Mass for St. Hildegard of Bingen by Hannah Juhas ’25
Today we celebrate Saint Hildegard of Bingen. The first time I ever heard her name was during the Student Preacher retreat this past summer. She’s often forgotten, but she is one of the most important saints of our faith. She is the fourth woman to receive the title, “Doctor of the Church.” She was given the gift of visions and believed they were direct communication with God. She called it the “divine command from the Trinity.”
Let me give you some background to her life. Hildegard was born in 1098. She was a very sickly child, so sick that her parents promised to devote her life to God if she lived through the sickness. She survived, so her parents sent her to be in the care of a Benedictine nun named Blessed Jutta. By the time she was eight, she knew how to read and sing Latin psalms. By 18, she became a Benedictine nun, and at the age of 38 she was elected superior of the monastery of Saint Disibondenberg. In 1148, she moved 18 nuns and herself to a new convent. And, by 1165, she established her own convent in Bingen.
You may be wondering what the point of me saying all of this is for, but I promise I have a point. We often hear stories about a saint’s life and can think that we might not have anything in common or any shared interest. And while St. Hildegard is known for her extensive and widely developed knowledge of the Catholic faith, she is also known for her writings of music, natural science, herbs, medicine, and art; despite never being taught in a traditional school. She was in her 20s when she told her spiritual director about her visions and was assigned a monk to document everything she saw. Her accounts were sent to Pope Eugene III, who made her fame spread throughout Europe. Her main work is called, “Scivias,” which includes her visions and the meaning behind each of them. She became an important medieval composer of Catholic music. You will hear one of her compositions today during the presentation of the gifts.
During the last year of her life, there was an investigation into a young, excommunicated man. His body was buried in a cemetery connected to her convent. She refused to move the body even though he was excommunicated. He had received his last sacraments before dying so she believed he could stay. Her decision was later confirmed by the bishop. Many viewed her as a saint while she was alive because of miracles associated with her and even more so through her intercession after she passed. She became one of the first people the Catholic Church canonized. And on May 10, 2012, Pope Benedict XVI gave her a renewal of her canonization. Pope Benedict XVI said she is perennially relevant and is an authentic teacher of theology and a profile scholar of natural science and music.
What I want each of you to take away from this is the lasting impact of her life and take inspiration for yourself.Her visions changed her perspective on human beings. She saw each of us as living sparks of God’s love that came from God. Her analogy was that humans are to God as daylight comes from the sun. Sin destroyed the original harmony of paradise, however, Christ created new possibilities through His death and resurrection.
She is known as the nun who loved the earth. She valued education and learning about the beautiful aspects of the world, including the people in it. She helped build a bridge between faith and science. She saw the good in the human race. Through her example we can learn to be holy. When I first researched her life, I became overwhelmed. I thought I could never live up to her example and live a life like her’s. But when I thought about it, she simply devoted her life to Christ yet spent the majority of her time learning about the ways of the world she lived in. We can learn to value knowledge, love more deeply, and to be stewards of the earth by the example of St. Hildegard. Personally, I feel called to go to college and pursue nursing. Growing up, I was a very sick kid just like St. Hildegard. I want to be a nurse that kids remember as loving, kind, and patient. The only way I can do that is to reflect the love of Christ from my heart into my actions. So, starting today, I want you to talk to God and ask Him what he wants you to do with your life, like St. Hildegard once did.