27 September 2026

On the nine hundredth anniversary of Hildegard’s birth (1998), a recording of her plainsong reached the Top Twenty in the Classical Music Charts. Her music was one of three things which encouraged a renascence in her life and work. The fact that she was such a gifted woman inspired  those who valued the ministry of women.

Her theology resonated within the contemporary world. She emphasised the goodness of creation and the importance of living in harmony with God, the world and all that it contains. The image of light  predominates. Darkness has befallen us because of the Fall. Our true condition is to live in the light and reflect the radiance of God’s light.

‘But God has created human beings to be full of light so that they could see the radiance of pure ether and hear the songs of the angels.’ she wrote. ‘He had clothed them in such radiance that they shone with the splendour of it.’

Another important image is greenness. She called her herbs ‘God’s green gifts’. She said that God had ‘the greening power’ not only to make plants grow but to make us grow more loving towards one another.

She sees God’s greening power functioning in the mystery of redemption. ‘So it  was  that man, who had fallen, could climb again through repentance and renew himself in the ways of holiness and the different virtues, as though adorned with the greenness of flowers’.