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Excerpted Inspirations #171

  • Writer: Linda Odhner, with photos by Liz Kufs
    Linda Odhner, with photos by Liz Kufs
  • Mar 24
  • 0 min read

[When this was published in 1991, Hildegarde was less well remembered than she is today.] Hildegarde of Bingen, 1098-1179. One incredible woman of whom I had never heard a thing and who is not mentioned in any standard texts is Hildegarde of Bingen. She founded the Abbey of Rupertsburg in 1147 and was and was famous for the breadth of her knowledge in a wide range of areas -- scientific, theological and musical -- and for her ability to govern enormous establishments of both men and women. She was a visionary who wrote extensive theological documents, illuminated manuscripts, composed a symphony and many devotional songs, and wrote many works on medicine and natural science. She catalogued herbs and forty-seven separate diseases. She described animals, plants and rocks, and is credited with studies on the circulation of the blood, the relation of sugar and diabetes, nerve action to the brain, and contagion -- all this back in the twelfth century! Hildegarde wrote poems, and treatises on adolescent psychology. The learned from all over Europe, including popes and bishops, sought her advice. She toured cities and universities, preached, was said to have the gift of prophecy. She scolded men of power when they seemed to stray. Have you ever seen her mentioned in a history book? Astonishing! Some of the warrior queens get more coverage, perhaps because of male historians' tendency to frame history in terms of wars. Aubrey Cole Odhner, "Women of Influence in Western Culture," in Connections: Offerings from the New Church Women's Symposium, 1991, p. 97

 
 
 

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