On the thread connecting Hildegard, Muir, and Einstein — and maybe you.
People ask me why I chose the word “unruly.” It sounds almost negative — like someone who can’t sit still in class, who refuses to follow the rules, who makes trouble. And honestly? That’s exactly why I chose it.
Hildegard von Bingen was a 12th-century abbess who composed music, wrote theology, practiced medicine, and corresponded with popes and emperors — at a time when women were expected to do none of those things. John Muir left a promising career, walked a thousand miles from Indiana to the Gulf of Mexico, and spent years living alone in Yosemite before anyone took him seriously as a voice for the American wilderness. Albert Einstein failed his entrance exam to the Swiss Federal Polytechnic, was largely ignored by the academic establishment early in his career, and developed his theory of special relativity while working as a patent clerk.
None of them fit the mold. All of them changed the world.
The Mystic Part
The word mystic gets misused. People assume it means someone who floats through life in a spiritual haze, disconnected from the practical world. But every mystic I have spent time studying — through years of research, travel, and filmmaking — was fiercely engaged with reality. What made them mystics wasn’t detachment. It was depth of perception.
Hildegard didn’t just pray — she saw. Her visions weren’t escapes from the world; they were a way of reading it more completely. Muir didn’t just hike — he listened. He heard something in the Sierra Nevada that most people walk past without registering. Einstein didn’t just calculate — he imagined. He asked what it would feel like to ride alongside a beam of light, and that question cracked open modern physics.
The mystic is someone for whom the ordinary world is not enough — not because they reject it, but because they sense there is more to it than most people stop to notice.
The Unruly Part
Here is what all three of my subjects share: they refused to let the conventions of their time define the boundaries of their perception. Hildegard wrote in Latin at a time when women weren’t supposed to be theologians. Muir argued for wilderness preservation when manifest destiny was America’s operating religion. Einstein published his most radical ideas as an outsider, without the institutional backing that normally confers credibility.
Being unruly isn’t about rebellion for its own sake. It’s about being so committed to what you genuinely see and know that you can’t pretend otherwise — even when the world would be more comfortable if you did.
That takes a particular kind of courage. Not the dramatic, battlefield kind. The quieter, daily kind — the courage to keep trusting your own perception when everything around you is telling you to conform.
Why It Matters Now
I didn’t set out to make a series about historical figures. I set out to make films about a quality of aliveness that I find increasingly rare and increasingly necessary. Each generation needs to rediscover its own unruly mystics — the ones who stood strong, remained open, and stayed wide awake when the world rewarded sleep.
Hildegard’s medicine is practiced in Europe today. Muir’s national parks are still standing. Einstein’s equations are still running. The things these people saw — really saw — turned out to be durable in ways that the conventional wisdom of their eras was not.
That is the invitation of this series. Not to venerate historical figures from a safe distance, but to ask: what is the unruly mystic quality in your own life? Where are you being called to trust your own perception more fully — even when it’s inconvenient?
Based on historic quotations from the writings of Saint Hildegard von Bingen (1098-1179), Dr. Annette Esser wrote these nine texts in which Hildegard, so to say, speaks herself. This well-researched multi-language book includes chapter notes, a detailed historic timeline, an illustrated color map of Hildegard Way in Germany, along with colorful images from the land of Hildegard.
Read Aloud Hildegard Speaks
Dr. Annette Esser is a German theologian, teacher and artist. In 2008, she founded the Scivias-Institute for Art & Spirituality. In 2017, she co-initiated the Hildegard of Bingen Pilgrimage Way along the historic sites where the Saint lived in the 12th century. She edited the 59 tableaux texts along the Way. In 2019, Dr. Esser was filmed speaking as Hildegard for nine videos. This short video series was created by pilgrim-filmmaker, Michael M. Conti, creator of The Unruly Mystic: Saint Hildegardand premiered theatrically as “Hildegard spricht” (2022) in Bad Kreuznach, Germany.
