Description
Hildegard of Bingen lived a thousand years ago but was only recently named a Catholic saint and doctor of the church. She is probably one of the first writers to speak about living a balanced holistic lifestyle as she addressed everything from diet and exercise to sexual behavior and health. As a Benedictine nun, she was a thorn in the side of church leaders since she “heard voices” and had blinding visions that directed her in ways that challenged a male clergy. She founded two Benedictine abbeys along the Rhine River in Germany where she spent her life in prayer, writing, music, art, and healing and counseling all those who came to the abbey’s doorstep. Through the intervention of the saintly Bernard of Clarivaux, she received the blessing of the pope. From then on, the people considered her a “living saint”probably because she practiced the healing arts in the days when doctors were only for the wealthy. Here is this nun diagnosing and prescribing medicinals for various physical and psychological problems being most careful to interpret this as rendering “mercy” and “compassion” and following the rule of St. Benedict that prescribed care of the sick. In this book, Smith not only describes Hildegard as a healer but also as seer and prophet, as a visionary. This is set in the context of the state of Medieval medicine. Her philosophy and psychotherapy centered around the body-soul relationship where she identified 35 vices and 35 virtues to offset the vices. These are matched with physical disorders that we might see today. Living a healed and whole life meant finding the balance between physical health and spiritual health.
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