He praised the humility with which she received God’s gifts, and the obedience she gave Church authorities. Pope Benedict spoke about Hildegard of Bingen during two of his general audiences in September 2010.

In 2012, Hildegard was canonized and named a Doctor of the Church by Pope Benedict XVI. Her liturgical feast is celebrated on September 17. Hildegard protested bitterly when the local bishop forbade the celebration of or reception of the Eucharist at the Bingen monastery, a sanction that was lifted only a few months before her death. She insisted that he had been reconciled with the Church and had received its sacraments before dying. Her monastery was placed under interdict because she had permitted the burial of a young man who had been excommunicated. Hildegard challenged the Cathars, who rejected the Catholic Church claiming to follow a more pure Christianity.īetween 11, Hildegard often preached in the Rhineland. She confronted Emperor Frederick Barbarossa for supporting at least three antipopes. The monks near her original foundation protested vigorously when she moved her monastery to Bingen, overlooking the Rhine River. Hildegard was no stranger to controversy. This unity was not apparent to many of her contemporaries. Like all mystics, Hildegard saw the harmony of God’s creation and the place of women and men in that. Virtuous living reduces the estrangement from God and others that sin causes. Sin destroyed the original harmony of creation Christ’s redeeming death and resurrection opened up new possibilities. Hildegard’s visions caused her to see humans as “living sparks” of God’s love, coming from God as daylight comes from the sun. She wrote over 300 letters to people who sought her advice she also composed short works on medicine and physiology, and sought advice from contemporaries such as Saint Bernard of Clairvaux.

Her Book of the Merits of Life and Book of Divine Works followed.

Pope Eugene III read it, and in 1147, encouraged her to continue writing. Ordered by her confessor to write down the visions that she had received since the age of three, Hildegard took ten years to write her Scivias ( Know the Ways). When Hildegard was 18, she became a Benedictine nun at the Monastery of Saint Disibodenberg. Saint of the Day for December 17 (Septem– September 17, 1179)Ībbess, artist, author, composer, mystic, pharmacist, poet, preacher, theologian-where to begin in describing this remarkable woman?īorn into a noble family, she was instructed for ten years by the holy woman Blessed Jutta. Image: Hildegard von Bingen | Line engraving by W.

Hildegard bingen scivias pdf file