{"id":1566,"date":"2022-12-14T14:56:21","date_gmt":"2022-12-14T20:56:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/performinghistory\/?p=1566"},"modified":"2022-12-14T14:56:21","modified_gmt":"2022-12-14T20:56:21","slug":"behind-the-scivias-ordo-virtutum-and-symphonia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/performinghistory\/2022\/12\/14\/behind-the-scivias-ordo-virtutum-and-symphonia\/","title":{"rendered":"Behind The Scivias, Ordo Virtutum, and Symphonia"},"content":{"rendered":"

Date: 1153<\/span><\/p>\n

The Scivias<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

A little over 10 years ago I received a calling to share my visions. The <\/span>Scivias <\/span><\/i>is my documentation of such visions and declaration that these visions are true from God. It took 10 years to write with the help of Volmar, my former teacher and now secretary, and my favorite nun, Richardis von Stade.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 Man’s Fall<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I\u2019ve had quite a few visions about Adam and Eve, but one that I go into deeply in the second vision of my first book which looks at the two in regards to the creation and the fall. First Lucifer fell and soon after so did Adam because of Eve\u2019s temptations. Eve, innocent for she was made from the innocent Adam\u2019s ribs, was easily seduced, as all women are. Women are more susceptible as men are stronger, yet fall weak for those that they love; Adam would do whatever she said to him. 1<\/sup><\/a> <\/span>This vision shows us how woman can very quickly overthrow man.<\/span><\/p>\n

I chose to remain a virgin when I was a teenager, but this vision further solidified my beliefs on the matter. Virginity is a most noble act and will earn you glory in the celestial kingdom. Virginity equates the carnal body with glory for it remains unpolluted. 2<\/sup><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

The Ordo Virtutum<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

I composed my <\/span>Ordo Virtutum, <\/span><\/i>a morality play, soon after finishing <\/span>The Scivias<\/span><\/i>. My visions actually inspired me to write <\/span>The Ordo Virtutum, <\/span><\/i>as a shortened version of my play is included at the end of <\/span>The Scivias<\/span><\/i>. When writing the play I decided not to present any biblical event, saint\u2019s life, or miracle, instead I illustrated the allegorical struggle between the virtues and the Devil.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The play begins by introducing the Virtues, all personified as women, to the Patriarchs and Prophets. The imprisoned souls then beg the Virtues for divine insight, but one soul is tempted by the Devil. As the Virtues define themselves, the Devil opposes those views of the virtues. The soul that was tempted by the Devil eventually returns weakened and stained by her experience and she repents. The Virtues, led by Humility, the Queen of the Virtues, capture and bind the devil as they praise God the Father.3<\/sup><\/a> <\/span>The play ends by invoking Christ to ask God to accept his suffering as the cure for the ills of a wounded world.4<\/sup><\/a>\u00a0<\/span>I chose to have the female Virtues restore the fallen soul rather than the male Prophets and Patriarchs to empower my sisters.5<\/sup><\/a>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

All major characters of the play, except for the devil, are portrayed by women. And I chose to only give the Devil hoarse croaks of false praise as he shouts his oaths and temptations rather than grant him any music, for music is the imitation of divine harmony and the Devil cannot have it. For the virtues, I chose to give Virtue Castitas the longest speech in praise of virginity. The triumph over the Devil with the trampling of the serpent in <\/span>Genesis<\/span><\/i> equals the virgin birth of Christ. As the virtues defeat the Devil in the play, virginity prevails as it always will.6<\/sup><\/a>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

On the topic of virginity, I\u2019ve received backlash on letting my nuns don white veils adorned with gold crowns, but I respond simply by stating the radiant-white robe represents the paradise humans had and lost in the Garden of Eden. Through chastity, my nuns show the innocence of Eden and when they are in heaven standing at the Last Judgment their white veils show their primordial state of blessedness and are of the original <\/span>feminae forma<\/span><\/i>.7<\/sup><\/a> <\/span>My <\/span>Ordo Virtutum <\/span><\/i>celebrates the triumph of the human soul that gets tempted by evil through salvation not from man, but from the virginal soul in the female body.8<\/sup><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n