Hildegarde, a visionary naturopath in the 12th century

It's true that since the Paleolithic era, our gathering ancestors have understood that certain plants have an effect on the health of the body, and that the medicine-women of Neanderthal clans kept seeds in their wineskins for use when they deemed it useful. It was the pharmacists of the 19th century who discovered that the principles of these plants could be extracted to make medicines, as Sertürner first demonstrated by isolating morphine from poppies.

But nature's advocates are still active, claiming that the effect of flowers and leaves is far better for the body than that of a common pill. And our modern naturopaths don't hesitate to delve into the sources of knowledge, i.e. the writings of Hildegarde de Bingen, which date back to the 12th century and are still best sellers today!

But who is this Hildegarde?

Saint Hildegard of Bingen is a true saint of the Catholic Church, recognized in 2012 for her exemplary life by Pope Benedict XVI, a German like herself, and considered by many to be the first naturopath in history. In fact, Hildegard's life sheds light on much more than just a nun with a passion for plants, revealing one of the most inspired and learned women of the Middle Ages.


How can we understand today that parents take their eight-year-old daughter to a recluse? That is, locking her in a cell from which she must never leave, extracting her from the world, pronouncing the words of the Mass of the Dead and delivering the Extreme Unction. When she was just eight years old, Hildegard died for the world in her cell at the convent of Disibodenberg in Franconia.