We encourage you to read these texts out loud, hearing how Hildegard might have sounded, as you take your own pilgrimage along the Hildegard Way. The book contains the text of those presentations in German, English, French, Italian, Dutch, Spanish and Polish. We suggest doing this on the first nine stages of the Hildegard Way at the very spots which are marked by photos ahead of the nine chapters.
All the texts start with the heading “Hildegard speaks…”
Thus, Hildegard speaks
… about precious stones and the heavenly Jerusalem
… about her family and childhood
… about her visions
… about her art of healing
… about her entrance into the Monastery of St. Disibod
… about her teacher Jutta of Sponheim
… about pilgrimages and her preaching tours
… about how she gained fame as a seeress
… about the foundation of her Rupertsberg Women’s Monastery.
Experience a Pilgrimage with Saint Hildegard along the St. Hildegard Way in Germany.
Dr. Esser speaks in character as “Hildegard” at 9 stations along the trail and gives a small glimpse into the many teachings of Saint Hildegard. This special ecumenical video series has been created by pilgrim-filmmaker Michael M. Conti, who took the 85-mile “Hildegard Way” through the Nahe river region in Rhineland-Palatinate in Germany.
To conclude with Hildegard’s words: Now also you, oh human, speak out aloud about what you see and hear.
What good movies are about Saints? When you fall in love with a Saint, there is a spiritual thirst that can’t be quenched, and you want to learn as much as you can about your chosen saint. Some of these movies about things or office that people have done that would be considered saintly. Some are canonized while others are still waiting like Dorthey Day. Even Saint Hildegard of Bingen (1098 – 17 September 1179) was only just canonized in 2012 into a full-fledged saint based upon the Catholic tradition. Some subjects will be familiar to you while others might be more obscure. There is no order of saintly preference on the list. I would probably easily do another list of movies about angels. What good movies about Saints would you recommend?
The Passion of Joan of Arc (French: La Passion de Jeanne d’Arc) is a 1928 French silent historical film based on the actual record of the trial of Joan of Arc.
In 1431, Jeanne d’Arc is placed on trial on charges of heresy. The ecclesiastical jurists attempt to force Jeanne to recant her claims of holy visions.
Entertaining Angels (1996)
Entertaining Angels – The Dorothy Day Story is a 1996 independent film about the life of Dorothy Day, the journalist turned social activist and founder of the Catholic Worker newspaper. Trailer only.
Agony and the Ecstasy (1965).
This film deals with the conflicts of Michelangelo and Pope Julius II during the painting of the Sistine Chapel ceiling.
Boys Town (1938)
Francesco is a 1989 docu-drama relating in flashback St. Francis of Assisi‘s evolution from rich man’s son to religious humanitarian and finally to full-fledged saint. Francis of Assisi
Boys Town is based on Father Edward J. Flanagan‘s work with a group of underprivileged and delinquent boys in a home that he founded and named “Boys Town”.
Claire of Assisi
She founded the Order of Poor Ladies, a monastic religious order for women in the Franciscan tradition, and wrote their Rule of Life, the first set of monastic guidelines known to have been written by a woman.
Francesco (1989)
The Hiding Place (1975)
The Hiding Place is a 1975 film based on the autobiographical book of the same name by Corrie ten Boom that recounts her and her family’s experiences before and during their imprisonment in a Nazi concentration camp during the Holocaust during World War II.
Hildegard of Bingen (2012)
In this one-woman film, international mezzo soprano Linn Maxwell embodies the extraordinary life of 12th century German prophetess, healer and composer, Hildegard of Bingen, who was canonized in 2012 and named a Doctor of the Church.
Jesus Of Nazareth (1977)
Jesus Of Nazareth (1977)Jesus Of Nazareth is a 1977 British-Italian television miniseries directed by Franco Zeffirelli and co-written by Zeffirelli, Anthony Burgess, and Suso Cecchi d’Amico which dramatizes the birth, life, ministry, crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus.
Maximilian: Saint Of Auschwitz (Live drama)
Maximilian: Saint Of Auschwitz was a Polish Catholic priest and Conventual Franciscanfriar who volunteered to die in place of a stranger in the German death camp of Auschwitz, located in German-occupied Poland during World War II.
