“There is a power in eternity, and it is green!”

Hildegard of Bingen, Medieval Herbalist

By Shanon Sterringer

Photo taken from an herb garden along the Hildegard Trail in Germany, 2019

The works of Hildegard of Bingen have become quite popular in the last few decades after they were unearthed by musicians and scholars following centuries of dormancy. Who was this 12th century German Benedictine nun and why is she emerging as one of history’s most interesting and brilliant women?

The extent of her genius stretches beyond her skills as an herbalist to include musician, artist, preacher, healer, politician, philosopher, theologian, storyteller, and creative leader, to name a few of her gifts.  She was deeply rooted in the Benedictine tradition of ora et labora (prayer and work) which included working in the monastery gardens and infirmary.

Hildegard of Bingen has been credited with creating the term, “viriditas” which translated from the Latin means, “greening power” because of the way she used it in her writings to describe the primordial energy that not only created this earth but sustains and enlivens it. The term actually predated Hildegard (she picked it up from earlier writers), but she gave it a much deeper and profound meaning. The sacred greenness referred to by Hildegard exists not only in the material form, but spiritually and intellectually. It is the very essence of life and the energy that draws so many to find peace and healing in nature, especially in our gardens.  

Photo taken from the ruins at Disibodenberg, Germany in 2015. This is believed to have been the infirmary at the male Benedictine monastery where Hildegard was tithed as a young child. She lived here for almost forty years, so it may be the space where she learned how to use herbs for healing.

Hildegard’s two works on herbs and healing include Physica and Causae et Curae, but her use of natural images including gardens, bees/honey, and viriditas permeate many of her other writings. She used natural images as metaphors, at times even parables, to teach and preach. For example, she wrote the following in a letter to Philip, Archbishop of Cologne, offering what we would refer to today as spiritual direction:

In a vision, I saw as it were, the sun shining with excessive heat upon mud filled with worms, and these creatures stretched themselves out in joy of the heat, but, eventually, not being able to bear the excessive heat, they hid themselves away, and the mud sent forth a noisome stench. I saw also that the sun shone in a garden, in which roses and lilies and all kinds of herbs grew, and the flowers grew abundantly by the heat of the sun, and the herbs sent forth innumerable roots and gave forth an exceedingly delightful odor, so that many people, suffused with this lovely fragrance, rejoiced in the garden as if it were paradise. And I heard a voice from above saying to you: Make your decision, O human, whether you wish to remain in this garden of delights or to lie with the worms in their stinking excrement. 

The photo of the apothecary is an example of how Hildegard’s herbal remedies are still being used in Germany today.

As gardeners, we have all experienced the beautiful fragrance, as well as the noisome stench, of our gardens, so this image resonates. Hildegard lived close to the earth, and therefore, was able to weave into her spiritual, political, and theological writings these powerful and relevant metaphors that speak to us on a soul level.

Her work, Physica, is a practical guide to using herbs for holistic health. It consists of nine books describing the benefits and cautions of certain herbs, trees, precious gemstones, and so on. The work has been translated into English by Priscilla Throop (1998) and is available at most online bookstores. There is an abbreviated version of it, which includes only the chapter on plants published by Beacon Press (2001). 

Today, many are finding creative ways to bring Hildegard’s work on herbs and the natural world back into use. Hildegardens (Hildegard-inspired herb gardens) are sprouting up across Germany, and even in the U.S., for example, we are developing one here at the Hildegard Haus in Fairport Harbor! 

Photo from a Hildegarden in Germany, 2019

The works of Hildegard of Bingen, including her love for the natural world, blossomed in her day. For centuries, the seeds of her genius lay dormant, buried deep within the earth, until the conditions were right for new sprouts to emerge. Today, these seeds are blowing far and wide producing rich and abundant fruit as her charism and wisdom speak boldly to our contemporary context. 

Photo from the Hildegarden in Fairport Harbor, Ohio, 2022

How can you bring a bit of Hildegard into your daily experience? Of course, you can plant some of the herbs she refers to in her works, thus creating a Hildegarden of your own! You can also bring her into your life in simpler ways. For example, you could keep a jar of her “Spices of Joy” (equal parts cinnamon and nutmeg, with clove to taste) on your counter to mix into your oatmeal, coffee, or maybe even into your next apple cake! You could mix up a batch of her “Cookies of Joy” (recipe to follow) or simply brew a cup of fennel tea (fennel for Hildegard is a super-herb) to sip while listening to one of her mesmerizing chants. Personally, I love to create beeswax balms and salves infused with the herbs she grew.

