Hildegard speaks about her art of healing - Station 4

How did Hildegard develop her extensive knowledge of medicine, and how does she reconcile her divinely inspired visions with the practical knowledge she gained through study and observation?
Many people speak of me as the abbess who practices medicine and even call me a physician. Yet some think that my knowledge about the healing and harming effect of certain plants and about the origin and healing cures of certain illnesses has been drummed into me in a kind of divine dictate. Of course this was not that simple!
In my time on the Disibodenberg I learned much about Benedictine monastic medicine. We had a cloister garden and a hospice into which the sick and suffering and also pregnant women were brought and in which I spent much of my time. Thus I learned about many illnesses and diseases and also about the things of creation - conception and birth of the human being outside paradise - about which I would not have known otherwise.
Also at the Disibodenberg as in all important Benedictine monasteries, we had a huge library and a scriptorium. The Benedictine rule ‘Ora et labora et lege - pray and work and read’ was valid for us. As magistra, the teacher at the women’s cell, I could study there with the support of our learned monks. Thus I learned about the Corpus Hippocraticum’s teaching of the four humours, the teaching on the temperaments of Galeanos and the new canon of medicine according to Avicenna as well as other Greek and Arab scholars.
Yet I must also speak here about one secret. In my about forty year time as a recluse and a magistra on the Disibodenberg, I lived in seclusion but I was not confined. Especially after Jutta’s death, I took the opportunity instead to observe and explore the surrounding nature as much as I could. Thus, I often sat at the Nahe and Glan rivers that flow around our holy mountain. There I looked at the fish in the water and the birds in the air. I sensed the healing power of the elements and sometimes I washed my face in the river. Also, God gave me the gift of - how shall I say this properly - well, of ‘talking’ with plants and animals, to realize or understand what kind of healing or harming effect certain plants could have for certain human illnesses.
For that matter it is true in a certain way that my medical knowledge did not just come from books but came to me from heaven.
Thanks to God our creator that later on, I could write down all this knowledge in my medical ouevre, the Liber Physica and Causae et Curae.
Thank you for joining with us, and stay tuned for upcoming events.
sainthildegard...
#hildegardvonbingen
#pilgrimage
#pilgrimagedestination
#pilgrim

[@Chesterton7]

Beautiful work Michael.

[@Tanya_Offscript]

Her knowledge was limited in regards to today’s medicine, but she was a wise woman and an excellent healer in her time. I even have a copy of the book she wrote! (No, it’s not super easy to read as language has changed, but interesting nonetheless the less)😊

[@user-ln6cr3wk4r]

What. Is the name of lady speaker please ?

[@Tanya_Offscript]

@@user-ln6cr3wk4r I’m not sure, I think she’s a tour guide, but she was reading St Hildegard’s words.

[@SaintHildegardMovie]

Dr. Annette Esser is a German theologian, teacher and artist. amzn.to/3GRGJeV

[@frederickpile3599]

John 14;12 kjv cross references.

[@frederickpile3599]

John 14;12 cross references. Kjv.