Blog on the Learig

  26 September 2026 As well as running two monasteries, going on preaching tours, writing and illustrating books, engaging with the abbot, emperor and pope, Hildegard also wrote about seventy-seven songs and set them to music.   Love Gives herself to all things, Most excellent in the depths, And above the stars Cherishing all: For the High King She has given The kiss of peace. This is her ‘Antiphon for Divine Love’. The music she wrote for the words was based on the plainsong which was sung in the monastery. God’s praises were not only to be made with the voice but with a variety of instruments. The outer song was not only praise in itself but an opportunity to tune   the inner life to praise God too! Surprisingly enough, much of Hildegard’s understanding of music has been gleaned from a letter which she wrote to the clergy of Mainz. In 1178, she had given permission for a nobleman to be buried in the monastery grounds. Although he had been excommuni...

  25 September 2026 Three things contributed to Hildegard’s extraordinary influence. The first was her position as abbess. Most of the nuns were of noble birth. The monastery had connections with rich, powerful and influential people in the land. It was a place of prayer and learning. It facilitated the creation of networks which surprise us today. The second was her preaching ministry. When most women nowadays may be thinking about retiring at 67, Hildegard discerned a vocation to ministry which was granted to few women until the twentieth century. For twelve years, she preached to the clergy and laity, in institutions and in public. The third was her amazing correspondence. Three hundred of her letters survive. She corresponded with the Emperor, four popes,   archbishops, abbots and priests, ordinary members of the church. She even wrote a letter to Henry II of England about the importance of integrity. She writes to Abbess Hazzecha.   Hezzecha wants to give up ...

  24 September 2026 Throughout the second half of her life, Hildegard embarked on several major initiatives. At forty-two, she began writing down and interpreting her visions. At fifty-two, she decided to establish her own monastery at Petersberg. Up until then, the community of nuns was part of a bigger monastery which was under the authority of an abbot. Whilst Hildegard ran the community of women, she depended on the abbot to provide priests for the Sacraments and finance to pay the bills. Luckily for Hildegard, God agreed with her! She had another vision. But the abbot was not convinced. A community largely full of richly endowed noblewomen provided useful income for the monastery. The abbot didn’t want to lose it. Hildegard took to her bed and remained there motionless! The abbot tried to lift her but to no avail. Seeing this as a sign of divine disapproval (rather than Hildegard’s) he relented. As soon as he did, Hildegard got out of bed, fully restored to health. A m...

  23 September 2026 ‘When I  was three years old,’ Hildegard of Bingen  said to her teacher, Jutta, ‘I felt close to God. Ever since then, I can see him in everything he has made – plants, animals, people, everything. It has made me so happy.’  This relationship was greatly enriched by a series of visions which she had during her life. S he explained how they came to her. ‘The visions which I saw I did not perceive  in dreams nor when asleep nor in a delirium nor with the eyes or ears of the body. I received them when I was awake and looking around with a clear mind, with the inner eyes and ears, in open places according to the will of God.’ She was unsure about them. In the first place, they were often accompanied by bouts of ill health – and so she suffered for them. In the second place, she didn’t feel free to share them with anyone. Jutta knew. But it was only when Jutta died and Hildegard gained the authority of abbess that she wrote her visions down. By ...

    22 September 2026 I have a copy of ‘The Times: Greatest Sermons of the Last 2000 Years’.  In it, there are eighty-five sermons altogether. All the big names are there – Jesus, Peter, Paul, Patrick and Francis, Knox, Bunyan, Wesley and Newman, Bonhoeffer and Martin Luther King. All the preachers are men except one. In this collection of eighty-five sermons, there is only one sermon which has been preached by a woman and that is Hildegard of Bingen. The theme of her sermon is ‘The Devil’. It begins with one of her celebrated visions. She unpacks the detail in an  allegorical way. She makes important points about being wise to the devil’s wiles, resisting temptation and valuing the things of God. It’s quite a remarkable achievement for one who didn’t start preaching in public until she was sixty years old. Despite bouts of prolonged ill-health, she made four preaching tours in twelve years, travelling within a 200km radius of Bingen. ‘I permit no woman t...

  21 September 2026 Bede’s historical record about Hilda and the monastery at Whitby has a contemporary ring to it. Her ministry as the leader of a double monastery is remarkable. She was not alone in exercising so much power in the church. How was it possible for a woman to do this in the seventh century? Anne Warin in her biography of Hilda argues that it was partly to do with the position of noble women within Anglo-Saxon society. They were ‘guardians of knowledge … able administrators of court and estate … Their rights of property and inheritance were protected by law …’ Whilst the ministry of women has been developed in the Kirk and the Church of England, it has yet to be developed more fully in the Roman Catholic Church and the Orthodox Churches. What happened to this wise, vibrant and influential ministry of women celebrated so brilliantly in seventh century Whitby? As well as the difficulties surrounding the ministry of women, Bede also exposes the theological diffe...