Hildegard von Bingen was a German abbess, writer, mystic, healer, scientist, and saint. She was born in 1098. Her feast day is celebrated on September 17.
Hildegard composed over 77 songs and wrote what is thought to be the first surviving morality play. She wrote books on botany, medicine, natural history, and science. She also recorded prophecies and visions. She wrote many letters, offering advice to clergy and others. This made her a kind of medieval advice columnist.
She also founded two monasteries and traveled widely, preaching and criticizing corruption in the church. Her work often praised nature's beauty. Many of her works were inspired by mystical visions she had since childhood. She was formally recognized as a Doctor of the Church by Pope Benedict XVI in 2012.
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Start Your News DetoxHildegard had endless curiosity and creativity. One of her many creations was an entirely new language. She called it the Lingua Ignota.
Hildegard von Bingen's Secret Language
The Lingua Ignota has 1,011 unique words that Hildegard invented. These words are found in several collections of her work, including the Risen Codex. This codex is a collection of her theological writings compiled late in her life. The list starts with words for God and angels, then describes many types of living things.
In her secret language, God was Aigonz, and the devil was Diuueliz. Many words seem to borrow from Latin and German. She used her "Unknown Language" in only one known work: the song "O Orzchis Ecclesia." This song mixes Latin words with her own creations. Orzchis was her word for "immense."
The song's final line is "O, o, tu es etiam crizanta in alto sono et es chorzta gemma." This means "O, o, you are anointed too in soaring song, you are a sparkling gem." Crizanta was Hildegard’s word for anointed, and Chortza meant sparkling.
Hildegard also created her own alphabet, called the Litterae Ignotae. It has 23 symbols. These "Unknown Letters" look partly like Hebrew, Greek, and Aramaic characters, but they are entirely original. She used these letters only a few times in her letters.
Why Hildegard Created Her Own Language
No one knows exactly why Hildegard created her secret language and letters. We do know they came to her in mystical visions, like many of her other works.
Some suggest Hildegard wanted to create a new language to communicate privately with her nuns. Others say she intended to keep her criticisms of the medieval church a secret.
However, she did not hesitate to criticize Pope Anastasius IV in a language he understood. In 1153 or 1154, she wrote him a letter condemning his acceptance of corruption.
In that same letter, Hildegard briefly mentioned seeing a miracle that led her to create her "Unknown Letters" and "Unknown Language." In the preface to her work Liber vitae meritorum, she also said the language and letters appeared to her in a vision.
She never fully explained her reasons. Some believe she might have wanted to create a universal language. Or, perhaps, a language that could better describe the holiness she saw in everything, beyond the limits of ordinary speech.
Others claim Hildegard created her language to talk directly with angels. Some even think it was the language Adam spoke in the Garden of Eden. Regardless, the Lingua Ignota is the earliest documented invented language in history.
