During this season of Lent, do we fast? Do we do specific mortifications? Do you know?

Looking back, we can draw examples of mortification practices from Jutta and Hildegard; each one had a completely different approach, Hildegard’s being more moderate.

The Catechism’s definition of Lent

First, I’ll let the Catechism of the Catholic Church define it:

540 “Jesus’ temptation reveals the way in which the Son of God is Messiah, contrary to the way Satan proposes to him and the way men wish to attribute to him. This is why Christ vanquished the Tempter for us: ‘For we have not a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tested as we are, yet without sinning.’ By the solemn forty days of Lent the Church unites herself each year to the mystery of Jesus in the desert.“

A current take on Lent

A voice from today’s church is Fr. Carlos Martins, as he writes, “Why Mortification Is Part of Lent: Lent is the perfect time to reflect on “mortification”—a word whose Latin roots mean “to bring about death”. 

Fr. Martins states, “One of the most basic and traditional forms of observing Lent is fasting: mandatory for all Catholics (except for those exempted by age or illness) on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday and encouraged throughout the season.” He goes on to write that it’s an ancient Christian practice but also part of all major religions. Even the ancient philosophers, like Plato, fasted. That practicing penance “reminds us of our own mortality”, and “makes us feel our lack of self-sufficiency and our dependence on God.” That “it is a prayer made with both the body and mind.” And that when Lent is over, we can celebrate Easter and “consume the good things we have gone without.”

Jutta vs. Hildegard on mortifications

Janina Ramirez in Femina: A New History of the Middle Ages, Through the Women Written Out of It, writes about the early relationship between Jutta and Hildegard. Hildegard was “given as a tithe to the church by her noble parents while she was very young”. She was placed under the supervision of Jutta of Sponheim, who was only five years older than her, and “whom she’d share a single room for 24 years.”

Jutta was also from a noble family. She was the daughter of a count. Growing up in a castle didn’t entice her to marry another noble, though. Instead, she was firmly resolved to become a nun. She is described as “extremely pious and ascetic, practicing frequent fasting and self-flagellation, praying barefoot for hours in extreme weather, wearing chains and horsehair shirts, and refusing all meat.” After years of these harsh practices, Jutta died at age 44.

Hildegard had witnessed Jutta’s years of severe mortifications and was “horrified” by them. When Jutta passed away, and Hildegard was chosen as the successor abbess in 1136, Hildegard discouraged extreme self-punishment.

Yet, Jutta did have “prophetic powers” as written in Voice of the Living Light by Barbara Newman. Jutta was known as a healer, and she “made St. Disibod into a mecca for pilgrims…”

In that sense, Hildegard found a great example in Jutta. “She also saw firsthand what an unusually gifted and energetic nun might make of her vocation.”

Newman compares the two this way, “A savage ascetic, Jutta died at forty-four, worn out by her austerities, while Hildegard, though of fragile health, prized the classic Benedictine virtue of moderation and lived to be eighty-one.”

Hildegard had her own prophetic powers via visions starting from a young age. It could be that those beautiful, colorful visions that Hildegard experienced made her approach so different from Jutta’s.

From Hildegard von Bingen’s Mystical Visions, translated by Bruce Hozeski. Vision Five: 13.

“In the area where the woman shone with the color that was similar to the purple hyacinth, there was fire that was restraining the woman. This shows the perfection of those who imitate the word in their burning love…No law forces people to seek the narrow way, but the people breathe in my sweet scent according to their own will and not by the force of any law…”

But back to Jutta. Fiona Maddock further describes Jutta in Hildegard of Bingen: The Woman of Her Age, “She gave herself up as a living sacrifice in vigils, prayers and continual fasting. In practice this entails depriving herself of sleep…Jutta dressed in a rough, lowly attire and was content to eat only the leftovers at table.

Saint Benedict’s Rule, on the other hand, “preached dietary moderation”. There were specific instructions for days of fasting.

“Abstinence was both a penance and a sign of devotion, often practiced collectively within the community. Dry eating—that is, only bread, salt, water, a limited intake of fruit and vegetables—was common.”

Jutta’s mortifications were not considered as being moderate and so she was often reprimanded by her monks. Her elders would insist that she abstain from such “extreme behavior”.

Hildegard, in contrast, had a healthier approach. As abbess, she followed Benedict’s Rule, and “she frequently warns against excess in any guise, either partaking of food or its denial…”

Hildegard’s advice for all of us

In The Letters of Hildegard of Bingen Volume II, translated by Joseph L. Baird and Radd K. Ehrman.

94r. Hildegard gives advice to another Abbess.

This is good advice for all of us.

“…But see to it that you show proper concern for your little garden, being careful not to overwork it, lest the viridity of the herbs and aromatic virtues fail, so that they become incapable of bearing seed because they have been worn down by the plow of your toil….Therefore, beware lest you heed the commands to wound the body too frequently.”

And so Lent doesn’t need to be seen as a time of total deprivation and self-flagellation. Jutta had her own calling; who can say as a prophet what her reasoning was, as it differed so much from St. Benedict’s Rule and that of Hildegard.

Many of us still need direction on what to do and not do during this Lenten season and other times when penance is needed. Let’s take the advice from Hildegard and do any penances and mortifications with moderation.

More spiritual direction on Lent

For more spiritual direction on Lent, here is a video by Fr. Javier Olivera Ravasi, SE of Star of the Sea Parish, on Mortifications for 21st-Century Christians. (Examples for Seeking Holiness) Sermon for the First Sunday of Lent.