St. Hildegard's Wisdom

Do you have concerns about the happenings in the world today? Learn to apply this 12th Century Doctor of the Church's wisdom on spirituality, natural medicine, the arts and happy living.


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Category: Books

  • Improve Your Health With Your Doctor and Also Natural and Spiritual Medicine

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    The Cycle of the Seasons by Hildegard of Bingen

    I asked three Hildegard Health experts a few questions about Pharma medicine vs. natural remedies. The experts are Iwona Bednarz-Major, Dr. Sebastian Liew, and Petra Sramko. Their responses are below.

    I’m still learning about St. Hildegard, and that’s why I like to interview experts. I don’t want to put the wrong information out there. I also do my research.

    I understand there are different perspectives on Hildegard, including with her medical information. I’m not siding with one way or another. I’m just presenting information that might be helpful to people new to her as I am.

    Here in the U.S. people are becoming more and more health conscious. And many are totally new to the concept of healing eating.

    Note: No one can be guaranteed of total health ever because we live in such a toxic world.

    Personally, I have found it very difficult to navigate the whole medical system and stay well. I don’t believe my problem is mental (originating in my mind from birth), but rather outside stressors that then affect my mind and body via trauma.

    My heart rate and blood pressure have been very high because of that. Recently, the stressors took me away from starting a new nutrition plan, even though I have one. And so I turned to medical help because that’s what I knew to do, as a much needed quick fix.

    Here are some of the topics I bought up to the experts:

    Here in the U.S., there’s a new awareness to incorporate healthier eating and active lifestyles. However, we still need surgeries, technology for X-rays and MRIs, and such. And we need pharmaceutical medicine for quick fixes and other serious conditions.

    More people are wanting to be healthier, but being realistic is still the best practice. And healing our inner and outer bodies takes time.

    Many of us have had years of eating fast food, soft drinks, chips, fried foods, and desserts, or what I call, “party food”. Sometimes we want to treat ourselves with fun foods and drinks. I know I do.

    So even though I am now trying to incorporate more of Hildegard’s recommendations, my body needs time to adjust. I can’t be purified overnight. And I doubt I will ever have the discipline to give up party foods and drinks completely. In moderation and special occasion indulging is the goal.

    We need both pharma medicine and herbal and natural remedies, until we are easing into more natural lifestyles. And even then, we still might need prescription medications.

    My body needs to heal with good foods and healthy living, but it takes time. Meanwhile, I still might need to rely on medications, although low doses (I’m very sensitive to medications). Maybe 10 years from now my body will be cleaned out enough to rely only on natural remedies: if I were to be so fortunate.

    I asked the experts if they agree with me. Or if they have patients that adjust immediately and are healed.

    Now I’ll let the experts answer, in brief:

    Iwona Bednarz-Major, Founder, Director at Stone to Flesh
    Second Degree Specialist (continuing studies), St. Hildegard’s von Bingen Studium. Academic Theological Course

    Medication and medical advice and protocols are important because they sustain us through acute states. Worry is the enemy. I always advise people to follow their doctor’s orders until they feel they can uptake new regiments, slowly, and with doctor’ approval.

    You’re absolutely right—we often need both conventional medicine and natural remedies as we journey toward holistic health.

    Our bodies are intricate creations, shaped by years of lifestyle choices, environmental exposures, and, at times, deep wounds that require time to heal.

    Medications can provide crucial support during this transition, while we work to restore balance through nourishing foods, herbal remedies, seasonal person appropriate fasting, and intentional whole person care.

    Healing is rarely immediate; it’s a process, much like peeling back layers to uncover the vibrant health we were designed for.

    I don’t have patients because I do not diagnose, cure, or treat, but I share my knowledge and let the recipients of consultations be educated and given the best possible information before they decide on their pathways to healing. I always align the healing of a human heart with its surfacing issues, and with physical symptoms.

    While some people experience rapid shifts—whether through miraculous prayer or a profound lifestyle change, and enough of them do —most of us require patience and persistence.

    The level of toxicity, years of neglect, various hidden issues, lead to chronic metabolic chaos, and although our bodies have an immense power to heal, for most people it will take time, consistency and desire to turn toward God made life-giving principles.

