Advent Day 18: Hildegard of Bingen
We are living sparks flying off the fire of God's love
Everything that is in the heavens, on earth, and under the earth is penetrated with connectedness, penetrated with relatedness.
Advent Day 18: Hildegard of Bingen (1098-1179)
One of the most outstanding resumes in history belongs to medieval German mystic Hildegard of Bingen. Composer, philosopher, theologian, preacher, writer, herbalist and healer, Hildegard was a renaissance woman long before the actual Renaissance. And she did it all while running a convent, engaging in church politics, corresponding with royalty, and managing the mystical visions that were both the source of her spiritual creativity and a scourge to her physical health.
Hildegard’s visions began when she was three years old and continued throughout her life.
 (In these) reflections of living light, a fiery light, flashing intensely, came from the open vault of heaven and poured through my whole brain. Like a flame that is hot without burning, it kindled all my heart and all my breast, just as the sun warms anything on which its rays fall.
These visions, which caused her great physical pain, revealed to her God’s love as
living, being, spirit, all verdant greening, all creativity…(and) manifest in every creature.
In an age where the doctrine of original sin reigned supreme, Hildegard offered an alternative: original goodness.
But Hildegard kept all of this under wraps for a long time. Only after entering the Benedictine abbey in Disibodenberg as a teenager did she finally share them with an anchoress named Jutta. After Jutta died in 1136 and Hildegard was elected to lead the abbey, the visions became so frequent and intense Hildegard finally told her confessor, who ordered her to write them down.
As a woman, Hildegard was afraid she wouldn’t be taken seriously—or worse, charged with heresy. So, she sought the counsel of Bernard of Clairvaux, the mystical rock star of the age. Hildegard’s life-affirming revelations so resonated with Bernard, he not only encouraged her to share her spirituality with the world, he wanted to hear more. This was the beginning of a friendship based on mutual respect and encouragement between two of the great Christian minds not only of the Middle Ages, but of any age.
With Bernard in her corner, Hildegard entered a new phase of life. Her days as an anonymous Rhineland nun were over. Soon she emerged as an energetic spiritual innovator—one not afraid to take on the powers-that-be when necessary.
In contrast to the secrecy of her first fifty years, Hildegard devoted the next four decades to sharing her visions far and wide. The truth, as she experienced it, she described—much like Bernard in his own writing—in sensual, earthy detail. To Hildegard, humans were living sparks flying off the fire of God’s love and rays of His splendor. Every creature was
a glittering, glistening mirror of Divinity. Humanity, take a good look at yourself. Inside, you’ve got heaven and earth, and all of creation. You’re a world—everything is hidden in you.
In an age where every aspect of religious experience was tightly regulated by priests and bishops, Hildegard not only encouraged people to seek their own way, she claimed there was no other way to approach God if one hoped to live an authentic spiritual life.
We cannot live in a world that is not our own, in a world that is interpreted for us by others. An interpreted world is not a home. Part of the terror is to take back our own listening, to use our own voice, to see our own light.
Hildegard’s DIY spirituality didn’t go down easy with everyone. Nor did her criticism of the influence of money and privilege on monastic life. Several times, church superiors attempted to clamp down on her, especially when she petitioned to leave the abbey where she’d lived nearly all her life in order to start a new convent committed to poverty and service. When her abbot declined her proposition, Hildegard went over his head and appealed directly to the archbishop.
While such insubordination was grounds for excommunication, by this time Hildegard had made enough friends in both the churches and royal courts of Europe that the archbishop granted her wish and allowed to continue with her work. In addition to writing, this included concocting herbal medicines, studying the nature of the Rhineland, composing music, and mounting extensive preaching tours.
Today, Hildegard is recognized in Germany as the founder of scientific natural history; her chants and hymns are the most recorded in the history of sacred music; and her love of the earth, along with her warnings about the consequences of not caring properly for it, means she is considered by many as the original ecologist.
No matter through what medium she conveyed her message, it was all in service of an invitation she found in Psalm 34 and set to music…an invitation as simple as it was—and still is—radical:
Come taste and see that the Lord is good.
Hildegard died on September 17, 1179 at the age of eighty-one.
Practice
Psalm 34 was one of Hildegard’s favorites. Read it here, slowly and with intention. Don’t think about the words as much as try to let them just soak into you. The psalms have been spoken for thousands of years, including by your ancestors. As you read, see if you can feel yourself as a link in that long chain. If you like, go through the psalm a second time, this time reading it aloud. Then sit quietly for at least five minutes. If you still have time when you’re done, consider journaling about what came up for you during this meditation.
Holiday Happenings at Life In The City
All gatherings listed below happen at 205 East Monroe Street in Austin, Texas.
Sun. Dec. 8, 11:15am: LITC's original holiday musical, Make Room In Your Heart. Sat. Dec. 21, 6:00pm: Blue Christmas, an intimate gathering on the longest night. Mon. Dec. 23, 6:00pm: Christmas Eve-Eve candlelight service...an LITC tradition! Sun. Dec. 29, 11:15am: Welcome 2025 with a casual service of coffee, cookies, conversation and resolution-making.
Contemplation In The City
Life In The City’s contemplative community meets regularly to practice sacred traditions like Lectio Divina and Centering Prayer. If you’re in Austin, consider joining us. Upcoming in-person gatherings are Jan. 14, Feb. 4, Mar. 4, Apr. 8, May 6. We meet at 205 East Monroe Street in Austin. Doors open at 6pm for coffee and conversation, service from 7-8pm. You might also find meaning in our monthly newsletter in which we wrestle with how to live a spiritually engaged life in the modern world. Read more here.
Ready For More?
Read the Introduction to the 2022 edition, to find out how my experience of September 11, 2001 became my gateway to Advent.
Find more mystics, saints and prophets in our Archive.
Feedback
Catch a typo? Have suggestions for mystics, saints and prophets for a future year? Leave feedback in the Comments below or email Greg Durham at greg@litcaustin.org.