St. Hildegard's Wisdom

Live in the mystery and wait for the miracle. – Julia Kovac

My favorite question to ask other St. Hildegard devotees is what first drew them to Hildegard. Here I ask Julia T. Kovac RN-BC, LPC, ESMHL. Added to her many credentials, she’s also a writer and has upcoming Catholic book projects. Her blog is Illustwrite.it.

Julia and I are currently in a Catholic writers’ group. It was in this writers’ group that I first discovered we shared a devotion to St. Hildegard. And it’s also where I heard about her Hildegard and Mendel seeds. They are healthy seeds and nuts that you can eat based upon St. Hildegard’s and Gregor Mendel’s teachings. Naturally, I needed to hear more. Julia was kind enough to fill me in one afternoon.

Introduction

Me: Julia, would you like to introduce yourself?

Julia: I could easily start with family and our tiny horse farm. I’ve been a registered nurse for almost 50 years and that scientific and healthcare background makes me very attracted to Hildegard. I am a licensed professional counselor in the State of Missouri; however, with my nursing license I can practice in 40 some odd states and I do. Some of the work I do is Telemed.

I’m a Benedictine oblate. You may have heard of Sister Wilhemina, that’s the order. They’re only 35 minutes down the road from me; I’m an oblate with them. My oblate name is Julian because it sounds so much like Julia and I really love St. Julian of Norwich. St. Hildegard is my other Benedictine go-to. 

We only have six acres here but it’s pretty green and…a couple small ponds and there are beautiful flowers and lots of wildlife right outside my window.

Any saint and it’s pretty much every saint really…which saint ever has not loved God’s creation and the natural world and everything it brings? Well, I’m sure there isn’t a saint. So that’s another thing that I love so much about Hildegard and about Gregor Mendel. Sometimes I call the seed mix Hildegard and Gregor and sometimes I call it Hildegard and Mendel. 

I live here with my husband and quite a few pets. Our grown-up daughter lives with her husband in Montana. They’re off doing things similar to what Larry and I are doing. Larry is a veterinarian and so all of our animals have, thank God, round the clock healthcare if they need it. He and I both have science backgrounds.

About two years ago I had an unexpected health scare and that took me up to another level…wanting to be conscious about what I eat and what I do.

Why Hildegard?

Me: So what first drew you to St. Hildegard? Was it before you became an oblate?

Julia: I have been an oblate for so many years that I transferred my oblation from Fort Smith, Arkansas to Gower, Missouri when my dear friend Bishop Finn brought the Benedictine sisters to Kansas City. Sister Wilhemina had been the founder of the community. The Bishop brought them here quite some time ago. They’re called Benedictines of Mary Queen of the Apostles in Gower, Missouri.

So I heard of Hildegard but I don’t think I ever deeply appreciated her until I was an oblate a long time ago, like at least 30 years ago with another group of sisters. We took a European tour of Benedictine monasteries. Now, we did get to go to St. Julian’s cell and home and a lot of others, but we didn’t get to go to any of Hildegard’s sites. But I would sure love to because I’ve only spent not more than three days in Germany, but I love that country.

What’s the origin of the seed mix?

Me: How did your seeds come about? What is your background as far as…well, the farm I guess? 

Julia: At this time I grow very little of my own foods that we consume. Luckily, we do have a good resource for me to get the nuts, seeds and dry fruit. It did start out pretty basic. I’ve probably been doing it for about 10 or 12 years. I learned more and more about Hildegard and then I learned a fair amount about Gregor Mendel. I love his work so much. Back to Hildegard, she’s also a Doctor of the Church. That’s another thing that makes her important. She’s just an all-around amazing gal.

So everything that I put in my mix…I’m going to upgrade and I’m going to make different varieties. We’ve got in this current mix: hemp, flaxseed, chia, pumpkin, sesame, and slivered almonds. Because I don’t like almonds, but if they’re slivered I don’t notice that they’re there. We will be adding chestnuts. That is a favorite of Hildegard’s.

Brazil nuts…but medically speaking we have to be very careful with these formulas and this is why I love my nursing background. Our body does not make selenium and so Brazil nuts are the best source ever. We don’t want to eat more than a couple of the Brazil nuts per day so there has to be a really small ratio of Brazil nuts in there. I’m always looking at allergies, of course, people that are concerned about whatever type of dietary things that they do.  

We’ve got sunflower seeds. I’m adding as I said chestnuts. And walnut…it looks like the exposed human brain if you do a horizontal slice. Therefore, it’s very much a brain food.