We don't know how she experienced this separation. Did she accept her fate with the obedience required of a noblewoman in the early 12th century? Yet she seems to have accepted the harsh Benedictine rule of silence and privation. We imagine her in solitude, immersed in prayer and study, already convinced that knowledge is the only way for a girl to gain independence, at least in spirit.
A life devoted to reflection and silence? But we all know that divine designs are inscrutable, and another destiny was soon to intertwine with Hildegard's, bringing it to light and transforming this mute woman into the most talked-about woman of her century. This destiny is called Jutta, daughter of the Count of Sponheim, who, following an illness from which she has miraculously recovered, decides to refuse all the marriages that her high lineage can lead her to hope for, and to devote herself to God. She was only six years older than Hildegarde, but had a considerable culture for a girl of her time*. Initially a recluse and adept at all the privations and suffering that seemed to bring her closer to the absolute (she fasted, flagellated herself and wore chains even on her swollen body!), at the age of 20 she chose to take charge of the education of the few young girls in the convent of which she became abbess. Hildegarde was one of them, and in fact a relative. This marked the birth of a convent of Benedictine nuns which, together with that of the local monks, formed a double monastery.
Hildegarde learned to write under Jutta's tutelage, but she also learned to sing and recite. A gifted pupil, she soon learned to play the zither and psaltery. Little did she know that she was to become the greatest composer of her time, and that her music is still performed in the 21st century. And then she learned rhetoric, dialectics, grammar, geometry, arithmetic and astronomy, the prelude to astrology and knowledge of the macrocosm of which man is but a miniature representation. What was going on between Hildegard and Jutta? A kind of perfect accord, no doubt, where these two women, aware of their role in society, decide to impose their faith and their femininity on the world. So, in the secrecy of their cell, these two women talk and talk, as if to make up for the years of silence that have suffocated them. They must tell each other everything, even what cannot be said, such as the visions that have haunted Hildegarde since childhood, and which God asks her to make known. Hildegarde had a duty to teach mankind; she had always known this, ever since God had spoken to her; it was both her right and her duty. Her period of seclusion was merely the necessary reflective prelude to the explosion of an infinite talent.
But in order to write, Jutta knew that Hildegarde needed a driving force and a confidant capable of lifting her to the very best of herself, to the expression of that divine which inspired her and about which her pupil had finally spoken to her. But Hildegarde's Latin isn't perfect, and she needs another master, a mentor who is also worthy of receiving all confidences. She chooses Volmar, the prior father of the Benedictine abbey, and when she dies in 1136, she knows that Hildegard is ready to ensure her succession as abbess and also to realize her immense destiny.
Medicine at the service of the people.
We're still in the era of monastic medicine, and the only possibility of care for the people of the countryside is the convent. The abbess was responsible for directing care. But Hildegarde is too aware of her ignorance in this field to put up with it any longer. She had to delve into all this knowledge. She was seduced by the great Hippocrates' theory of the humours, the balance necessary for the health of the body, the harmony that reflects the great constants of the universe in the microcosm of the human body. Air, fire, earth and water dominate our lives and govern our humours. Blood, yellow bile, black bile and lymph clash and intermingle to ensure health, and the great Galen showed how plants, earths and metals could intervene to preserve these balances. Placed at the heart of the cosmos, man lives by his four humors, just as the universe does. As long as they are in balance, man is in good health. It's imbalance that breeds disease! She sees the theory of the four humors not as bodily fluids, but as sets of tendencies, predispositions and morbid reactions, on both a physical and spiritual level. She applied this theory to God's creation of man, since he was born from the earth!
Plants are also made up of primary qualities: they are hot or cold, dry or moist. Harmony can therefore be restored through an appropriate diet and selected plant preparations. This is the basis of Hildegarde's therapeutic reasoning. Her insatiable curiosity for natural phenomena led her to write a number of works concerned with the medicine of her time. The whole is impressive for the knowledge of nature that such works imply, knowledge that comes partly from her personal observation and partly from her readings. How did she learn that the little yellow flower of mountain arnica is sovereign over wounds and bumps? How did she know that stinging nettle, crushed and diluted in olive oil, prevents memory loss? How does she know about the virtues of the Gallic bread advocated by the druids, who chose only spelt flour to feed humans? It's certain that our mother abbess doesn't just read her Galen, but also talks to the vagabond priests who roam the land, and to the healers who some are quick to call witches. But nothing can stop Hildegarde in her quest for knowledge.
With the help of Volmar, who had become her indispensable pen, she wrote her two medical works, in which man is placed at the center of the universe, expressing the greatness of the divine plan. Everything makes sense in this universe that God has willed to be perfect and where everything expresses itself. Minerals and stones are also hot or cold, and contribute to the balance of the human body, which is part of a perfect circle whose center is the sex from which fertility comes. A woman is different from a man in that she is born of his flesh, whereas God made Adam from the earth, but this very difference explains love, the love of bodies and the love of souls that drives impulses and passions. What mystical experience can explain this finesse in the psychology of love? What readings, nonexistent in the 12th century, can instruct our reclusive mother abbess in the psychosexual aspect of this work, how can she present masculine and feminine types in a portrait gallery that remains without equal in the reflection on the behavior of love in her time? To explain fertility, a subject that was still the subject of debate at the time since it was not yet known which of the male or female organs was involved in the conception of the future child, she spoke of male seed and female foam. We can only leave the mystery hanging, and imagine the role of visions or the presence of Volmar, who lived close to her for sixty years and whom Hildegard mourned at his death as a departed husband?
The Musician and the Rebel.
But the health of the body cannot be conceived without that of the soul. Through what channels does God speak to spirits. Jutta gave her a key to this by teaching her music, and Hildegarde began to search for an expression of God's voice in a suite of works she had her sisters sing during services. But this divine music is just as likely to soothe souls as bodies, and Hildegard is convinced of the therapeutic virtues of her music. Hildegarde's work is virtuoso and powerful, and sometimes the melodic line requires remarkable qualities in the performer's register.
But the spirit of independence and even rebellion of the mother abbess was already being expressed in the face of her hierarchy. In the Middle Ages, the use of musical instruments in churches was forbidden, even music was forbidden by some, and women were not allowed to sing or speak in church. It's at this point that the abbess' voice begins to be heard, as she can no longer bear the silence in which she has been confined for too long. Now she must speak... she's going to speak in the name of all her sisters, because God is asking her to express herself to the world. As for the music, she rebels: "God must be praised with all the musical instruments that sensible and ingenious men have invented". And the service will be conducted as she sees fit. Candidates flock to join the convent's sisterhood of nuns. But there were too many bad memories associated with Disibodenberg, and it was time to leave, to create a new community in Rupersberg, where seclusion would be a thing of the past, where Jutta's bodily sufferings would be a thing of the past, and where the nuns would finally be able to express themselves through prayer and, above all, song.
From 1146 onwards, spurred on by Volmar, she decided to put her visions down on paper. Who wrote? Probably Volmar, Hildegarde's Latin being too weak. Who draws the illuminations? Hildegarde, of course, letting her artistic gifts express themselves. It's the "Scivias", which attracts the attention of Pope Eugene III and, above all, Bernard de Clairvaux, who already decides on notoriety. She went on to write two other visionary books, the "Book of Merits" and the "Book of Divine Works", which opened up a dialogue in over 300 letters with some of the world's greatest figures: Emperor Frederick I, King Conrad II, King Henry II of England, Eleanor of Aquitaine, Empress Berta of Byzantium...
Hildegard's fame became international, and at the age of 70 she undertook four major journeys. On these occasions, she preached in some of the empire's greatest cathedrals, including Cologne, Trier, Liège, Mainz and Metz, and even in public squares, which was exceptional for a woman. On these occasions, she didn't hesitate to castigate the church dignitaries in the cities she visited, as in Cologne: "You are the night, the darkness, an arrogant people who no longer walk in the light because of your riches. You see only what you have produced, you do only what pleases you".
The mystery.
It's very difficult to judge a personality as complex as Hildegarde. Some highlight the mystical saint, others the first naturopath in history, some see her as a great physician or one of the greatest artists of her time. But we must also think of her as a cook, preparing meals for Volmar while dictating her work inspired directly by God. But who inspired the abbess to use savory in her white bean stews? Who makes her realize that the medicines she discovers are also spices for fine food, reinforcing her holistic conception of health? Why does she invent a new alphabet to write a secret language that only the initiated can know? Why does ...
The Catholic Church waited eight centuries to recognize her as a saint, yet popular fervor has always surrounded her memory. But who was Hildegard of Bingen?


*Only two medical works composed in the West in the 12th century are known, and both are by Hildegarde. The first is the Physica, a work in nine books also entitled: Livre des subtilités des créatures divines. The second is the Causae et Curae ("Causes and Remedies"), also entitled Livre de médecine composée. It's a veritable encyclopedia of the knowledge of the time in Germany, in terms of natural sciences and medicine.