Guest post from Mary Sharratt, author of ILLUMINATIONS

I am delighted to welcome Mary Sharratt, author of ILLUMINATIONS, a novel based on the life of the famous Benedictine abbess, healer and mystic, Hildegard von Bingen. Mary is the acclaimed author of several novels, including The Vanishing Point and Daughters of the Witching Hill. In her latest book, she brings to vivid life the travails and triumphs of the 12th century nun who became one of the world's most accomplished women - a composer whose music is still recorded today as well as a skilled healer and powerful philosopher. In celebration of Illuminations' publication, which coincides with Hildegard's elevation as Doctor of the Church, Mary offers us this guest post about her character's astonishing gifts.

Please join me in welcoming Mary Sharratt.

Hildegard the Healer by Mary Sharratt

Hildegard von Bingen (1098–1179) was a visionary Benedictine abbess and polymath. She composed an entire corpus of sacred music and wrote nine books on subjects as diverse as theology, cosmology, botany, medicine, linguistics, and human sexuality, a prodigious intellectual outpouring that was unprecedented for a 12th-century woman. Her prophecies earned her the title Sybil of the Rhine.  Eight hundred and seventy-three years after her death, Hildegard was canonized in May 2012. On October 7, she was elevated to Doctor of the Church, a rare and solemn title reserved for theologians who have significantly impacted Church doctrine. 

But Hildegard was also a physician and healer who developed her own highly original style of medical treatment and holistic dietary philosophy.  Saint Benedict of Nursia (480-543), the founder of her order, expressly forbade the study of medicine, which in his era derived solely from texts written by pagans such as Hippocrates and Galen. Benedict believed that prayer alone must suffice in healing Christians.

By Hildegard’s time, monasteries had become centers of healing and embraced the medical knowledge of the Classical pagan world along with the pioneering work of the Arab and Persian physicians. Nearly every monastic house had its own infirmary, hospice, apothecary, and medicinal garden. Hildegard would have had ample opportunity to train as a physician and apothecarer at Disibodenberg Monastery, a double monastery housing both monks and nuns, where she had lived since the age of eight.

Author photo by Anne Bullen

In his essay, “Hildegard’s Medicine: A Systematic Science of Medieval Europe,” Kevin Anthony Hay suggests that Hildegard trained as an infirmarer at Disibodenberg under the guidance of a senior monk before she later took charge of the infirmary. After she and her nuns left Disibodenberg to found their own community at Rupertsberg, she wrote Causae et Curae, her main medical text, possibly so the new infirmarer at Disibodenberg could benefit from her knowledge and expertise. When designing the new abbey at Rupertsberg, Hildegard made sure to include a medicinal steambath. People throughout her region came to Rupertsberg to receive healing.

In the Middle Ages, women freely practiced the medical arts. The School of Salerno, the first medieval European medical school and the epicenter of Western medical science, included both women instructors and students. One such instructor was the 11th century Trotula whose treatise on women’s health that bears her name, de Trotula, was used for centuries after her death. It was not until the mid- 16th century that European women were formally forbidden to study and practice as physicians.  

Hay believes Hildegard was unique among female practitioners of her time because her medicine didn’t focus solely on female complaints and also because she developed a systematic, scientific, and holistic understanding of medicine that rivaled what was coming out of Salerno, even though she had never received any formal university training. For Hildegard, medicine was an integral part of her religious vocation. Her medicine mirrors her theology—she believed that humans existed as the microcosm within the macrocosm of the universe and, as such, mirrored the splendor of creation. But if one fell into disharmony with the innate wholeness of creation, illness resulted. This could be treated through rest, herbal cures, steam baths, a proper diet, and by making one’s peace with the divine order. She identified precancerous states and developed herbal remedies to treat them before the cancer could develop. Naturopathic doctors in modern Germany still practice “Hildegard Medizin” and work with her dietary philosophy. She was a big fan of spelt bread. She warned that water could be unhealthy to drink and could cause illness, but that beer was most wholesome and pleasing to God. She was credited for discovering the use of hops to preserve beer. 

If you are visiting Hildegard sites in Germany, be sure to stop at the Hildegard Forum, just across the Rhine from the Saint Hildegard Abbey in Eibingen. The Forum is run by religious sisters who offer outreach for the public to learn more about Hildegard, particularly her philosophy of holistic healing and nutrition. They manage a café and restaurant; offer seminars and retreats; and maintain an orchard and a medieval-style herb garden.

Illuminations: A Novel of Hildegard von Bingen is published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt and is a Book of the Month and One Spirit Book Club pick. Visit Mary at her website.