    The path to a natural lifestyle is not one-size-fits-all, and relying on medicine temporarily doesn’t mean you’re failing. It means you’re honoring where your body is right now while striving for something better.

    Prayer indeed is primary, infusing hope, grace, and supernatural healing into every step. Whether healing comes instantly or over years, what matters most is walking the journey with faith, wisdom, and a willingness to adjust as needed.

    Dr. Sebastian Liew, ND, MNHAA, MHS (UNE), Herbalist and Naturopath
    Please see my 2024 interview with Dr. Liew for more.

    I practice both scientific phytotherapy and traditional Western herbal medicine, including Hildegard.

    Depending on what is the diagnosis, I have treated complex conditions such as autoimmune without medications or reversed it.

    Of course, it needs to be a very holistic approach and a practitioner to follow up is necessary.

    His book “My Healing Life” is like experiencing a consultation visit, and getting his recommendations. In it, you find out how to do his Spiritual Heart Exercise.

    My Healing Life: The Most Important Work in Life – by Sebastian Liew and Bruno Saint Girons

    Petra Sramko, Herbalist, Saint Hildegard Plants

    Hildegard writes about the connection of body – mind – soul.

    You (in reply to me) write the following – “…. but rather outside stressors that then affect my mind and body.” Well, you are directly writing in this sentence that you already know that they are killing you.

    What can you do about the outside stressors apart from taking medicine? Is there any other way how you can handle them? For example, start moving more /dopamine/ to build stronger mind and soul, pray more and relax your soul. As I do not know about the stressors, I am just guessing.

    Can you change your inner attitude towards the stressors and be friends with them?

    Can you physically remove yourself from the stressors?

    There are always times in our lives when we are pushed to change our point of views and attitudes in a lot of areas……I trust in God, and God sends us challenges to “grow”.

    Sure, Hildegard food will help you to improve your body condition but if you will be constantly stressed, it will impact your life in the long run.

    It’s a very tricky issue. It is very difficult to answer.

    Today’s medicine is excellent at solving health issues, cancer, dangerous health situations, etc. However, when it comes to solving chronic conditions, Hildegard medicine can step in.

    I do not want the people to get the impression that HvB medicine can rashly solve everything …that is not true…

    Here’s my promised part on Hildegard medicine.

    Healing Wisdom of Hildegard Medicine
    Did you know that nature holds the power to heal our bodies in ways that go beyond modern medicine? The teachings of St. Hildegard von Bingen, a medieval healer and visionary, offer a holistic approach to health that combines food, lifestyle, and soul care.

    Hildegard wrote that our health depends on harmony of body, mind, and spirit. Rooted in the Benedictine rule of ora et labora (pray and work), her methods emphasize natural remedies, wholesome living, and spiritual reflection.

    Why Modern Medicine and Hildegard’s Approach Can Work Together?
    Modern medicine excels at managing symptoms and achieving “healthy numbers,” but when it comes to long-term healing, Hildegard’s practices can be transformative.

    However, if you’re on medication, it’s crucial to consult your doctor before beginning any natural remedies. Some natural remedies might counteract your medications.

    Three Pillars of Hildegard Medicine
    1. Food as Medicine
    Your healing starts with what you eat. Hildegard emphasized consuming foods that positively or neutrally impact the body while avoiding those that harm it. This tailored approach creates the conditions your body needs to heal.

    2. Lifestyle Adjustments
    Small changes can lead to big results. Begin with simple steps, like a 15-minute walk after dinner, and find ways to move more throughout your day. Remember, your body is the home of your soul—caring for it physically strengthens you spiritually.

    3. Healing the Soul
    Hildegard believed soul care was essential for physical health. Spend time in prayer for yourself and loved ones. Reflect on your life to identify vices and virtues, then work to transform your weaknesses into strengths. This spiritual practice can lead to profound inner peace and renewal.

    If you’re dealing with lingering health challenges and aren’t on medication, Hildegard medicine might be the natural path to wellness you’ve been searching for. Embrace her timeless wisdom and discover how food, lifestyle, and soul care can lead to total healing.

    Small steps, like a healthier meal, a mindful walk, or a heartfelt prayer done regularly, can make a world of difference.

