28 September 2026

Like Jesus, Hildegard used beautiful pictures to describe God’s world. Once she said that she was like a feather. On its own the feather falls to the ground. It’s lifeless. But the wind picks up the feather, makes it rise up into the sky and gives it life!

On her own, Hildegard could do nothing but with God’s Spirit, she was full of life. She grew herbs, healed the sick, wrote books, preached sermons, composed music. A feather! Nine hundred years ago, Hildegard of Bingen described herself as a feather, ‘a feather on the breath of God’.