Saint Hildegard of Bingen

“The truly holy person welcomes all that is earthly.“

A catholic school education is full of saints, suffering and miracles. To not believe is deamed unfaithful. I went to catholic schools. As an adult I try to unpack the truth behind the stories.

Women can be sainted for losing their lives, protecting their virginity and forgiving those that harm them. Saint Maria Garotti (b.1890) was an 12 year old girl murdered by a 20 year old man. He stabbed her repeatedly to silence her, rather than get caught for trying to rape her. On her deathbed she was asked to forgive her murderer and accordingly she did, with all her heart. Within 50 years Maria was canonised.

Stories like this send a strong message to impressionable girls. Accept injustice.

Saint Hildegard (b. 1098) tells a different story. Don’t accept injustice. Look to nature for health and healing. Hildegard of Bingen was a prophet, healer, visionary, poet, musician, naturalist and scientist. A feminist before her time she didn’t accept her place in the the male-dominated church and went on to preach in public when women were not allowed a voice. Hildegard wasn’t officially declared a saint until 2012, over 800 years after her death.

Dream Sequence: Linda Brescia

28 April 2021, Utp

During the Covid-19 isolation measures that were undertaken in 2020, Linda Brescia became more fascinated by Hildegard of Bingen - a German Benedictine abbess, writer, composer, philosopher, Christian mystic, visionary, and polymath of the High Middle Ages. The beginning of her research for this work starts with her interest in how Hildegard viewed nature, and all things green, as a means of keeping us healthy.

View the Hands on Hildegard performance here