MYSTIC, MUSICIAN AND MOTHER. No one likes to wait; delays drive us mad. But imagine waiting almost 833 years for your canonization cause to be completed! Such is the case of Saint Hildegard of Bingen, Germany. Born around 1098, she died on September 17, 1179, so this coming Saturday is her Feast Day. She was one of the first persons to go through the Church’s canonization process, which was formulated in 1234; she readily achieved the rank of ‘Blessed,’ but it took centuries, a German Pope, renewed interest in her musical compositions – and her divinely inspired insights into what we call ‘modern’ medicine – to get her back on track.
On May 10, 2012, Pope Benedict XVI canonized her; on October 7, 2012, he declared her the fourth female ‘Doctor of the Church’ along with Saints Teresa of Avila, Catherine of Siena and Therese of Lisieux. (We have 31 male Doctors.) Since the English text of her prayers have yet to be approved by Rome, here’s her ‘unofficial’ Collect.
Collect – Saint Hildegard of Bingen O God, by whose grace your servant Hildegard, |
AN ORDINARY START. Records of her early life are scant; she was the youngest of a noble German family’s 10 children; some reports show only 7, as children who did not live to be adults were often not counted! Plagued by illness as a child, her parents prayed for her health; in thanks, they guided her into a Benedictine Abbey. When she was around 8, she was placed under the care of a Benedictine nun, Blessed Jutta, who taught her how to read and sing the Latin psalms. She professed vows when she was 18, and when Jutta died in 1136, Hildegard was elected Superior or Mother. Although she had been receiving mystical visions since childhood, she only shared them with her spiritual director/confessor.
A TOUGH WOMAN IN TOUGH TIMES. As Abbess, she sought to keep her Abbey small and personal; when Bishops insisted that she accept more members, she obliged – and then moved with a few nuns to a new Abbey. She confronted the emperor for supporting three different antipopes. She challenged a radical group of Catholics, who set up their own ‘purist’ parishes, to stop being so inflexibly judgmental. She stood her ground when a Bishop ordered her to disinter a man who had been excommunicated and was buried in the Abbey’s cemetery, insisting that he had been reconciled with God and the Church and had received the Sacraments. So, the Bishop placed the Abbey under interdict – which meant NO Sacraments could be celebrated there; this sanction was lifted only months before she died.
Saint Hildegard’s first and most famous work is her Scivias (from the Latin ‘Sci vias Domini’ – ‘Know the Ways of the Lord’) which compiles 26 of her visions with images that depict her mystical insights. We still have photos and copies of it, but the original, composed before/shortly after her death, was taken from Dresden during WWII for safekeeping; it is believed to have been in the postwar Soviet sector but has not been seen since. Justice could not be done to it in this small article, but her visions offer deep insight into God’s love for fallen humanity, which comes to us through the Church, her Sacraments, our Blessed Mother, and the Saints.
She also crafted morality plays that helped ordinary people better understand the faith; she may be the first to produce ‘church plays’ that were NOT simply biblical accounts brought to life. She also composed music – lots of music – composing more chants than any other medieval composer. And she had unbelievable insights into natural science; she seems to be the first to promote boiling water to avoid infections, and the use of herbs, plants, and other natural items to combat or cure disease. Long before the modern day ‘Battle of the Sexes,’ she stated that “woman may be made from man, but no man can be made without a woman.” She is the Patron Saint of Musicians, Writers, and Ecology. Saint Hildegard of Bingen, pray for us!
With God’s love and my prayers,
Very Rev. Michael J. Kreder, VF, KCHS
MYSTIC, MUSICIAN AND MOTHER. No one likes to wait; delays drive us mad. But imagine waiting almost 833 years for your canonization cause to be completed! Such is the case of Saint Hildegard of Bingen, Germany. Born around 1098, she died on September 17, 1179, so this coming Saturday is her Feast Day. She was one of the first persons to go through the Church’s canonization process, which was formulated in 1234; she readily achieved the rank of ‘Blessed,’ but it took centuries, a German Pope, renewed interest in her musical compositions – and her divinely inspired insights into what we call ‘modern’ medicine – to get her back on track.
On May 10, 2012, Pope Benedict XVI canonized her; on October 7, 2012, he declared her the fourth female ‘Doctor of the Church’ along with Saints Teresa of Avila, Catherine of Siena and Therese of Lisieux. (We have 31 male Doctors.) Since the English text of her prayers have yet to be approved by Rome, here’s her ‘unofficial’ Collect.
Collect – Saint Hildegard of Bingen O God, by whose grace your servant Hildegard, |
AN ORDINARY START. Records of her early life are scant; she was the youngest of a noble German family’s 10 children; some reports show only 7, as children who did not live to be adults were often not counted! Plagued by illness as a child, her parents prayed for her health; in thanks, they guided her into a Benedictine Abbey. When she was around 8, she was placed under the care of a Benedictine nun, Blessed Jutta, who taught her how to read and sing the Latin psalms. She professed vows when she was 18, and when Jutta died in 1136, Hildegard was elected Superior or Mother. Although she had been receiving mystical visions since childhood, she only shared them with her spiritual director/confessor.
A TOUGH WOMAN IN TOUGH TIMES. As Abbess, she sought to keep her Abbey small and personal; when Bishops insisted that she accept more members, she obliged – and then moved with a few nuns to a new Abbey. She confronted the emperor for supporting three different antipopes. She challenged a radical group of Catholics, who set up their own ‘purist’ parishes, to stop being so inflexibly judgmental. She stood her ground when a Bishop ordered her to disinter a man who had been excommunicated and was buried in the Abbey’s cemetery, insisting that he had been reconciled with God and the Church and had received the Sacraments. So, the Bishop placed the Abbey under interdict – which meant NO Sacraments could be celebrated there; this sanction was lifted only months before she died.
Saint Hildegard’s first and most famous work is her Scivias (from the Latin ‘Sci vias Domini’ – ‘Know the Ways of the Lord’) which compiles 26 of her visions with images that depict her mystical insights. We still have photos and copies of it, but the original, composed before/shortly after her death, was taken from Dresden during WWII for safekeeping; it is believed to have been in the postwar Soviet sector but has not been seen since. Justice could not be done to it in this small article, but her visions offer deep insight into God’s love for fallen humanity, which comes to us through the Church, her Sacraments, our Blessed Mother, and the Saints.
She also crafted morality plays that helped ordinary people better understand the faith; she may be the first to produce ‘church plays’ that were NOT simply biblical accounts brought to life. She also composed music – lots of music – composing more chants than any other medieval composer. And she had unbelievable insights into natural science; she seems to be the first to promote boiling water to avoid infections, and the use of herbs, plants, and other natural items to combat or cure disease. Long before the modern day ‘Battle of the Sexes,’ she stated that “woman may be made from man, but no man can be made without a woman.” She is the Patron Saint of Musicians, Writers, and Ecology. Saint Hildegard of Bingen, pray for us!
With God’s love and my prayers,
Very Rev. Michael J. Kreder, VF, KCHS