Category: History

Hildegard Speaks
Hildegard spricht, Hildegarde parle, Ildegada parla, Hildegard spreekt, Hildegarda habla Multilanguage Paperback

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 Hildegard and 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
1. … about precious stones and the heavenly Jerusalem
2. … about her family and childhood
3. … about her visions
4. … about her art of healing
5. … about her entrance into the Monastery of St. Disibod
6. … about her teacher Jutta of Sponheim
7. … about pilgrimages and her preaching tours
8. … about how she gained fame as a seeress
9. … 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.
December 10, 2022
Living saints today? Have you met any?

Where have all the saints gone?

St. Francis Hiding in the Garden

Living saints? Have you met any? Not a Hindu or Catholic Saint, placed on candle-lit altar or in rose garden. But a living saint today. Someone who projects a oneness with the world, is filled with loving compassion, who has a purpose of being in service to others? A humble person who is truly awake?

I have been asking these questions, not as a religious person, but as a filmmaker who has made several films on past saints, the visionaries who woke us up like Naturalist John Muir and Mystic Saint Hildegard of Bingen; my own patron saint of creativity, has lead me to the idea who wouldn’t appreciate more saints?

What would they look like? Where would you meet them? At a volunteer or charity event? A yoga studio? A meditation retreat? At the office? I bet you haven’t met a lot, if any at all. So where have all the saints gone? We should have more. We have a greater population now than when historical saints lived. We are more educated. We have the internet of all things amazing. So, why don’t we have more saints? Is organized religion turning them away? Are we treating them with antipsychotics? Are they self-medicating with recreational drugs?

Obviously I am not alone if you google “Where have all the saints gone?” The question generally gets turned to who are the living saints today? With wonderful answers from people that have meet Mother Teresa or other Sainted modern religious figures that were only officially canonized after their deaths.

Living Saints?

I like this comment I found: “There are many living saints amongst us right now that we do not know of, simply because it wasn’t part of God’s will for them to be revealed to us. So it’s always good to love your neighbor, not only because we are called to do so, but also because you never know when you are talking to a saint!”

That is so true.

Michael Conti asks if you have ever met a living saint.

When I set out to make my films, I didn’t know at the time, that I would also be exploring that question in a more timely perspective as my subject material was historical figures that had personally inspired me and others into our live’s purposes. “Early Christian communities venerated hundreds of saints, but historical research by 17th- and 18th-century Catholic scholars determined that very few of these saints’ stories were backed by solid historical evidence. Lives of such well-known figures as St. George, St. Valentine, and St. Christopher were based either on a legend that often predated Christianity or were entirely made up. Other saints had local followings. In rural France, St. Guinefort was venerated as the protector of infants after he saved his master’s baby from a snakebite. Saint Guinefort was a dog!” (Appeared in the November 2013 issue of U.S. Catholic (Vol. 78, No. 11, page 46).

If you want to learn more about saints, here is a list of recommended movies about saints that I have compiled. It is primarily Catholic Saints, but obviously that isn’t the only religion that has mystics and saints walking among them.

January 13, 2021
The Hildegard of Bingen Trail in Germany
Hildegard Pilgrimage Path

“I love this sign, don’t you? I’ve traveled to a lot of holy places, but Bingen, Germany, is the only place where the pilgrimage route is marked by a nun sign. Hildegard is their most famous resident, and they want to make it easy for pilgrims to follow in her footsteps.

And more people are doing just that, for Hildegard of Bingen is enjoying a surprising career resurgence for someone who’s been dead for nine centuries (for more information on her biography, see The Life of Hildegard of Bingen). Her fan club is certainly diverse: feminists hail her as a foremother, environmentalists praise her views on nature, New Age enthusiasts recognize her as a kindred spirit, and musicians record her chants (the CD A Feather on the Breath of God was a surprise best-seller in 1988). And in 2012 Hildegard was named a Doctor of the Church by Pope Benedict XVI, an honor given to only four women saints.”

The Hildegard von Bingen pilgrimage route leads on about 135 kilometers from Idar-Oberstein to Bingen am Rhein and Rüdesheim-Eibingen through the land of Hildegard.

Hildegardweg / Hildegard Pilgrim Path

Itinerary program for a 8-day pilgrimage path (see map) ~ 8-Strecken-Programm oder 8-Tage-Pilgerwanderweg (von Sonntag bis Sonntag)
- Erste Strecke 18,7km / 4:7 Std.
Idar-Oberstein – Herrstein – Niederhosenbach – Bundenbach – Hahnenbach
- Zweite Strecke 6,8km / 1.31 Std.
Hahnenbach – Oberhausen – Kallenfels – Bergen – Kirn – Schloss Dhaun
- Dritte Strecke 17,7km / 3:39 Std.
Schloss Dhaun – Simmertal – Bad Sobernheim – Staudernheim Disibodenberg – Odenheim/Glan
- Vierte Strecke 12,2 km / 2:38 Std.
Disibodenberg – Duchroth – Oberhausen/Nahe – Burg Schlossböckelheim – Waldböckelheim – Burgsponheim – Sponheim
- Fünfte Strecke 9,1 km / 2:06 Std.
Sponheim – Spabrücken
- Sechste Strecke 8,4 km / 1:48 Std.
Spabrücken – „Drei-Madonnen-Weg“ – Schöneberg – Madonnenweg – Stromberg
- Siebte Strecke 9,8 km / 2 Std.
Stromberg – Bingerbrück
- Achte Strecke – ca. 5,4 km / 1:02Std.
Bingerbrück – Bingen – Eibingen

Good Reading

I stumbled across this blog about Spiritual Travel and pilgrimage…

Read more from Lori Erickson

Travel writer, Episcopal deacon, and author of the Holy Rover blog at Patheos, Erickson is an engaging guide for pilgrims eager to take a spiritual journey. Her book describes travels that changed her life and can change yours, too.
April 14, 2018