Viriditas (Latin, literally "greenness," formerly translated as "viridity"[1]) is a word particularly associated with abbess Hildegard von Bingen, although it was used by earlier writers, particularly Gregory the Great. It was also used by science fiction author Kim Stanley Robinson with a somewhat differing meaning.
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"Viriditas" appears several times in Gregory the Great's Moralia in Job, to refer to the spiritual health to which Job aspires. Augustine uses the term exactly once in City of God, to describe mutability. In a collection of over a hundred 12th-century love letters, said to be those between Heloise and Abelard, the woman uses "viriditas" three times but the man does not use it. Abelard did use "viriditas" in at least one sermon, however.[2][3]
Viriditas is one of Hildegard's guiding images, used constantly in all of her works. It has been suggested that the lushness of the imagery is possibly due to the lushness of her surroundings at Disibodenberg. Her extensive use of the term can be frustrating in its diversity of uses.[4]
In Scivias, Hildegard focused foremost on viriditas as an attribute of the divine nature.[5] In her works it has been translated in various ways, such as freshness, vitality, fertility, fecundity, fruitfulness, verdure, or growth. In Hildegard's understanding, it is a metaphor for spiritual and physical health, which is visible in the divine word.[2]
The science fiction author Kim Stanley Robinson used it nontheologically to mean "the green force of life, expanding into the Universe."
"Look at the pattern this seashell makes. The dappled whorl, curving inward to infinity. That's the shape of the universe itself. There's a constant pressure, pushing toward pattern. A tendency in matter to evolve into ever more complex forms. It's a kind of pattern gravity, a holy greening power we call viriditas, and it is the driving force in the cosmos. Life, you see."[6]