    As St. Hildegard von Bingen wrote, if God wants you to heal, you will become healthy….

    Here’s my 2024 interview with Petra.

    Spirituality as healer

    Many people, like me, are going to be new to Hildegard Medicine. Many will do as I am doing, still relying on medicine as their quick go-to. I also take supplements. New foods and herbs seem to take more time, over time.

    It’s the same with prayer. As a Catholic abbess, St. Hildegard was also naturally gifted spiritually. She received visions from God.

    Prayers can be answered in an instant. A healing can be immediate. But that’s not guaranteed. We put our trust in God and then we leave our prayer requests in His hands. We say, God willing.

    We do not force nor manipulate to make our prayers get answered because what we would then receive wouldn’t be of God. It’ll just be something we concocted on our own or with forces that are counter to God. Catholics want only what we receive from God. Healing from Jesus. Spirituality from the Holy Spirit. All the Holiness of the Divine Trinity.

    Of course, friends and family might like to buy us gifts that make us happy. Or a boss might reward our dedication. But our prayer requests are often only known to God, as special intentions or petitions. We say them in the silence of our hearts in prayer. And therefore, only God hears them. Or if we are praying to a saint, Mother Mary, St. Joseph, etc., our request is for their ears only. We may also ask others to pray for us, but even then we don’t need to say why. That’s not required. We can pray for ourselves or ask others to pray for us. And we can say prayers for others as well.

    Patience is not easy. Even if our prayers take forever to be answered or never do, we still leave it up to God. We wait for it to be answered in His time.

    Jesus is a healer; there are many instances in the Bible of his miraculous healings.

    St. Hildegard of Bingen was Catholic and so aligned with the Catholic Church. Read her writings and you’ll find God everywhere. And therefore, good food, healthy living lead to healing but also prayer and trust in Jesus as our healer.

    Not everyone has access to health consultants so I hope this post will be informational. It is not medical advice, nor specific to anyone in particular. And you are free to ignore the spiritual aspects of this blog post. Hildegard supporters are not required to be Catholic nor spiritual, although I encourage it.

    I started this website to present the Catholic Spirituality side of St. Hildegard and her alignment with the Catholic Church. Although I do recognize that even in her day, way back in the medieval times, she was very avant guarde, very ahead of her time. In future posts, I would like to cite those ways she challenged the church to make it even better. With visions from God, her advice can be taken seriously, and as Godly.

    I hope you find this post helpful. Feel free to kindly comment, make suggestions or requests.

  • Bishop Athanasius Schneider Speaks on Catholic Tradition While in San Francisco

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    Yes, this actually happened. Last night, Bishop Athanasius Schneider spoke on the importance of Catholic tradition in San Francisco, CA! It was a blessing to attend. I hope this brings many blessings to our city and nearby.

    Today is the Feast Day of St. Hildegard. A way to celebrate is to watch the Bishop speak on the value of keeping up tradition.

    Enjoy:

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  • Women Have Been Seeking Spiritual Freedom and Expression for Centuries

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    Prayer Book of Hildegard of Bingen

    Being an unmarried spiritual woman in the Late Middle Ages wasn’t easy, ask the beguines. The beguines sought to do good works, but they didn’t follow specific rules. They could commit to being a beguine, but they could also quit at any time. They did their own thing and that didn’t sit well with others. In my personal experience in modern times, that can still be true, whether conservative or more liberal. Some social conventions are still expected from women, and some are still frowned upon. But again, St. Hildegard shows us the way through.

    According to Grace M. Jantzen in Power Gender and Christian Mysticism, “In Northern Europe, one of the forms of religious life for women in the thirteenth century was for women to live in small groups in family houses or in houses bought by pooling their resources.” These women were named beguines. They didn’t live under a religious order with vows, but chose their own virtues of poverty, chastity, and to serve the sick and needy in their towns. They didn’t have a strict rule of life, nor did they live under any authority. They lived spiritual lives untethered from normal conventions. They just did good for others. In the mid-fourteenth century about 15% of adult females living in Cologne were beguines, and there were more in France and Germany.