Hildegard died in 1179 at the age of 81 years old. Her sisters recorded a vision of a brilliant cross-shaped light in the sky as her soul departed her physical body. Almost nine-hundred years later, she continues to invite us into her garden. I believe she would rejoice at being invited into ours! 

Recipe from the Healthy Hildegard website:

• 12 Tablespoon Butter for mixture
• + 1 T Butter to grease cookie sheet
• ¾ cup brown sugar
• 1/3 cup honey
• 4 egg yolks
• 2 ½ cups spelt flour
• 1 tsp sea salt
• 2 rounded T Spices of Joy

Melt butter under low heat, add sugar, honey, egg yolks, beating lightly. Add flour, salt, and combine gently. Refrigerate dough after mixing for 1 hour. Remove, roll out on floured surface, cut with cookie cutter. Bake on sheet 400 degrees F for 10-15 minutes.

You might enjoy scrolling through the Healthy Hildegard website (www.healthyhildegard.com) based in Colorado and founded by Josh Cashman. It is filled with information on Hildegard’s use of herbs and recipes.

Join Shanon on Tuesday, May 16, at 1pm Eastern for her webinar: Hildegard of Bingen: Medieval Herbalist. Our webinars are free to The Herb Society of America members and $7.50 for guests. Become a member today, and enjoy all of our webinars for free along with access to the webinar library with over fifty program titles. To register, visit https://www.herbsociety.org/hsa-learn/herb-education/hsa-webinars/

Medicinal Disclaimer: It is the policy of The Herb Society of America, Inc. not to advise or recommend herbs for medicinal or health use. The information in this presentation is intended for educational purposes only and should not be considered as a recommendation or an endorsement of any particular medical or health treatment. Please consult a health care provider before pursuing any herbal treatments.

Photo credits: All photos courtesy of the author.

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Shanon Sterringer holds a PhD in Ethical and Creative Leadership (focused on the model of St. Hildegard of Bingen); a DMin, two master’s degrees (MA in theology and MA in ministry), and a BA in Medieval History. She is the founding pastor of the Hildegard Haus in Fairport Harbor, OH, and the owner of The Green Shepherdess Fair-Trade shop and local art studio, also in Fairport Harbor. She has traveled to the Rhine Valley several times since 2015 (most recently in January 2023) to walk in the footsteps of St. Hildegard. She has dedicated the last ten years of her life to studying Hildegard’s charism, most particularly as it relates to holistic health and spirituality. While on sabbatical in 2019, Shanon spent most of the year learning about herbs while working for a local herbalist, Lynn Abbey, at Blue Lake Botanicals in Willoughby, Ohio. Shanon is married and the mother of three adult daughters and has published two books on the topic of Hildegard (Forbidden Grace and 30 Day Journey with St. Hildegard). A third book (focused on the material recorded in Physica) is in process. Shanon has offered many retreats and educational presentations on the topic of Hildegard and Herbs, including a variety of online classes/seminars and a presentation at the Cleveland Botanical Gardens for the Western Reserve Herb Society.

Herbalist Hildegard of Bingen

By Kathleen M Hale, Western Reserve Unit

Once upon a time, about 1098 to 1179, there was a little girl named Hildegard. She was the tenth of ten children. Her parents were “minor nobility,” but ten kids are a lot of kids. When she was eight years old, Hildegard’s parents gifted her to a convent.

Later, when she wrote her autobiography, she would say that she had started having visions from the time she was six. In these visions, Hildegard witnessed “the fiery life of divine essence,” a living light. This light spoke to Hildegard (in Latin) and explained…everything. Some modern commentators speculate that Hildegard might have suffered from migraines. The visions tended to leave her drained and exhausted.

The care and education of little Hildegard was entrusted to a remarkable woman named Jutta. They lived together in a cottage on the grounds of the Abbey of Saint Disibode, founded by an Irish monk at Disibodenberg. Hildegard became a literate and accomplished woman, took vows as a nun, and continued to have visions. She wrote her first book, Scivias, which means “Know the Ways”, between 1141 and 1151, in which she talked about her visions. She herself painted the image that became the front of the book and portrayed her repeated vision of receiving light. This is the image. She’s writing down things on a wax tablet, discussing things with her secretary. (My children claim the image reminds them of various sci-fi alien visitations.)

