Saint Hildegard von Bingen Plaque

Product Description

Our Saint Hildegard von Bingen Plaque (1098-1179), also known as the “Sibyl of the Rhine,” was a German writer, composer, philosopher, Christian mystic, Benedictine abbess, visionary, and polymath. This plaque is a wonderful gift to celebrate her feast day on September 17th. This plaque is also a great gift for a birthday, first communion, confirmation, and Christmas (“stocking stuffer”!).

A Solid Bronze Wall Plaque in Three Sizes

This solid bronze plaque is available in three sizes: small (p17k – 2 x 1.8 inches), medium (p10m – 4 x 3.25 inches) or large (p43g – 7.9 x 6.3 inches). Thanks to the notch on the back, this plaque will hang easily on any wall in home or office. Designed and realized by a world-renowned bronzesmith in Germany, this plaque is a wonderful gift for that special “Hildegard” in your life!

Saint Hildegard of Bingen – Mystic and Doctor of the Church

Saint Hildegard produced major works of theology and of her mystical visions in an era when few women were even able to write. She was sought out by bishops, popes, and kings for her wisdom and counsel. After learning the healing powers and medicinal uses of plants, animals, trees, and stones, she authored treatises of her findings. Hildegard is the first composer of music whose life is known in detail. One of the works she composed, the Ordo Virtutum, is an early example of liturgical drama and perhaps the oldest extant morality play. She founded a convent where the sisters performed her musical plays. Although she has been revered as a saint for centuries, and several Popes have referred to her by that title, she was never officially canonized. So Pope Benedict XIV eliminated any lingering uncertainty by announcing on May 10, 2012 that St. Hildegard should be inscribed in the catalog of saints. Musicologists and historians of science and religion have spurred on a revival of interest in this extraordinary woman of the Middle Ages. She was declared a Doctor of the Church by Pope Benedict XVI on October 7, 2012. She is now the fourth woman Doctor of the Church after St. Teresa of Avila, St. Catherine of Siena, and St. Therese of Lisieux. There are in all now only 34 Doctors of the Church.

from Wikipedia, “Saint Hildegard of Bingen”:

Hildegard says that she first saw “The Shade of the Living Light” at the age of three, and by the age of five she began to understand that she was experiencing visions. She used the term ‘visio’ to this feature of her experience, and recognized that it was a gift that she could not explain to others. Hildegard explained that she saw all things in the light of God through the five senses: sight, hearing, taste, smell, and touch. Hildegard was hesitant to share her visions, confiding only to Jutta, who in turn told Volmar, Hildegard’s tutor and, later, secretary. Throughout her life, she continued to have many visions, and in 1141, at the age of 42, Hildegard received a vision she believed to be an instruction from God, to “write down that which you see and hear.” Still hesitant to record her visions, Hildegard became physically ill. The illustrations recorded in the book of Scivias were visions that Hildegard experienced, causing her great suffering and tribulations. In her first theological text, Scivias (“Know the Ways”), Hildegard describes her struggle within:

But I, though I saw and heard these things, refused to write for a long time through doubt and bad opinion and the diversity of human words, not with stubbornness but in the exercise of humility, until, laid low by the scourge of God, I fell upon a bed of sickness; then, compelled at last by many illnesses, and by the witness of a certain noble maiden of good conduct [the nun Richardis von Stade] and of that man whom I had secretly sought and found, as mentioned above, I set my hand to the writing. While I was doing it, I sensed, as I mentioned before, the deep profundity of scriptural exposition; and, raising myself from illness by the strength I received, I brought this work to a close – though just barely – in ten years. (…) And I spoke and wrote these things not by the invention of my heart or that of any other person, but as by the secret mysteries of God I heard and received them in the heavenly places. And again I heard a voice from Heaven saying to me, ‘Cry out therefore, and write thus!’

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