    Interestingly, Cologne at that time was among seven cities named, an Imperial City. It meant it was independent from ecclesiastical (relating to the church) lords. And so naturally beguines flocked there, and tried to flourish, but with many difficulties even in that free city.

    The ecclesiastical authorities came to consider these women as exercising heresy as free spirits. They were under no specific controls, rules or any specific religious order. While the women did good deeds and sought to follow the ways of Jesus Christ, their unbridled lives led to suspicions. Skeptics called them witches. Thus, removing any chance of them being seen as pious. But not all men were threatened by the beguines and many valued their charitable works.

    Grace M. Jantzen writes that, “In the high and late Middle Ages, numerous women visionaries claimed spiritual authority for themselves. The construction of mysticism could no longer exclude women. What is apparent in the high Middle Ages, however, is the increasing wariness of the male ecclesiastical authorities toward (women) visionaries.”

    In 1318, the Archbishop of Cologne ordered all beguines to be moved into convents.

    Hence, a dilemma spiritual women have faced over the centuries: What if they don’t happen to get married (for the myriad of reasons that exist), but don’t want to be cloistered into religious life either?

    I grew up (and still live) in liberal San Francisco, CA, so much of me still is so. However, being born in the early 1960s, I’m more traditional. It was a bit conservative back then, in my neighborhood near the beach anyway. So I’m a mix. Because in the 80s, 90s, and 2000s, things changed but were again innocent as compared to these turbulent days.

    So while I can relate to more liberal thinking women, I still navigate back to a sweeter more calm time, and yes, more traditional. That’s what became of me, with my circumstances, and because I turned back to God.

    After very scary recent times that I went through unprotected, I knew I wasn’t safe without God. But I will admit, it’s still a battle between my old life and this new one. I believe that God allowed those turbulent times for a reason so that I would fully embrace Him, and my roots in the Catholic Church.

    It’s easier for me because I had such jolting crises when I was left exposed to the world – scared straight, they say. Straight meaning to get back in line; turn back to God or live in Hell. Only God could save me because no one else understood what was happening.

    Single women that don’t sit below a specific authority structure will face scrutiny and fears from others. They are seen as overly audacious because they aren’t conforming somewhere. That can be said today as well. Even though women have strived for more status in everyday life, there are still some norms that will never change. That’s just the way it is. And it’s best to follow that.

    A woman who is a total free spirit even in modern times needs to be in some kind of containment or else she will be way too vulnerable to the evils of the world. For many marriage is a tried and true go-to. But that is a tricky topic. It’s not an easy choice.

    I’m a lot like the beguines; I don’t like commitment. Like them, I like to get to change my mind. That’s the leftover liberal part of me I guess. Plus, my choice in men makes me selective and picky, a compliment to those I have known.

    I have, however, committed to never leaving God.

    I never want to break away from the teachings of the Catholic Church. But I choose not to make any specific religious promises either. I’m just an ordinary parishioner who loves studying the faith and then sharing it. I never want to be under any threat as the beguines were. I hope we have advanced since that time. I try to make myself as transparent as possible to Catholic Church authorities.

    Truthfully, the teachings of the Catholic Church are easier for me to follow now, as an older woman. Even so, I struggle. I’m not perfect but I respectfully do my best.

    Minor corrections here and there for the Catholic Church are good from time to time, but a total upheaval would bring everything crashing down.

    When all goes well in the Church, we benefit from its structure and teachings. I don’t need to see women leading Mass or at the altar to feel “seen” by the Church. The sacredness of Jesus’ church should remain intact.

    But women should be consulted, listened to and learned from. Thankfully, now women that are single or married, moms or not, have made promises or are in certain religious vocations or not, can all make a contribution to the Church. Many are becoming writers, like myself. There are many Catholic women’s organizations popping up to support us, in creating Catholic businesses as well.

    Pope Francis is supporting women too, such as with the International Conference he held titled, “Women in the Church: Builders of Humanity.”

    The contribution of women is more necessary than ever,” emphasized Pope Francis, acknowledging the challenges of hatred, violence, and ideological conflicts in today’s world.

    He spoke about the urgent need for women’s contributions, which he said are characterised by tenderness and compassion, in order to foster unity and restore humanity’s true identity.

    That said, let’s not forget the past, such as that of the beguines.

