Hildegard of Bingen OSB was canonized by Pope Benedict XVI in 2012 and he recognized her as a Doctor of the Church\u2014one of only four women in Christian history. Pope Benedict described St. Hildegard as \u201ca woman of brilliant intelligence, deep sensitivity, and recognized spiritual authority.\u201d He also celebrated her \u201cfearlessness, a feature of every prophet.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So why, if Hildegard was such a luminous figure, did it take the Church over 800 years to recognize her sanctity?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sr Joan Chitister OSBreflects:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWhen you look at the profile of Hildegard of Bingen, you could pick her up from the 12th century and plop her down in the middle of New York City in 2014 and she\u2019d have no problem. People would be in awe of her natural brilliance. She would easily find a job, and she would be an international figure. As far as I\u2019m concerned, that explains why it took almost a thousand years for the Church to get around to canonizing her. . . This woman was simply bigger than life\u2014too big to handle, and too big to understand.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It\u2019s important to consider our rich, extraordinary theological tradition and recognise Hildegard\u2019s unique and powerful contribution.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Hildegard’s works include three volumes on visionary theology, musical compositions for use in the liturgy, as well as the first musical morality play. Hildegard\u2019s letters, over 400 have survived and were addressed to popes, emperors, and abbesses. To add to this Hildegard studied, researched and wrote two volumes of material on natural medicine and cures and published sermons and Scripture reflections.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Hildegard’s most significant works outlined her visionary theology: Scivias<\/em> (“Know the Ways”, composed 1142\u20131151), Liber Vitae Meritorum<\/em> (“Book of Life’s Merits” or “Book of the Rewards of Life”, composed 1158\u20131163); and Liber Divinorum Operum<\/em> (“Book of Divine Works”, also known as De operatione Dei<\/em>, “On God’s Activity”. She was an exceptional theologian and mystic. In these works, Hildegard describes each vision, whose details are often strange and enigmatic, and then interprets their theological contents in the words of the “voice of the Living Light\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n I think Sr Joan was right. \u2018too big to understand.\u2019 We celebrate her feast day on September 17th<\/sup>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n by Virginia Ryan<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Hildegard of Bingen OSB was canonized by Pope Benedict XVI in 2012 and he recognized her as a Doctor of the Church\u2014one of only four women in Christian history. Pope Benedict described St. Hildegard as \u201ca woman of brilliant intelligence, deep sensitivity, and recognized spiritual authority.\u201d He also celebrated her \u201cfearlessness, a feature of every […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":28064,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":"","_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[38,45,26,44,24,55,8,32,50,41,25,51,34,54,47,31,42,39,48,46,52,40,37,35,28,43,53,36,27,33,29],"class_list":["post-28063","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-newsletter","tag-ancient-wisdom","tag-contemplative-prayer","tag-enlightenment","tag-guided-meditation","tag-inner-peace","tag-introspection","tag-lectio-divina","tag-lectio-divina-for-beginners","tag-life-transformation","tag-meditation-guide","tag-meditation-mastery","tag-meditation-tips","tag-mindfulness","tag-mindfulness-meditation","tag-mindfulness-practices","tag-mindfulness-techniques","tag-personal-development","tag-reflect-and-transform","tag-reflective-living","tag-sacred-reading","tag-self-discovery","tag-self-help","tag-soulful-journey","tag-soulful-living","tag-spiritual-awakening","tag-spiritual-growth","tag-spiritual-guide","tag-spiritual-insights","tag-spiritual-practice","tag-spiritual-reflection","tag-transformative-journey"],"aioseo_notices":[],"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/lectiodivina.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/TRINITY-DOME-MOSAIC.jpg",1000,630,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/lectiodivina.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/TRINITY-DOME-MOSAIC-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/lectiodivina.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/TRINITY-DOME-MOSAIC-300x189.jpg",300,189,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/lectiodivina.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/TRINITY-DOME-MOSAIC-768x484.jpg",768,484,true],"large":["https:\/\/lectiodivina.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/TRINITY-DOME-MOSAIC.jpg",1000,630,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/lectiodivina.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/TRINITY-DOME-MOSAIC.jpg",1000,630,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/lectiodivina.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/TRINITY-DOME-MOSAIC.jpg",1000,630,false],"menu-24x24":["https:\/\/lectiodivina.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/TRINITY-DOME-MOSAIC-24x15.jpg",24,15,true],"menu-36x36":["https:\/\/lectiodivina.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/TRINITY-DOME-MOSAIC-36x23.jpg",36,23,true],"menu-48x48":["https:\/\/lectiodivina.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/TRINITY-DOME-MOSAIC-48x30.jpg",48,30,true]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"Virginia Ryan","author_link":"https:\/\/lectiodivina.com.au\/?author=2"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"Hildegard of Bingen OSB was canonized by Pope Benedict XVI in 2012 and he recognized her as a Doctor of the Church\u2014one of only four women in Christian history. Pope Benedict described St. Hildegard as \u201ca woman of brilliant intelligence, deep sensitivity, and recognized spiritual authority.\u201d He also celebrated her \u201cfearlessness, a feature of every…","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lectiodivina.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28063","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lectiodivina.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lectiodivina.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lectiodivina.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lectiodivina.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=28063"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lectiodivina.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28063\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28065,"href":"https:\/\/lectiodivina.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28063\/revisions\/28065"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lectiodivina.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/28064"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lectiodivina.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=28063"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lectiodivina.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=28063"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lectiodivina.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=28063"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}