Ebook: The Life of the Holy Hildegard

The Life of the Holy Hildegard by monks Gottfried and Theoderic. Translated from Latin to German with commentary by Adelgundis Führkötter, O.S.B. Translated from German to English by James McGrath. English text edited by Mary Palmquist, with the assistance of John Kulas, O.S.B.

The life of Hildegard of Bingen by two of her contemporaries brings this German mystic to life in excerpts from her own writings. This twelfth-century Benedictine abbess exorcized demons; healed the sick; warned sister convents and monasteries against the dangers of a "soft" life; preached to the laity on her journeys; incurred an interdict against her convent rather than obey an order she knew was wrong; founded a new convent, separated from her original monastery, and then successfully negotiated the transfer of her nuns' dowries from reluctant monks. When Hildegard needed answers or protection, she went to the top - to her archbishop, to Emperor Frederick Barbarossa, to Pope Eugene III, or to St. Bernard of Clairvaux. And then she dared to revile Barbarossa when he continued to back the antipopes, even though he was the protector of her convent.