    Grace M. Jantzen states that they should be remembered, “…in a study of who counts as a mystic, and that their lives should be included in the parameters of the question of power and gender in the Christian mystical tradition.”

    And here she notes the importance of St. Hildegard:

    Thus Hildegard of Bingen marks an important transition in the social construction of mysticism: whereas, as she insists, it is men who should be the mystical ones, expounding the knowledge of God by means of their insight into the mystical meaning of scripture, because of their laxity God has had to turn to herself, a woman, and give her the message to be communicated, doing so by means of visions rather than by the normal’ method of years of prayerful study of the scriptures.

    St. Hildegard of Bingen chose the right path for a woman who had visions beginning in childhood. At that time, there was no other alternative but to join a religious order. Even so, she did not share her visions with others until she knew she had proper permission. She brought her visions to the attention of Bernard of Clairvaux in her later years when she was already an abbess, and he an abbot.

    She wrote him a letter asking for his advice and with a plea for validation.

    He wrote back declaring that her visions were a gift from God but told her to remain humble. A gift from God is to be accepted respectfully, with a humble heart to serve Him through whatever mission that may be. Pope Eugene III gave Hildegard confirmation as well.

    “As long as Hildegard was willing to bow to the judgement of the pope and his representatives, they could affirm her vision without undue threat.” – Grace M. Jantzen

    St. Hildegard was wise to take the necessary steps to gain authentication and approval from the higher ups. She did so with meekness, but also with intelligence to safeguard against being called a heretic or a witch. As a woman of God, she would want to be as far away from that as possible.

    She complied with good reason.

    “Accordingly, if a religious experience, a vision, or an alleged insight into scripture or Christian doctrine was deemed to be false, it was also deemed to be demonic in origin.” – Grace M. Jantzen

    St. Hildegard of Bingen was confirmed a visionary, but is also a Doctor of the Church. She was an abbess and remained obedient under authority; however, she also was a great representative for women. As a leader, she submitted to church authorities, so that she could then advocate for the women that needed her direction and assistance, in what this will always be, a man’s world.

    I hold up St. Hildegard of Bingen as an ultimate Catholic women’s spiritual leader. But honestly, after reading about the beguines, I think I’m more like them. I need more freedom. I have weaknesses and limitations. I could never aspire to the heights of Hildegard. I humbly sit below and look up to St. Hildegard of Bingen in awe (and so this website).

    Establish my footsteps in Your word,
    And do not let any wrongdoing have power over me.
    Redeem me from oppression by man,
    So that I may keep Your precepts.
    Make Your face shine upon Your servant,
    And teach me Your statutes.
    Psalm 119:133-135


    Hildegard’s letter to the Abbot concerning gossip:

    The spears of malicious words hurled by the faithless and the slanderous are like a dangerous wind, suddenly assailing a person’s heart. And this is the storm aroused by the first angel when he despised God. As I frequently observe, these onslaughts often afflict even a person in felicity whom God cherishes highly, because the Enemy has learned of his bliss and seeks to oppress him with that storm so that he, too, may fall. But he is not powerful enough to snatch him from God’s bosom. Although difficulties and tribulations from the elements befall him, he retains his self-restraint, because God is watching over him.

    References:

    Jantzen, G.M. (1995). Power Gender and Christian Mysticism. Cambridge University Press.

    Baird, J.L., Ehrman, R.K. (1994). The Letters of Hildegard of Bingen Volume I. Oxford University Press.

  • Saint Hildegard – Was She or Wasn’t She?

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    Some claim that Saint Hildegard wasn’t so saintly. She had gynecological and sexual knowledge that a nun wouldn’t be expected to know about. And others interpreted some of her personal letters as sexually motived. These are topics I’ve long wanted to write about Hildegard and so here I do. Because in her defense, the claims are silly.

    I found some fine points in Honey Meconi’s book, Hildegard of Bingen, but I begin with some comments from a University of Rochester News Center / Arts article, in which she was interviewed.

    Two of her comments from the article stood out. One answered a question I love to ask people about how they first discovered St. Hildegard.

