In recent decades a simple earthy woman has been emerging from obscurity, a woman who styled herself as “…a small sound of the trumpet from the Living Light.”

Dependence upon her visions, received in full consciousness, uniquely fitted her to serve others: she founded a community of like-minded women, designed and built housing to accommodate their needs, composed hymns for prayer and worship, authored the first musical morality play, put out major books on theology and treatises on herbal remedies and gynecology and sexuality, corresponded with world leaders in government and religion, counseled the distressed, preached from pulpits in major European cathedrals, agonized over armies spoiling the fertile earth for material gain, and scolded lax Popes during her eighty-one years of life .

A seer of the Unseen, she bothered many. So much so that after her death, the proper authorities successfully blurred, then obliterated her far-reaching influence. Her violent world, like ours, reflected the Titanic clash of spirits: spiritus contra spiritus.

But the Feminine Spirit, once expressed, cannot be silenced. The work of this Encyclopedist continues firing the imaginations of present-day scholars delving into her extant works and exploring fresh vistas into the cosmic dimensions of all life. Only at this mystical depth can healing occur.

In 2012, Pope Gregory XVI canonized her and named her a Doctor of the Catholic Church, one of only three women to hold this distinction. Indeed, the “… small sound of the trumpet from the Living Light” still finds resonance in humble hearts today.

Her name is St. Hildegard of Bingen, German Benedictine Abbess (1098 – 1179).

 

 

17624201306_87cfdd2115