About Me

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I am a medievalist and an adjunct college instructor in the humanities at Union College. My research includes medieval theologies of history, text/image relationships in visionary and mystical texts, and the writings of the twelfth-century Doctor of the Church, St. Hildegard of Bingen. I am also a translator of medieval Latin and German texts, especially as relate to my research. My translation of Hildegard's Book of Divine Works is available from Catholic University of America Press here. I completed a Master's in Medieval Studies at the University of Notre Dame in 2010, a Fulbright Fellowship in Germany in 2008, and a B.A. in Classics and German at Boston College in 2007.

Sunday, March 31, 2013

O vis eternitatis (Symphonia 1)

For Easter, a Responsory for the Creator by St. Hildegard of Bingen[1]

Scivias II.1: Creation,
Fall, & Redemption.
Rupertsberg MS, fol. 41v.
V. O vis eternitatis
que omnia ordinasti in
     corde tuo,
per Verbum tuum omnia
     creata sunt
sicut voluisti,
et ipsum Verbum tuum
induit carnem
in formatione illa
que educta est de Adam.

R. Et sic indumenta ipsius      
a maximo dolore
abstersa sunt.
V. O strength within Eternity:
All things you held in order
     in your heart,
and through your Word were
     all created
according to your will.
And then your very Word
was clothed within
that form of flesh
from Adam born.

R. And so his garments
were washed and cleansed
from greatest suffering.

Friday, March 29, 2013

O cruor sanguinis (Symphonia 5)

A Good Friday Antiphon by St. Hildegard of Bingen[1]

Scivias II.6: Christ's
Sacrifice and the Church.
Rupertsberg MS, fol. 86r.
O cruor sanguinis
qui in alto sonuisti,
cum omnia elementa
se implicuerunt
in lamentabilem vocem
cum tremore,
quia sanguis Creatoris sui   
illa tetigit,
ungue nos
de languoribus nostris.
O streaming blood,
to heaven’s height you cried,
when every element
enwrapped itself within
a voice of woe
with trembling misery,
for their Creator’s blood
had covered them:
Anoint us
and heal our feebleness.