The book was a great success. The Bishop of Mainz, (now in Germany), read it, and passed it on to Pope Eugenius III, who became a fan. The literal “enlightenment” that Hildegard received from her visions was examined by the Pope and a special committee. They concluded that her visions were divine. The Pope told her to go on and write whatever the Spirit told her to write. Can you imagine what a big deal that was?

The book was a big hit with women who wanted to join Hildegard, in her rather austere monastic life. The community of women at Disodenberg outgrew its quarters. So she moved to Rupertsberg, near Bingen. Although she traveled widely, she lived mostly at Bingen for the rest of her life, writing other books…and a play…and music. Hildegard wrote about everything. Theology, natural science and medicine were, for her, all part of the same spectrum of knowledge. Just for fun, she made up her own language. She corresponded with four popes and the crowned heads of Europe, giving them personal advice.

This was, as her painting suggests, a woman on fire.

Hildegard’s book, Physica, or Liber Simplicis Medicinae, begins with the study of plants. She goes on, in her delightfully methodical way, to discuss elements, trees, stones, fish, birds, animals, reptiles, and metals. But the section on plants contains entries on more than two hundred plants with medicinal uses. Mostly these were plants that could probably be found in the monastery garden or the nearby woods and fields. Some were exotic but could be purchased. This was, after all, the time of the Crusades. People were traveling, and when they got back from all that bloodletting, they brought back cosmopolitan tastes.

Hildegard organized her observations about each plant in accordance with the understanding of the time: the division of all matter into combinations of the four elements of hot, cold, wet, and dry. It was all a matter of balance. This understanding of the universe sounds strange to modern ears. But Hildegard was a renaissance woman before the Renaissance. She may have made up her own language, but she expressed her understanding of plants in the language of the time.

Hildegard, while aware of the hand of God in all things, was essentially a pragmatist. All things were created by God to serve man. Good plants nourish, and restore elemental balance. Bad plants may be used by the devil to bring ruin to those foolish enough to be deceived by them.

Here are some of Hildegard’s thoughts – from Physica — about herbs you may have in your herb garden or pantry right now:

• LAVENDER (Lavendula) is warm and dry since it has just a little moisture. It is not worth a person to eat it, but it does have a strong smell. If a person has many lice, let the person smell lavender frequently; the lice will die. And its smell clears the eyes since it contains the power of the strongest aromas and the usefulness of the bitterest one. Therefore, it constrains many evil things, and evil spirits are driven out by it.
•  NUTMEG (Nux muscata) has great warmth and good temperament in its strength. If a person eats nutmeg, it opens the heart and purifies the senses and brings a good disposition. Take some nutmeg, an equal weight of cinnamon, and a little cloves. Grind these to a powder, add a similar amount of whole wheat flour and a little water, and make a paste from this. Then eat it often. It will calm all the bitterness of heart and mind, open the heart and clouded senses and diminish all the noxious humors; it will contribute good liquid to the blood and make one strong.
•  ROSE (Rosa) is cold and this same coldness has a useful temperament in it. At daybreak of in the morning, take a rose leaf and place it over your eye; this draws out the humor and makes it clear. Let whoever has a weeping ulcer on his or her body, place a rose leaf over it and draw out the pus. But rose also strengthens any potion or ointment or other medication when it is added to it. And these are so much better if only a little rose has been added to them. This is from the good strength of the rose, as previously mentioned.

Cloves will help a stuffy nose, gout, and dropsy. Hellebore is good for a fever. Wild thyme is curative for those suffering from “a sick brain.” And there are a lot of things that will foster sexual desire, with or without a corresponding increase in fertility.

This is a very small sample. For more, see Bruce W. Hozesli’s translation in Hildegard’s Healing Plants (2001). It’s terrific fun.

Hildegard was obviously a woman of substantial importance in her own time. A Jesuit friend of mine says she used to terrorize her local bishops. I love that. While the process of recognizing her as a saint of the Roman Catholic church began with her beatification in 1326, Hildegard wasn’t canonized until 2012, when she became a Doctor of the Church. Hildegard’s influence was there, quietly waiting for the world to catch up with her. It’s time to share, with delight, her extraordinary divine alchemy.