Replanting Eden: Viriditas

 For many years I’ve been reading and familiarizing myself with the church fathers — ancient and influential Christian theologians and writers who established the intellectual and doctrinal foundations of Christianity during its first thousand or so years. Their wisdom, commitment, and insight have proven to be as valuable and exciting as buried treasure. Though they didn't "write" scripture, their writings detail all the ways they "lived" scripture, and I can use all the help I can get. The last couple of years I’ve been trying to fill an intellectual and theological blindspot that has obscured the ‘church mothers’ if you will. History, both church and secular, tends to gloss over, if not outright ignore, the contributions great women of faith have made to theology. In my quest to better understand the historic women of Christianity, I encountered a woman who has become a sort of patron saint, correction, matron saint, of our little garden — Hildegard of Bingen.

First a bit of history, then a bit of theology, then a little contemporary context.

History: Hildegard of Bingen was a German Benedictine abbess and polymath active as a writer, composer, philosopher, mystic, visionary, and as a medical writer and practitioner during the High Middle Ages (11th and 12th century). She is one of the best-known composers of sacred monophony, as well as the most recorded in modern history. She has been considered by a number of scholars to be the founder of scientific natural history in Germany. She wrote theological, botanical, and medicinal works, as well as letters, hymns, and antiphons for the liturgy. There are more surviving chants by Hildegard than by any other composer from the entire Middle Ages, and she is one of the few known composers to have written both the music and the words. It has been said had Hildegard been a man she would have been recognized as a Thomas Aquinas of her own times, and everyone would know her name.

Theology: Hildegard of Bingen's theology is characterized by her mystical visions, emphasis on viriditas (the greening or flourishing power of creation), and her belief in the sacred significance of the material world. She saw the cosmos as an ordered, harmonious whole, with the human body as a microcosm of that cosmos. 

Contemporary Context: I ascribe my quite accidental discovery of Hildegard at this moment in life to the providence of God. While listening to Richard Rohr’s “The Divine Dance”, his description of Hildegard and her theology of viriditas grabbed me by the heart. Honey and I love to joke about the weird, nerdy theology stuff I’m interested in, but when I learned of this blessed lady who was renowned as a gardener and natural healer, I knew I had found one that she would find fascinating. 

 

Viriditas as a concept, often translated as "greenness" or "flourishing," represents the inherent power of creation to heal and restore. Hildegard saw viriditas as a manifestation of God's life in the world, encompassing both physical and spiritual realms. She believed that the material world was infused with sacred meaning and sacramental significance. Viriditas is more than just the color green; it's the life force, the divine energy that sustains and transforms all things, from the smallest seed to the vastest universe. Viriditas is the inherent potential for growth, healing, and wholeness, and it calls humans to become co-creators with God in nurturing and protecting the interconnected web of life. It is associated with the natural driving force toward healing and wholeness, both physically and spiritually. Viriditas was meant to reflect nature’s divine healing power, a constant force, but also a momentary condition in which God heals through the greening power of a living plant. When one consumes a healing plant, this divine power is transferred from the plant to the humans and it becomes a moment of viriditas. This experience is meant to be a daily occurrence as you eat.

It's the vital power that sustains all life's greenness and encourages us to become our best selves. Hildegard saw humans as co-creators with God, responsible for nurturing and protecting the natural world and integrating the rational and intuitive aspects of our being. Viriditas connects us to this cosmic responsibility and encourages us to actively participate in the unfolding of creation. It emphasizes that we are part of a larger, vital system, and our actions have ripple effects on the entire ecosystem. 

The origin of Viriditas may be the union of two Latin words: Green and Truth. But like most Latin words, Viriditas does not easily translate into convenient, straightforward English. The definition is both literal, as in “green”, “greenness”, and “growth”, yet also metaphorical, as in “vigor”, “verdure”, “freshness”, “fruitfulness”, and “vitality.” This “greenness” was an expression of heaven, the creative power of life, which can be witnessed in the gardens, forests, and farmland all around us. And like those lands, she saw viriditas as something to be cultivated in both our bodies and our souls. 

Dear reader, if there was a way to summarize what this garden is all about, that is it: something to be cultivated in our bodies and our souls and our soils.