A letter from Elisabeth of Schoenau ()

Translated letter:

I ask you, my beloved, to receive my words with thanks.1 I utter them as given by God without human effort. On the Friday before Palm Sunday, two people from Bonn came and greeted me from you.(1) My brother, who was with them, reminded me that you had always desired to have some advice and consolation from me. Immediately, on the next night after Matins, while I was tormented with a very severe fever and was lying down, burning hot and covered with sweat, suddenly God placed these words in my mouth. I turned them over in my head till morning and then I could not rest until they were written down. When I had shown these to my brother, he said, “You must explain to us what this is that you have said about there being cinnamon and balsam in that celestial homeland.” I promised to ask my visitor about this because I had not uttered the aforementioned words from my own understanding. So after this, on Easter vigil, when he appeared to me and I asked him about this, he looked cheerfully at me and said, “Cinnamon naturally has a pleasing sweetness which delights the taste. At the same time, it also has a sharp strength which inflames the palate of the one who tastes it and which becomes more piquant and aromatic the more one chews it. Such is the Lord our God to us who always wait to see His desirable face. To us He is sweet beyond all things which can be tasted; nothing among other desirable things can be compared to His sweetness. It touches us with ineffable strength and penetrates us most intimately. It ignites and continually enflames us to love Him. And the more we feast on the taste of His sweetness, the more piquant and appetizing He is for us and the course of our desire for Him will have no end. He is also the balsam of His chosen ones because He soothes their pains and offers them eternal health in His kingdom. They drink it constantly, quaffing it and being totally refreshed by it so that they forget all the evils which they bore in this life. It also makes them incorruptible so that they no longer hunger or thirst, nor suffer any harm from heat or cold or disease or any other injury, nor are they permanently dissolved by the wound of death. Its aroma has such abundant sweetness that if all things under heaven which have a sweet redolence were piled up, they could not exude a sweetness comparable to it. Its aroma is the sweetest delight which proceeds from Him not only to those who are now present to the face of His majesty, but also to those who still wander in this world and love His glory and pant after the homeland of seeing Him.” When he had said these things, he gently consoled me about my illness and promised me a great grace. I had been weeping much, since I would not be able to be present for the Easter joys due to the obstinacy of the fever which had been intolerably tormenting me for many days and which had changed from quartan to tertian. But the angel was mindful of his kindness to me and he returned to me on the octave of Easter. He led me in spirit to a very pleasant place and he stood me near a most beautiful fountain. He drew from that fountain with what looked like a golden vessel and gave me to drink. When I had drunk, he made a sign of the cross above me and blessed me and said, “You are released from your illness; it will no longer touch you.” When I was awakened from my ecstasy, I immediately felt relieved and began to walk with a firm step which I had not been doing for a long time, nor has that illness ever returned. Blessed be God in all the mercies which He has shown to me. I have taken care to announce all these things to you, most beloved, because of my great love for you. May you receive some consolation from them and be strengthened in the Lord. (2)

Original letter:

Dilecta mea accipe, queso, cum gratiarum actione verba mea, que ex dono dei sine humana industria prolata sunt a me. Nam cum venirent ad me duo homines adire Bunna sexta feria ante diem Palmarum, ac me salutassent ex parte tua, reduxit mihi in memoriam frater meus, que cum illis aderat, quomodo semper desiderasti habere a me aliquam ammonitionem et consolationem. Continuo itaque proxima nocte post matutinas cum vexata fuissem graviter durissimis febribus, et iacerem in sudore meo estuans, subito posuit deus verba hec simul in ore meo, et volvebam ea apud me usque mane, et non poteram habere ullam requiem, donec conscripta sunt. Cunque demonstrassem hec fratri meo, dixit: Exponere nobis debes, quid sit, quod dixisti, esse cinamomum et balsamum in patria illa celesti. Et spopondi interrogaturam me visitatorem meum de his, quia non ex meo sensu protuleram verba, que predicta sunt. Cum ergo post hec in vigilia Pasce apparuisset mihi, eumque de hoc interrogassem, hilariter me intuitus est, ac si gratam haberet interogationem meam, et dixit mihi: Cinamomum ex natura habet gratam dulcedinem, qua gustum delectat, simulque habet acutam fortitudinem, qua accendit palatum gustantis, et quo magis masticatur tantomagis sapidum et odoriferum est. Talis est dominus deus noster nobis, qui stamus semper ad videndum desiderabilem faciem eius. Dulcis est nobis super omnia, que gustari possunt et non potest in cunctis desiderabilibus comparare quicquam dulcedini eius, que nos tangit ineffabili fortitudine, ac penetrat intima nostra nosque accendit et iugiter inflammat ad se amandum, et quo amplius epulamur gustu suavi tatis eius, tanto nobis sapidior et appetibilior est, et non habet aliquam metam cursus desiderii nostri in ipso. Ipse est et balsamum electorum suorum, quia lenit dolores eorum, et sanitatem eternam eis prestat in regno suo. Ipsum incessabiliter bibunt et trahunt in se et reficiuntur copiose ex ipso, ut veniant eis in oblivionem mala omnia, qua in hac vita pertulerunt et incorruptibiles eos facit, ut ultra nec esuriant neque sitiant, neque ullam molestiam patiantur ab estu aut frigore, aut morbo, aut ab aliqua incommoditate, neque dissolvi possint a lesione mortis in eternum. Odor eius abundantiam suavitatis tantam habet, ut si in unum coacerventur omnia, qua sub celo sunt suaviter redolentia, non possint ullam spirare suavitatem, que sit comparabilis illi. Odor eius est suavissima delectatio, que ex ipso procedit non solum in eos, qui presentem habent vultum maiestatis eius, sed in eos quoque, qui adhuc peregrinantur in hoc mundo, et diligunt gloriam eius et suspirant ad patriam visionis eius. Hec cum dixisset, blande consolatus est me super egritudine mea et magnam mihi gratiam promittebat. Nam flebam multum pro eo, quod paschalibus gaudiis interesse non poteram ob importunitatem febrium, que multis diebus intolerabiliter me vexaverant, et erant commutate a quartanis in tercianas. Recordatus est tamen benignitatis sue in me, et rediit ad me in octava Pasche, et duxit me in spiritu in locum magne amentatis, et statuit me secus fontem pulcherrimum, et quasi vase aureo hausit ex eo et potavit me. Cunque bibissem, fecit super me signaculum crucis, et benedixit mihi ac dixit: Dimissa es ab infirmitate tua, non te amplius tanget. Cumque ab extasi expergefacta fuissem, statim me sensi alleviatam, et cepi incedere firmo gressu, quod non faceram longo tempore, nex ultra ad me rediit infirmitas illa. Benedictus deus in cunctis misertionibus suis, quas ostendit in me. Hec omnia magne dilectionis causa tibi karissima annuntiare curavi, ut aliquam ex his consolationem accipias, et conforteris in domino.

Historical context:

Knowing the abbess wanted her advice, Elisabeth sends a vision of Christ with an interpretation, and another vision that cured her illness. Although no addressee for this letter is given in the manuscripts, it appears to be the same as the previous letter since it refers to that letter, and Bonn, the site of the Dietkirchen convent, is mentioned in this letter as the home of people who visited Elisabeth with greetings from the unnamed addressee.

Scholarly notes:

(1) Clark emends Roth's "duo homines adire Bunna" to “homines de Bunna duo” from Vienna, Osterreichische Nationalbibliothek Vindob. Pal MS 488.
(2) This translation is copyrighted by Anne Clark. For permission to reproduce, contact Paulist Press. 

Manuscript source:

Vienna, Osterreichische Nationalbibliothek Vindob. Pal MS 488

Printed source:

Die Visionen der hl. Elisabeth und die Schriften der Aebte Ekbert und Emecho von Schönau, ed. F.W.E. Roth (Brünn: Verlag der Studien aus dem Benedictiner- und Cistercienser-Orden, 1884), Bk.6, ch.14, p.146-48; trans. Anne L. Clark, The Complete Works of Elisabeth of Schönau (New York: Paulist Press, 2000), 14.