    Her response to the interviewer was,

    When I was a graduate student, I was asked to be musical director of a performance of her play—she wrote a whole musical play, the equivalent of an opera. I had never heard of her before that, and this is what brought her to my attention.


    And that,

    One of the things I love about her is that she was 42 before she started writing anything down. In a sense, I think of her as the patron saint of “late bloomers.” Interestingly enough, that slow start is typical of many women who are initially not confident in their abilities. It’s only as they get older and gain more confidence that they start really making a mark in the world.


    I appreciate when I learn something new about St. Hildegard. To think of her as the patron saint of late bloomers is another reason for her to resonate with me. I’ve been a late bloomer in everything in my life.

    And so that led me to want to read Honey Meconi’s book. In it I found gold. She addresses some misconceptions about Hildegard that I have heard before that always disturbed me:

    1. Known for her letter writing, some of them are interpreted as love letters intimating sexual desire for other women.
    2. Having written about gynecological and sexual matters, skepticism arises as to how could a nun who is supposed to be celibate know of such things.

    1.
    There are volumes published of St. Hildegard’s letters to many people, including those of high importance. Many sought out her advice from far away and she responded in letters. But a woman in that medieval time period who had visions as she did ran the risk of being called a heretic or insane. Therefore, it’s understandable that she would want supportive relationships around her. She had a friend in nun and noblewoman Richardis von Stade, but when she left to go to another monastery, Hildegard felt vulnerable and abandoned.

    Meconi writes,

    The other take on Hildegard’s life, far more controversial, posits an actual love relationship between Hildegard and Richardis. Such an idea is distasteful to those who see Hildegard primarily as a spiritual leader for whom such a relationship would be anathema; it is embraced readily by others who have no difficulty interpreting this as the twelfth-century equivalent of same-sex desire.

    Here’s what the book, Women Writers of the Middle Ages by Peter Dronke cites she wrote to Richardis,

    Woe is me, your mother, woe is me, daughter—why have you abandoned me like an orphan? I loved the nobility of your conduct, your wisdom and chastity, your soul and the whole of your life, so much that many said: What are you doing?

    Now let all who have a sorrow like my sorrow mourn with me—all who have ever, in the love of God, had such high love in heart and mind for a human being as I for you—for one snatched me away from them in a single moment, as you were from me.

    He adds about another part of the letter,

    The opening words, ‘Daughter, hear me (Audi me, Filia)’, echo a verse in Psalm 44 that, by its continuation – which will have been present to Richardis’ mind as to Hildegard’s – suggests an implicit claim greater than Hildegard spells out:

    Daughter, hear me and see, and incline your ear,
    And forget your people and your father’s house –
    Then the King will desire your glorious beauty…

    Flowery language but hardly illicitly sexual. As Peter Dronke writes, her words echo a verse in Psalms.

    In A Retreat with Gerard Manley Hopkins & Hildegard of Bingen. Turning Pain into Power. Gloria Hutchinson writes,

    Drawing on her experience as a spiritual director to married women (as well as laymen and monastics) and steeped in the erotic imagery of the Song of Songs, Hildegard had written with holy passion of the ultimate connection between woman and man.

    There are some Christians that dismiss Solomon’s Song of Songs in the Bible because they deem it too explicit. But that’s a matter of choice for them. It doesn’t reflect on the Bible itself. And so Hildegard’s writing might also be taken in an off-putting way as not proper discourse from a nun. Nonetheless, that was her style of expression. Of course, her writings have been handed down and translated and so perhaps not as exact as she had written. But, can you discount the words in the Bible that are inspired by the Holy Spirit? Can you discount the words of this abbess who is also a Doctor of the Church?

    The same can be said about her relationship with the monk, Volmar of Disibodenberg. He was assigned to her first as a tutor in her youth and later as the scribe for her visions.

    Gloria Hutchinson writes, “Through her friendship with the monk Volmar, Hildegard’s faithful secretary, she had experienced the joy of a well-balanced male-female relationship.”

    And therefore, a love can be interpreted between them too, and yet no one needs to conclude that it was sexual.

    She can be viewed as an artist, one of her many talents, and as one who could both create and live with a passion.

    When Meconi describes how Hildegard transformed the Ruperstberg monastery upon becoming the abbess, we get a glimpse into her creativity.