Faustina (1995)
Throughout her life, Faustina Kowalska reported having visions of Jesus and conversations with him, which she noted in her diary, later published as The Diary of Saint Maria Faustina Kowalska: Divine Mercy in My Soul. Her biography, submitted to the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, quoted some of the conversations with Jesus regarding the Divine Mercy devotion.
The Night of the Prophet (1996)
The first full-length drama on the incredible life of Padre Pio who had such great spiritual gifts as mystical prayer, bilocation, reading souls and suffered the five wounds of Christ for fifty years.
The Miracle of Our Lady of Fatima (1952)
The Miracle of Our Lady of Fatima takes place in 1917, three shepherd children living just outside Fatima, Portugal have visions of a lovely lady in a cloud.
John of the Cross (Live drama)
John of the Cross is known especially for his writings. He was mentored by and corresponded with the older Carmelite, Teresa of Ávila. Both his poetry and his studies on the development of the soul are considered the summit of mystical Spanish literature and among the greatest works of all Spanish literature.
Miracle of Marcelino (1955)
Marcelino is an orphan who grows up in a monastery. One day when he eats his small meal in a room full of old things he gives a piece of his bread to an old wooden Jesus figure – and indeed it takes the bread and eats it. Getting a wish granted for his donation Marcelino wishes to see his mother.
Thérèse(Live drama)
St. Thérèse is best known today for her spiritual memoir, L’histoire d’une âme (The Story of a Soul).
Saint Patrick – The Irish Legend (2000)
A young Christian boy attends a druid worship that is attacked by invading Irish tribes. Taken captive, he is taken back to Ireland to become a slave. Enduring many hardships, he finds comfort and eventually salvation in his faith. After several years, he escapes back to England, where he joins a convent to prove his faith. His greatest desire is to return to Ireland
The Reluctant Saint aka Joseph Desa – The Story of St. Joseph of Cupertino (1962)
In 17th century Italy, a simple and clumsy young man joins a Franciscan order, pursues full priesthood and performs a miracle that eventually ensures his sainthood.
A Time for Miracles (1980)
Miracle at Moreaux (1985)
A French Catholic boarding school allows three Jewish children to take refuge at Christmas during the Nazi occupation.
Pope John Paul II (2005)
Thanks to his unshakable tenacity, Pope John Paul II helps to change the course of history: the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 decrees the collapse of Communism. But the Pope does not stop being the voice of Christ, even among the injustices of the capitalistic Western world, and even among the provocations and challenges of modern times.
The Jewelers Shop (1988)
La bottega dell’orefice is based on The Jeweler’s Shop, a play written by Karol Józef Wojtyła (Pope John Paul II). In this romantic story The Jeweler (Burt Lancaster) sells wedding rings to a young couple and teaches them some precious truths about the meaning of love and marriage. The jeweller also helps another couple to fight for their troubled marriage, rebuilding their relationship. The reborn love between this second couple teaches their daughter that a loving marriage is possible, and she eventually accepts the marriage proposal from the first couple’s son.
The Fourth Wise Man (1985)
The story of Artaban, the fourth Magi, who spends his life looking for Jesus his King.
Ocean of Mercy (2011)
It tells the story of Maximilian Kolbe, Sor Faustina and Pope Johannes Paulus II, how they devoted their life to God, the difficulties they went through life and how well they went through adversities convinced that they were not alone.
Brother Sun – Sister Moon (1972)
Dramatization of events in the life of St. Francis of Assisi from before his conversion experience through his audience with the pope, including his friendship with St. Clare.
Vision – From the Life of Hildegard Von Bingen (2011)
A visionary in every sense of the word, this famed 12th-century Benedictine nun was a Christian mystic, composer, philosopher, playwright, poet, naturalist, scientist, physician, herbalist and ecological activist.
Please let me know in the comments below what other movies about saints or saintly behavior should be listed here. This list is first, basically Catholic leaning, but obviously, the saint and mystic tradition is widespread within other religions.
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