I might know somebody that has cholesterol issues or someone who is diabetic. I can change things up a little bit just to benefit them. We’re eating it all day long. You can eat it by the handful. You can sprinkle it on salads. You know, any kind of food. I’ll put it in with our rice tonight.

Why sanctify your work?

Julia: I highlighted some notes… here it is, her (Hildegard’s) ability and Mendel’s ability to tie their work with their plants into scripture and into the teachings of Jesus. So they do sanctify their work. I don’t do anything with botanical oils that I don’t first know has to be grounded in the Holy Spirit and there’s a lot of people that do not understand that. A lot of people are out there doing dangerous things with some of these foods and some of the botanical oils.

Are all of these medicinal?

Julia: There is a plant called Vetiver. It is my very favorite botanical oil. And the roots of the plant are like a bush, very dense. You can imagine a whole big glob of wet spaghetti in a bowl and it’s so dense. You can’t see through it, that is the root of the Vetiver plant. I mean I guess an earthquake could uproot it but it’s never going to go anywhere it is so grounded. That’s why the roots of the Vetiver plant are incorporated into the oil as a grounding benefit for human beings. 

Eucalyptus is very good for breathing and so are some of the others in the mint family. Eucalyptus in particular, the leaves of the plant are the part that breathes for the plant so the leaves of the plant are distilled in a very scientific manner.

I’m sure they were doing this back in Hildegard’s days as well.

Me: So it’s medicinal?

Julia: Very medicinal. I’m just now starting to do that, especially with my husband. He wanted to get off all his cholesterol medication because of all the side effects. He’s doing really well and so I’ll probably up some of the ones (referring to the nuts and seeds) that support the happy cholesterol and will discourage the bad cholesterol. It’ll just be specific to him.

I have taught botanical oils at a local hospital for about five years and the same is true with the food as it is with the plants because that’s where the food comes from. It comes from the plant.

Me: Did you say you teach botany?

Julia: I teach about botanical oils that are known as the essential oils. People don’t understand what that means. And the resources for getting the proper oils, you have to be really conscious about that.

I would love to be a botanist. I’m not, but I’ve dabbled in it enough that it makes me love Fr. Mendel so much. And again as with the foods and seeds and everything in the Hildegard mix, working with older people, there are certain things that we don’t process that well after 65. If you’re taking a ton of diabetic medications, cardiac medications or blood thinners or if you’re going to have surgery you really need to understand the nuances. Again it is the plants, its plant medicine, just like our dear saint and Doctor of the Church.

Is there a place for faith and science in lifestyle medicine?

(Looking at her notes)…I found it. I think Hildegard wanted to bridge the gap between the religious life and scientific inquiry. 

People come to me with severe depression, anxiety, trauma, and relationship issues, but Hildegard’s almost your one-stop-shop if you want to keep life very simple and say, “Let’s make this better.” I do lifestyle medicine. She fits into the lifestyle medicine corner of the world beautifully. And looking at plants and science (referring to her notes) through a sacramental lens. 

Anything else to add?

Me: Is there anything else you would like to add?

Julia: I decided that I’m going do a certain spiritual adventure for Advent and I like to prepare in advance. I really want to up the game and I have decided to do a particular detox program. I’m going to write a program and use Hildegard…as the physical piece of my Advent adventure.

My approach on purgatory, I think might be what your approach is towards Hildegard. I want people to know. The content of my purgatory book is going to be all the things I did not know. I have started to understand even simple things, but it’s been so powerful. My book audience is all these people that don’t know about purgatory. I think it’s going to be called “Purgatory, It’s Not a Flyover State”. Some of the states around me are flyover. Purgatory ain’t flyover! It doesn’t mean we can’t fly over, but I’m going to have a chapter on how that works.

Me: Your book on purgatory, when will it come out?

Julia: I think it’s at least a three-year project. I’ve been working on it for about the better part of a year now. I think it’s got another three years in unless I decide to do something a little bit more abbreviated and I might.

Me: Your seeds are not for sale, right?

Julia: I’ll be honest with you. I’ll probably combine the blog with the website. I am going to have a small store; I think the seeds need to be on there.

What does the world need?

Julia: I hope we both continue to enjoy this. So much to find, a lot of peace, to grow closer to the souls and the saints. The world absolutely needs to know about it. 

Me: If there’s a purpose there, we’ll see.

Julia: There’s absolutely a purpose. I like to say, “Live in the mystery and wait for the miracle”. Honor is what we’re doing, and so blessings to us as we continue throwing sacred pieces of our life at the page and seeing what sticks: bits of wisdom that we have experienced.