Pope Francis reiterated this point on his trip to Colombia (September 6-11, 2017). Hildegard of Bingen (1098-1179) already understood this clearly.

She was a Benedictine nun, a mystic, theologian, foundress, writer, expert in pharmacology, cosmologist, composer, botanist, doctor … and she maintained correspondence with popes, bishops, kings, and emperors. If she needed to reproach them for anything, she didn't hesitate to do so.

San Pablo Ediciones has just published a book about the unique mystical experiences of this great woman, whom the author, Cristina Siccardi, calls a "mystic and scientist."

Saint Hidegard's mysticism isn't one of ecstasy; she "always remains rooted in the world, even when the supernatural bursts into her life," the author says.

Hildegard's manuscripts are in Latin and German, and her work has been carefully studied, especially by Benedictines and experts in medieval prophetism and mysticism.

When Benedict XVI dedicated several of his catecheses to important women in the Church, the first example he chose was, in fact, Hildegard.

Experts agree that she was not a normal child. From when she was very young, "she saw beyond what was visible to the eye."

She herself relates, in her work called Scivias ("Know the Ways of the Lord"): "Since I was a child, specifically since I was five years old, and still today, I have always mysteriously experienced in my interior the strength and mystery of those hidden and secret visions."

In Vida y Visiones de Hildegard von Bingen, published by Siruela, Victoria Cirlot, professor of medieval literature at Pompeu Fabra University in Barcelona, Spain, states that Hildegard is "one of the most fascinating and multifaceted figures of Western Europe."

One aspect of her personality was that "she wasn't intimidated by criticism," but neither did she "allow herself to be led astray by praise." Continue reading

Sources

• Aleteia article by Miriam Diez Bosch
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At approximately the same time the Opening Mass for the Synod on the New Evangelisation was being celebrated in St. Peter's in Rome and the doctorates on Hildegard and John of Avila were being promulgated.

Apart from being only the 4^th woman in the history of the church to receive this honour Hildegard was an extraordinary woman. Her life spanned much of the 12^th century being born in Germany in 1098 and dying in 1179. She wrote extensively, composed music which subverted the principles of liturgical music of the time, was a philosopher, ecologist, mystic, Benedictine abbess and visionary.

She wrote theological, botanical and medicinal texts, as well as letters to people such as Bernard of Clairvaux, founder of the reformist Cistercian monastic order. He sent the text of some of her work to Pope Eugenius 111 who endorsed her works and visions, giving her approval to document her visions as revelations from the Holy Spirit.

Her world at that time was in some ways not unlike our own time. There was an atmosphere of fear. New ideas were condemned as heresy. What helped Hildegard navigate through this minefield?

She was a prophet in that she lived immediately before Francis of Assisi, Dominic, Thomas Aquinas and the great Mechtilde of Magdeburg. Perhaps it is providential that she has remained hidden until now so that her impact on our time may be more beneficial, in releasing the spring of new discoveries into exploring God in the Gospel as revealed by Jesus, the Word.

Amazingly at sixty she did the unthinkable for her time. She travelled to cathedrals, churches, abbeys and monasteries preaching. This was at a time when only men preached and women were safely enclosed within monastic walls. What an inspiration for us today!

A Doctor of the Church who can speak the Word of God to all who listen. Catherine Hannan.

• Sister Catherine Hannan is a Home of Compassion sister.