Today, the day I write this DM, is the Feast Day of Hildegard of Bingen and you are reading it the day following her feast day. Hildegard has so much to teach us in our time which is one reason I have written three books about her.
Her music is original and outstanding. Her interest in science was persistent and unending. Her courage in standing up to people and forces of power was on display regularly as she confronted emperors, abbots, bishops, archbishops and even popes. You might call her the patron saint of those who speak truth to power.
Her willingness to put her thoughts and visions to painting and imaging as well as writing is a great gift to us all. Many of her poems and visions were sublime and amazingly fit for our day. For example, her teaching that a young woman named Love who “has her tent in eternity” appeared to her and instructed her that love “was the source of this creation in the beginning when God said: ‘Let it be!’ And it was.” Indeed, “the whole creation was formed through love.”
Notice how interested she is in “the whole creation”—in cosmology therefore. Indeed, her psychology is modeled on microcosm and macrocosm, humans being the microcosm of the whole. How thrilled she would be with today’s cosmological discoveries and new creation story and with the findings of the Webb Telescope itself!
“The whole of creation” emerged from this “Lady” called “Love” in Hildegard’s understanding. Love was the first. She made everything…Love was in eternity and brought forth, in the beginning of all holiness, all creatures without any admixture of evil. Adam and Eve, as well were produced by love from the pure nature of the Earth.
Hildegard plays prominently in my new book on the Antichrist because she painted both a powerful picture of Christ as the archetype of compassion and a powerful image (actually a series of images) about the Antichrist as its opposite and commented on it.
In it she points out the power of greed and the chaos and unraveling of order that accompanies the antichrist. She addresses the antichrist with venom and moral outrage and also paints patriarchy as belching out lies upon lies: O you cave of injustice… your works seek the pit of hell. You will live absorbed in your gluttony there and that hellish place will vomit forth stink. The world will recognize in this stench the bitterness of death in the destroyer of destructions.
She accuses the antichrist, the “son of injustices, the cursed one of the cursed ones,” of “tearing institutions of the church in pieces with the crudest greediness.” But she expects the demonic forces to yield to Christ who is “a very strong warrior” who will “break the head of injustice.”
There is fury and moral outrage in her picturing the story of the antichrist and injustice he brings in his wake. All this seems quite relevant to today’s attempts to tear institutions of democracy in pieces including SCOTUS, the election process itself and lies about Haitian refugees that create distractions, spread discord, fulminate racism and more.
Also, in contrast to those who practice misogyny, Hildegard celebrates the divine feminine: Mary is “Mother of all joy, ground of all being, a glowing, most green, verdant sprout.” We all participate in the “greening power” of creativity that is the Holy Spirit at work.
Adapted from Matthew Fox, Trump & MAGA as Anti-Christ: A Handbook for the 2024 Election, pp. 81-84.
And Fox, Hildegard of Bingen: A Saint For Our Times, pp. xiii, 120.
And Fox, Illuminations of Hildegard of Bingen, plates 5, 6, 7, 18, and pp. 122-126.
See also: Fox, ed., Hildegard of Bingen’s Book of Divine Works with Letters and Songs.
Banner Image: “Viriditas” (Hildegard’s term for the “greening power” of creation in all life). Photo by Nick Thompson on Flickr.
Queries for Contemplation
Who is Hildegard for you and what role does she play in your way of living deeply in the world?
Recommended Reading
Trump & The MAGA Movement as Anti-Christ: A Handbook for the 2024 Election
Matthew Fox tells us that he had always shied away from using the term “Anti-Christ” because it was so often used to spread control and fear. However, given today’s rise of authoritarianism and forces of democracide, ecocide, and christofascism, he turns the tables in this book employing the archetype for the cause of justice, democracy, and a renewed Earth and humanity.
From the Foreword: If there was ever a time, a moment, for examining the archetype of the Antichrist, it is now…Read this book with an open mind. Good and evil are real forces in our world. ~~ Caroline Myss, author of Anatomy of the Spirit and Conversations with the Divine.
For immediate access to Trump & The MAGA Movement as Anti-Christ: A Handbook for the 2024 Election, order the e-book with 10 full-color prints from Amazon HERE.
