Hildegard's Viriditas — Greening Power

Viriditas — the greening power — is Hildegard of Bingen's central theological concept, articulated throughout the Liber Divinorum Operum and Scivias: a divine vitality that permeates all creation as moisture permeates a living plant. It is not metaphorical greenness but the actual vis vitalis through which the Holy Spirit sustains, heals, and fructifies every living thing. When a soul, a body, or an institution loses viriditas through sin or neglect, it becomes arida (dry, brittle) — Hildegard's diagnosis for both individual acedia and institutional corruption. Viriditas must be actively cultivated through virtus (virtue), music, and the sacramental life; it is gift, but a gift that demands cooperation.