Embracing the Healing Mystery of Creation With St. Hildegard of Bingen

The warm glow of a late summer sun cast a honey hue on the stalks of goldenrod lining Lake Williams in York County, Pennsylvania. I’d just come down from the trails above, my basket full of foraged herbs including my latest discovery, the bright-orange jewelweed, that I will make into a salve for poison ivy. The goldenrod beckons me like a familiar friend. This is my fourth season working with its mustard-yellow flowers and sticky stems. Steeped as a tea, it can help clear congestion and upper respiratory issues. It is also used as the antidote for ragweed, the culprit behind some seasonal allergies. Made into a salve, it has soothed my irritated skin after working in the garden. Since my earliest childhood memories searching for plants to use in my “country kitchen” behind the big oak in the backyard, I have sensed there was a deep meaning in nature, some sweet secret I couldn’t name. Both my mom and Nana grew copious amounts of flowers and my grandparents had a large garden with fruits and vegetables. But it wasn’t until my early 20s that I became intrigued by the use of plants and herbs as a student of New Age beliefs. Holistic medicine fascinated me, but I also felt drawn to some awesome mystery in creation I did not understand. Regrettably, this awe was entangled with spiritual beliefs like reincarnation and nature worship. RELATED: Three Female Saints and Mystics Who Guide Me to Freedom In my late 20s, I gave birth to a beautiful little girl. I was not married at the time and found myself in a deep search for truth and goodness, a life I could give her that was wholesome and pure. My neighbor invited us to her church, a lively Pentecostal denomination just up the street. We were shown a lot of love and, over time, I was convicted to stop all New Age practices, including my job as a Reiki master and teacher. Since herbal medicine was misunderstood and often associated with witchcraft, I stayed away from it, too. At that time, I was not aware of any books from a Christian perspective. Many years later, I became drawn to joining the Catholic Church. In 2023, I discovered the German Abbess and mystic St. Hildegard von Bingen. A search for “herb use in Catholicism” yielded her book, “Physica“, catching my eye — and my heart. Discovering “Physica” was like sitting down to a feast of body and soul. Hildegard writes, “In all creatures, animals, birds, fishes, herbs, and fruit trees mysterious healing powers lie hidden, which no man can know, unless they are revealed to him by God himself.” These insightful words, gleaned from divine revelation and hours of observation of herbs’ effects on her patients, confirmed what I and many herbalists feel toward God’s creation. Mindy Capello and Naomi Kilbreth, modern-day herbalists who oversee Alms of Grace, a free/low-cost virtual herbal clinic, echo this sentiment saying that “Herb work produces awe.” I am not ashamed to say I cried with joy and gratitude. Physica, Bingen’s medical masterpiece written between 1151 – 1158, was her fourth in a total of seven books on different subjects. Her writings include works such as visionary theological texts like Scivias and Liber Divinorum Operum/Book of Divine Works, texts on science and medicine, musical compositions, and a collection of letters. As the Abbess of Rupertsberg near Bingen, and later Eibingen, she was considered a true polymath and a woman ahead of her time, and was made a Doctor of the Church in 2012. RELATED: All About St. Hildegard of Bingen, Doctor of the Church For Hildegard, herbs were not just treatments for physical ailments. The saint’s entwining of both physical and spiritual, her observation that plants could be for good or ill, to both body and spirit, confirmed for me a feeling I had experienced while exploring the woods and fields around my home as a child. Some flowers and plants seemed to express love for me; just looking at them gave me delight. Others frightened me for reasons I couldn’t explain. Hildegard said of Lavender, one of my favorite herbs to use in perfume oils, foods, and as a natural aroma in household cleaners, “It curbs many evil things and, because of it, malignant spirits are terrified.” I do not pretend to fully understand her knowledge, but I find great comfort in pursuing that knowledge because the Church has honored her as a saint and doctor. For most of my life, I doubted the revelations found in nature. I am more prone to trust that sense now, like the time I came upon Turkey Tail mushrooms while looking for my dog’s lost collar by the river. I could sense its energy at my feet before I saw the feather-like ruffled “plummage” for which it is named. St. Hildegard refers to this energy as “viriditas,” or the “greening power” of nature imbued by God’s spirit. I took some home to make a hot tea, releasing the mushrooms’ medicinal qualities needed to alleviate the nausea I’d been experiencing for a few days. St. Hildegard’s Feast Day is September 17, a good month to explore the fields and forests for the herbal medicine God has given us, and to learn from her wisdom. The striking goldenrod will be plentiful by divine design to combat the ragweed. We can also consider Japanese knotweed, which scientists and doctors are studying as a cure for Lyme disease. Even the simple dandelion, for so long labeled a weed, has roots filled with viriditas this time of year to make coffee, and a bright yellow bloom in spring to clean our livers and enliven our spirits after the darkness of a long winter. RELATED: What Are ‘Doctors of the Church?’ One of the greatest gifts the Catholic church has to offer is the love, respect, and knowledge of our saints. No matter our experiences, questions, or doubts, there is most likely a saint somewhere who has written about it to light the way. Hearing about The Roots of Healing: Six Centuries of Medical Herbals, a recent exhibit at Yale highlighting the work of this beloved Saint, reminded me that perhaps the great and sustained impact she was able to make in this world was due to her intense focus toward God. Whether in her healing remedies, her otherworldly music which seems to be in the key of heaven, or her profound visionary writings, she gave herself over completely to him as “a feather on the breath of God.” This total surrender to God’s call seemed to transport her so thoroughly to the unseen world that she could perceive with great clarity and say of the Holy Spirit, “I am the fiery life of the Divine Essence. I flame above the beauty of the fields …” A woman ahead of her time, with a rich relationship with God and creation, very much needed for ours.