To get a print-on-demand paperback copy with black & white images, order from Amazon HERE or IUniverse HERE.
To receive a limited-edition, full-color paperback copy, order from MatthewFox.org HERE.
Order the audiobook HERE for immediate download.
Hildegard of Bingen, A Saint for Our Times: Unleashing Her Power in the 21st Century
Matthew Fox writes in Hildegard of Bingen about this amazing woman and what we can learn from her.
In an era when women were marginalized, Hildegard was an outspoken, controversial figure. Yet so visionary was her insight that she was sought out by kings, popes, abbots, and bishops for advice.
“This book gives strong, sterling, and unvarnished evidence that everything – everything – we ourselves become will affect what women after us may also become….This is a truly marvelous, useful, profound, and creative book.” ~~ Andrew Harvey, author of The Hope: A Guide to Sacred Activism.
Illuminations of Hildegard of Bingen
An introduction to the life and work of Hildegard of Bingen, Illuminations reveals the life and teachings of one of the greatest female artists and intellectuals of the Western Mystical Tradition. At the age of 42, she began to have visions; these were captured as 36 illuminations–24 of which are recorded in this book along with her commentaries on them.
“If one person deserves credit for the great Hildegard renaissance in our time, it is Matthew Fox.” – Dr Mary Ford-Grabowsky, author of Sacred Voices.
Hildegard of Bingen’s Book of Divine Works: With Letters and Songs
Today there are many websites and Hildegard groups that celebrate and honor Hildegard’s teachings, philosophy, art, and music. Author Matthew Fox writes in Hildegard of Bingen about this amazing woman and what we can learn from her. In an era when women were marginalized, Hildegard was an outspoken, controversial figure. Yet so visionary was her insight that she was sought out by kings, popes, abbots, and bishops for advice. A sixteenth century follower of Martin Luther called her “the first Protestant” because of her appeals to reform the church. As a writer, composer, philosopher, Christian mystic, Benedictine abbess, healer, artist, feminist, and student of science, Hildegard was a pioneer in many fields in her day.
3 thoughts on “Hildegard of Bingen’s Feast Day 2024”
Hildegard of Bingen was a visible messenger of wisdom in her time. True wisdom does not go away. If we choose to consult with ‘Wisdom” in the here and now through Hildegard, with another anointed messenger no longer visibly present to us, or the Holy Spirit directly, it is up to us. The ‘message’ and response should be the same. What we should not do is to presume and romanticize what a Saint would say or do. The Saint, in rebuke and / or in humility would chastise us for our fantastical notions and spreading them as the wisdom of truth.
On note from yesterday’s comments, we tend to romanticize many things. There is significant wisdom embodied in Indigenous culture, rituals and practises that have been handed down to succeeding spiritualists. This we need to truly recognize as its power comes from the same Great and universal Spirit. It would be a mistake to idealize all of Indigenous culture without considering the great pain and suffering that their youth and communities are experiencing.
“Indigenous youth mental health? The suicide rate is 5 to 6 times higher for First Nations youth than non-Aboriginal youth and 11 times higher for Inuit youth than the Canadian national average (Indigenous Services Canada, 2018.) Suicide is one of the darkest and saddest crises facing Indigenous peoples around the world today. Jan 22, 2024 “– Source Internet. – BB.
Hildegard is another incarnation and spiritual warrior of the Divine Feminine in human history who inspires Us to continue having Faith in the Divine Feminine’s Spirit of LOVE, Peace, Truth, Justice, Healing, Forgiveness, Freedom, Transformation, Creativity, Diverse Wholeness~ONENESS with-in, through, among Us in the Sacred Process the ETERNAL PRESENT MOMENT….
Thank you for introducing me to Hildegard on this, her feast day. She sounds like someone who actualized all her talents and abilities. We all have them, but do we respect them? Do we use them? Hildegard used her intelligence; used her creativity. She didn’t lock them away. She knew they were priceless treasures. This really is a Saint for these times. She encourages us to live fully, doing all you can for the betterment of societies. I really want to read the books!
I know of another Catholic mystic, Sr. Theresa Avila. She writes about demons bothering her, she can hear them around her sometimes. She shoos them away, in her own powerful way, I imagine. Sometimes, she writes, she has to make a really loud noise to scare them away.