HIldegard of Bingen (1098-1179)
During her lifetime, Hildegard of Bingen was famous for her visions that she had published in her mystical & theological works, Liber Scivias, Liber Vitae Meritorum and Liber Divinorum Operum. - Known as the German Prophetess (Prophetissa Teutonica), she perceived herself as the Trumpet of God called to denounce the social and political state of her time. Thus, she did not merely admonish nun and monks but also pope and emperor. - Hildegard was a seeing listener and a listening seeress. Her visions were at once auditions in which she perceived the voice of God, heard the music of the angels and gained insight into the secret of God (Vision of Trinity), the position of the human being in the cosmos and the history / herstory of God with humankind – from creation to incarnation up to the Last Judgement.
Annette Esser & Eveline Waterboer
The Hildegard Way - A new Pilgrimage Trail
The Hildegard Way ("Hildegard von Bingen Pilgerwanderweg") is a 137-kilometer long pilgrimage trail. It starts in Idar-Oberstein, the famous city of gems (Hildegrds described their heailing effect) and continues past the Medieval town of Herrstein past Niederhosenbach, the family seat and possible birthplace of Hildegard of Bingen (1098-1179). Past the barefoot path of Bad Sobernheim, the Hildegard Way reaches the historic ruin site of Disibodenberg where Hildegard had lived for about 40 years of her life (1112-1150). It continues to the ruins of Böckelheim and Sponheim Castle, where Hildegard might have got an education with her teacher Lady Jutta of Sponheim (1106-1112).Then the 12 century old Cloister Church of Sponheim with a Hildegarden and a lybyrinth in front are a real highlight of the Pigrimage. Along an old path of Marian Pilgrimage places ("Madonna of the Soonwald") and through the beatiful Bingen Forest the majestic Rhine Valley opens up for view. From there, the trail reaches the Rupertsberg in Bingerbrück, where Hildegard founded her own women Monastery, where she moved with 19 sisters in 1150.
In Bingerbrück, the pilgrimage trail connetcs to the Bingen and the Rüdesheim Trail on the opposite side of the Rhine. The latter leads to the Pilrgrimage Church with the Hildegard-Shrine ("Wallfahrtskirche") and to St. Hildegard's Abbey, where her Benedictine sisters live till today.
A short introduction made by Michael Conti with Dr. Annette Esser. September 2022.
Selected Articles
Annette Esser: The Life of Saint Hildegard
In this article, Annette Esser - German translator of Barbara Newman's groundbreaking Hildegard Book Sister of Wisdom - tells us the life of Saint Hildegard in seven stations. Based on primary sources and new discoveries - especially since the translation from Latin of the vita of Hildegard's teacher Jutta of Sponheim - this is a new account. The author and director of the Scivias Institute has drafted it at first during the International Conference 2012 for a pilgrimage to the Disibodenberg where Hildegard had lived for almoste 40 years of her life . This Conference was organized by the Scivias Institute due to the canonization and promotion of Hildeard of Bingen (1098-1179) as Doctor of the Church (Doctor Ecclesiae Universalis). Annette Esser has then published it in a written form for the German edition of the Conference book (Annette Esser, ed., Die Kirchenlehrerin Hildegard von Bingen, Berlin 2015, p.15-63). With the help of Susan Roll she has translated this into English.
Margarida Barbal Rodoreda: The Music of Hildegard von Bingen
Margarida Barbal Rodoreda is a professor at the Barcelona Music School (Escola Superior de Música de Catalunya) with profound knowlege on Hildegard's music. At the international Conference 2012, she gave a workshop on Hildegard's favorite song "O virga ac diadema" in Bingen ("Hildegard Gedächtniskirche"). Margarida Barbal wrote the two tableau-texts on Hildegard's music on the "Hildegard of Bingen Pilgrimage Route". As a singer of Hildegard's songs, she recorded "Lebendiges Licht" in 2016 (Psalmos. RDA); songs from this record can be heard along the Hildegard Way. This article contains additional text to the tableais on Hildegard's music generally,a and specifically on her Marian songs.
Nathaniel M. Campbell: Hildegard's Liber Divonorum Operum
Nathaniel M. Campbell is an American theologian and a member of the International Hildegard von Bingen Society who has just translated Hildegard's third mayor mystical work, the "Liber Divinorum Operum" from Latin into English. About this book, he has also written the text for the Hildegard of Bingen Pilgrimage Route (tableaux No. 56).
This article is a more profound treatise of Hildegard's mystical book on God's Divine Works, showing also some of Hildegard's most famous visions from the Lucca-codex of the Libreria Statale in Italy.
Chung Hyun Kyung: Sister Hildegard
At the Christian-Buddhist Retreat at the Hildegard-Forum and the Rupertsberg in Bingen in April 4, 2014, world-renowned Korean theologian Prof. Chung Hyun Kyung gave a speach on Sister Hildegard in Christian, Buddhist and eco-feminist perspective. The speach took place at the Rupertsberg vault, that is the very site where Hildegard had build her Bingen women's monastery in 1150. Annette Esser who had studied meditation with Prof. Chung during her studies at Union Theological Seminary, 1996-98, had invited her teacher. Since, as a friend of Hildegard, Chung Hyun Kyung also is a member of the Advisory Board of the Scivias-Institute.
Catherine Ann Lombard: Blog about Hildegard
Catherine is a published writer of non-fiction, including both popular personal essays and academic articles on psychosynthesis. You can learn more about her at LoveAndWill.com.