columba aspexit
This is Hildegard at her most poetic in an ode to Saint Maximinus, Bishop of Trier, whose feast day is coming up on May 29th. I’m really looking forward to revisiting it 🙂
The dove looked in through the lattices of the windows, where, before it, a balm exuded from the incandescent Maximinus. The heat of the sun burned, dazzling in the gloom, whence a jewel sprang forth in the building of the temple of the purest loving heart. This high tower, constructed of Lebanese wood and cypress, has been adorned with jacinth and diamonds, a city excelling the crafts of other builders. The swift deer ran to the fountain of clearest water flowing from the most powerful stone, irrigating sweet perfume. O you, who deal in paints and unguents, in the sweetest greenness of the gardens of the King, ascending on high when the holy sacrifice of the rams is complete. This artist shines among you, the wall of the temple, who longed for the wings of an eagle, kissing the wisdom that nourished him in the glorious fecundity of the Church.
O Maximinus, you are the mountain and the valley and in both a high building appears where the goat went with the elephant and wisdom was in rapture. You are strong and beautiful in ceremony, and in the shining of the altar, mounting like the smoke of perfumes to the column of praise. Where you intercede for the people who stretch towards the mirror of light to whom there is praise on high.
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