I found out yesterday at the NMD Christmas party that in certain Latin American nations, Santa does not function as the harbinger of gifts on Christmas… Baby Jesus does. Well, Baby Jesus must love me, because he brought me a blue Power Racer VW Bug for Christmas this year! Marsha in Presbyterian Women only got a Harley motorcycle. We also got little insulated lunch bags this year with “NMD” splashed across the front. I’ll look so chic on rainy days now, coming into work carrying my little NMD lunch bag with my little NMD umbrella. They should give out NMD scarves next year.

It has also been a long time since we’ve had an educational piece on the blog regarding some of our foremothers in the faith. Well, today we’re going to learn about the nun who kicked the patooties of all the guys in twelfth century Europe, Hildegard of Bingen. I’ve presented on her several times during the World Tour, and Mary Elva is letting me borrow a book about her right now. So I thought I would share the wealth a bit.

Hildegard was born in Germany in 1098. As the tenth child in her family, her dad, a nobleman, thought it would be a good idea to give her as his tithe to the church. So around age eight, he packed little Hildy off to the monastery to be taught by Jutta of Sponheim, a famous anchoress.* But even before this, at the age of three, Hildegard had started to see visions of a dazzling light that came from God. Eventually, she began to see people and buildings in this dazzling light, mostly from Hebrew Scriptures. She would later say that a voice from God would help her interpret what she was seeing.

Although Hildegard continued to see visions throughout her life, for several years she told only Jutta about them. After Jutta died, she finally heard a call from God commanding her to “say and write what you see and hear.” She spent ten years after that writing Scivias. She was lucky that people in high places took notice of her—she came to the attention of the pope at the time, who endorsed her work and officially offered his protection of it.

After that, Hildegard blossomed into one of the great prophets and advisors in medieval Europe. She was an advisor to three popes, as well as secular rulers such as the Byzantine empress Irene and Holy Roman Emperor Frederick Barbarossa. Between 1155 and 1171, her preaching tours attracted people throughout the Rhineland.

And what did she preach and write about? Hildegard was a prophetic voice in society, condemning the selling of church offices and the ways in which the church was becoming subservient to and complicit in the power plays of the state. Her sermons, which were collected by listeners, called church leaders to turn away from greed and oppression. The fact that her convent had the protection of Frederick Barbarossa didn’t stop her from writing to protest his rebellion against the papacy in Rome.

Most of the folks I know who have encountered Hildegard before are music majors. That’s because she also wrote sacred music, including 77 songs that have been passed down to us. Her nine books include works on physiology and health as well as theology (Hildegard was a renowned healer). Many of these works sprung from the revelations she had received from God.

While Hildegard didn’t directly challenge the systems of power that operated during her time (and sometimes enforced them—only noblewomen with large dowries could enter her convent), she is a great example of a woman who followed God’s call to be a prophetic voice. In a time when men held strict control of women’s lives, Hildegard demonstrated that women could be strong leaders as they stood up for the cause of the oppressed.

When Hildegard of Bingen died in 1179, it is said that two streams of light formed a cross over the room of her death.

“Then afterward I will pour out my spirit on all flesh; your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, and your young men shall see visions.” --Joel 2:22

Kelsey

PS—The book is Praying with Hildegard of Bingen by Gloria Duke, if you’re interested.

*What was an anchoress? Basically, it was a woman (a man was an anchorite) who walled herself up into a small room adjoining a monastery. She had a little window where she could receive food and hear the Mass, but otherwise she just lived her whole life in there to pray and study Scripture. Fun, huh?