Saint of the day for December 17: story of Saint Hildegard of Bingen

Saint of the day for December 17nd
(16 September 1098-17 September 1179)

Story of Saint Hildegard of Bingen

Abbess, artist, author, composer, mystic, pharmacist, poet, preacher, theologian: where to begin to describe this extraordinary woman?

Born into a noble family, she was educated for ten years by the holy woman, the blessed Jutta. When Hildegard was 18, she became a Benedictine nun in the monastery of St. Disibodenberg. Ordered by her confessor to write the visions she had received since the age of three, Hildegard took ten years to write her Scivias (Know the Ways). Pope Eugene III read it and in 1147 encouraged her to continue writing. His Book of the Merits of Life and the Book of Divine Works followed. He wrote over 300 letters to people who asked for his advice; he also composed short works on medicine and physiology and asked for advice from contemporaries such as St. Bernard of Clairvaux.

Hildegard's visions led her to see human beings as "living sparks" of God's love, coming from God as daylight comes from the sun. Sin has destroyed the original harmony of creation; Christ's redemptive death and resurrection opened up new possibilities. The virtuous life reduces the estrangement from God and others that sin causes.

Like all mystics, Hildegard saw the harmony of God's creation and the place of women and men in it. This unity was not evident to many of his contemporaries.

Hildegard was no stranger to controversy. Monks close to her original foundation protested vigorously when she moved her monastery to Bingen, overlooking the Rhine River. She confronted Emperor Frederick Barbarossa for supporting at least three antipopes. Hildegard challenged the Cathars, who rejected the Catholic Church by claiming to follow a purer Christianity.

Between 1152 and 1162, Hildegard often preached in the Rhineland. His monastery was banned because it had allowed the burial of a young man who had been excommunicated. He insisted that he had reconciled with the Church and that he had received his sacraments before he died. Hildegard protested bitterly when the local bishop forbade the celebration or reception of the Eucharist in the monastery of Bingen, a sanction that was lifted only a few months before his death.

In 2012, Hildegard was canonized and named Doctor of the Church by Pope Benedict XVI. Its liturgical feast is on September 17th.

Reflection

Pope Benedict spoke about Hildegard of Bingen during two of his general audiences in September 2010. He praised the humility with which he received the gifts of God and the obedience he gave to the Church authorities. He also praised the "rich theological content" of his mystical visions which summarize the history of salvation from creation to the end of time.

During his pontificate, Pope Benedict XVI said: "We always invoke the Holy Spirit, so that he may inspire in the Church holy and courageous women like Saint Hildegard of Bingen who, by developing the gifts they have received from God, make their special and precious contribution to the spiritual development of our communities and of the Church in our time “.