    Further, there was passion and excitement, but it was channeled not into behavior that appears masochistic to us, but rather into a sparkling series of creations that contributed to an extraordinary atmosphere: a musical play; special attire with crowns and jewels and long, flowing hair on feast days; a newly created language; unique musical compositions frequently couched in passionate and soaring lines of dramatic length and range.

    Meconi goes on to say that Hildegard had “an appreciation and valuing of the here and now…”

    Why then wouldn’t her letters to friends and others not be equally dramatically prosed? Living for now. Enjoying the moment. A life well-lived. A life full of joy.

    2.
    Meconi states,

    Hildegard is “the first scientific writer to discuss sexuality and gynecology from a female perspective. The presence of these topics led various nineteenth-century writers to eliminate the work from Hildegard’s opus on the premise that a cloistered nun would have no knowledge of such doings.

    She further writes that Hildegard allowed widows to be nuns in her abbey, not all abbeys did. Widows from whom she could gather experiences about married life. The monastery served as a medical clinic for dispensing treatments and healings for the local women. And so a knowledge would be necessary to address the women’s needs. And being a spiritual director to women both married and single would further that expertise.

    We shouldn’t dismiss her acquired knowledge of sexual matters just because she was celibate herself. Nor should anyone assume she was speaking from personal experience. We can’t project things onto her that might not apply.

    After all, John Paul II is known for his writings on the Theology of the Body and Love and Responsibility, works about the human body, human sexuality and sexual morality.

    From Karol Wojtyla (Pope John Paul II), Love and Responsbility:

    It is sometimes said that only those who live a conjugal life can pronounce on the subject of marriage, and only those who have experienced it can pronounce on love between man and woman. In this view, all pronouncements on such matters must be based on personal experience, so that priests and persons living a celibate life can have nothing to say on questions of love and marriage. Nevertheless they often do speak and write on these subjects. Their lack of direct personal experience is no handicap because they possess a great deal of experience at second-hand, derived from their pastoral work. For in their pastoral work they encounter these particular problems so often, and in such a variety of circumstances and situations, that a different type of experience is created, which is certainly less immediate, and certainly ‘second-hand’, but at the same time very much wider. The very abundance of factual material on the subject stimulates both general reflection and the effort to synthesize what is known.

    Catholics are taught to practice self-control and celibacy if not married, and it was the same in the Middle Ages. A nun is still human but no one should assume that everything is motivated by sex. A friend can just be a friend. And being so spiritually-minded, one can conclude that Hildegard followed the church’s teachings on celibacy.

    Of course, there are those that don’t follow the magisterium of the Catholic Church to the letter. No one said it was easy. Some of us less virtuous than Hildegard fail at times, but it is expected that we strive for virtue.

    Hildegard had many talents expressed through her musical compositions, medical and spiritual writings, advocating for and advising women and men, and so much more. She was not cloistered. She travelled and interacted with others and was not isolated in a monastery cell. Therefore, she could have access to knowledge of what women were dealing with in their marriages and beyond. That doesn’t mean it was from firsthand experience. No one should add sex to every motivation. Immorality exists but not everyone is acting on it.

    If she were sinful would God have gifted her with heavenly visions? As Volmar writes to her,

    In you, however, there are more signs of the virtues and more evidence of the miracles of God and of the Holy Spirit than we could possibly say.

    (Baird & Ehrman, 1998, p.169)

    Or from the Bible, Matthew 7:17-20:

    Just so, every good tree bears good fruit, and a rotten tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a rotten tree bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire. So by their fruits you will know them.

    Resources:

    Meconi, H. (2018). Hildegard of Bingen. University of Illinois Press.

    Hutchinson, G. (1995). A Retreat with Gerard Manley Hopkins & Hildegard of Bingen. Turning Pain into Power. St. Anthony Messenger Press.

    Dronke, P. (1984). Women Writers of the Middle Ages. Cambridge University Press.

    Wojtyla, K., Tr. Willetts, H.T. (1993). Love and Responsbility. Ignatius Press.

    Baird, J.L., Ehrman, R.K. (1998). The Letters of Hildegard of Bingen Volume II. Oxford University Press.