded what is right, just as punishment will strike the tyranny of those who are God's foes. And people will say to each other, “How long must we suffer and endure these predatory wolves? They should be physicians but are not.” But because they have the power to bind and to loose, they bind us as if we were the most savage of wolves. Their wantonness attacks us, and the whole Church is diminished as a result. For they no longer announce what is just, and they undermine the Law just as wolves devour sheep. They are voracious in their carousing and often commit adultery. And because of their sins, they condemn us without mercy. They are thieves attacking Church property, and in their voracity they eat up whatever they can. Thanks to their high office, they impoverish us and leave us destitute, besmirching themselves and us. On this account we should like to judge them in a proper way and isolate them because they are seducers rather than teachers. We must take this action so as not to be destroyed. For if they were to stay as they are, they would subdue the whole society and reduce it to confusion. But now we must tell them that they should wear their spiritual robes in awe of God and take their positions seriously, just as the early Fathers did. Otherwise, they should depart from us and leave us all their possessions. Shaken by the divine judgment, we should face them with this statement and similar statements. We should fall upon them and cry out, “We do not want such people to rule over us with their estates and their farms and their other affairs over which we have been established as princes.” How can it be suitable for those who wear the tonsure as well as stoles and cassocks to have more soldiers than we do? Is it fitting that a clergyman should be a soldier, and that a soldier should be a clergyman? For this reason we wish to deprive them of what they do not possess properly but improperly. Still we wish to look respectfully on whatever has been offered for the souls of the dead and to leave such offerings with the clergy because there is no connection between these offerings and robbery. The almighty Father has divided up everything properly: heaven for heavenly concerns, Earth for earthly concerns. Thus everything should be properly divided among human beings: Churchmen should have their proper share and the laity should have what is right for it. Neither group should oppress the other by robbery. In no way has God ordered that a cloak and a mantle should be given to one son while another goes naked. Instead, God gives to the first son a mantle and to the other a cloak. Lay people should wear a mantle because of the significance of their worldly concerns and because of the rapid increase in the number of their children. The cloak, however, was lent to churchmen so that they might not suffer a lack of food and clothing but not possess more than is needed. [Thus order in the world and order in the Church should be separate, and each order should take care of its own interests.] All of this should be undertaken—both by churchmen and members of the laity—in the first hour of the day and be brought into full swing in the third hour of the day. It should be totally and utterly concluded in the sixth hour so that all classes of society can consider what they do after the sixth hour and take control of it in a different way than is now the case. Each social class should have its own integrity: Freemen should glory in their freedom and serfs should respect the obligations of their servitude. I honestly find it difficult to figure out the exact meaning of what Saint Hildegard is stating above and I would love to hear your thoughts if you are interested in Saint Hildegard and/or the end times. Saint Hildegard of Bingen was beatified in 1326 by Pope John XXII and canonized by Pope Benedict in 2012 and on October 7, 2012 he named her a Doctor of the Church along with Saint John of Avila. This is a short quote from Pope Benedict in relation to both of these Doctors of the Church, "Especially in light of the project for a new evangelization, to which the Assembly of the Synod of Bishops, mentioned above will be dedicated on the eve of the Year of Faith, these two Saints and Doctors are of considerable and timely importance. Even today, through their teaching, the Spirit of the Risen Lord continues to resonate his voice and illuminate the way which leads to the Truth that alone can set us free and give full meaning to our lives." http://w2.vatican.va/content/benedi...ments/hf_ben-xvi_reg_20120527_pentecoste.html
Here are two more visions, these are from the age of Yellow Lion and one of them appears to speak of an illumination, possibly the Illumination of Conscience: Vision 10:17 [In the meantime occurs the Age of the Lion, which has been described in Scivias: terrible and cruel wars that cause the death of countless men and women and raze many cities to the ground.] Just as a man conquers by his strength the weakness of a woman and a lion overawes other wild beasts, the cruelty of certain individuals will destroy the peace of others in these days, according to God's decree. Then God will permit dreadful punishments for enemies as a purification of their sins, just as the Divinity has constantly done since the beginning of the world. When human beings are purged by these challenges, they will be disgusted at their quarrelsomeness. Out of the awe for God they will seek justice in all Church institutions that are pleasing to God, and will do much good. They will do this in the days of freedom as well as in the days of war and in every kind of difficulty. And then justice will be properly called a bride....[God, the true “Soloman,” will adorn the bride and let this adornment shine openly in the Church.] Then so many new and unknown arrangements with respect to order and peace will occur that people will be amazed and talk about them. For such things have not in the past been heard of or known. And since peace is given to them before the Day of Judgment just as a period of peace came quickly before the coming of the Son of God, they will not be able to rejoice fully because of their fear of the judgment that is to come. Instead, they will petition almighty God to grant the fullness of justice in the Catholic faith. Jews too, will rejoice and say that he whose coming they have denied is already here. That period of peace that preceded the coming of the incarnate Son of God will be totally and utterly realized in those days. Then brave men full of the gift of prophecy will arise so that in this time every seed of justice will come to flower among the sons and daughters of the human species, just as was announced by my servant the prophet, in accord with my will: “That day, the branch of Yahweh shall be beauty and glory, and the fruit of the earth shall be the price and adornment of Israel's survivors” (Isaiah 4:2). This should be understood and interpreted according to the following statement: Vision 10:18 On that day when the angels sang, “peace to men of good will,” the One given to them was my Son, who was born of the Virgin. He was glorified by the angels and praised by the shepherds who sought him out in awe. And the fruits of the Earth—the Earth to which peace was restored and which the air served in gentleness—were most generous, and joy ruled among the sons of Jacob who, although previously most downcast by countless difficulties, were now free from all their past oppression. When the light of true faith illuminates the hearts of believers, my Son will be glorified by them: For they will believe that he has arisen from me, and they will acknowledge in hymns of praise that he has returned to me in splendor. And thus the fruits of good works will spring up among them and their bliss will increase. Snatched away from the power of the Devil and free of the punishments of hell, they will be numbered among the children of God....[The Old Testament and its offspring will wither away like the winter which has hidden within it all the green freshness of life when the New Testament, which is like the summer, causes every kind of seed and bud to reach maturity.] Merry Christmas to all!
