This novel continues the story of Hildegard, the anchoress to whom we were introduced in The Greenest Branch. In the second part of her story, we find her working to fulfill the promise she made to Juliana, an anchoress she’d known since entering the abbey as a child who, on her deathbed, exhorts Hildegard:
Do not let them stop you! Do not be held back by the petty attacks of those
who have neither the courage nor the imagination to go beyond the narrow
rules to which they are bound.
Most of all, Hildegard wants to find her sister anchoresses of St. Disibod a home of their own. But there are obstacles, beginning with their misogynistic Abbott Helenger, who doesn’t want to give up the fame and income Hildegard provides the abbey and moving all the way up the ecclesiastic ladder to Provost Walter, who levies a ban against the sisters singing. The struggle to obtain a charter for their own abbey plays out against a complicated background of treachery and intrigue between popes and kings. When she finally establishes St. Rupert’s, the sisters enjoy a different kind of cloistered life than exists anywhere else—wearing their long hair uncovered, adorning themselves in robes of fine cloth, and singing their songs of praise and celebration.
Hildegard is a physician first, whose medical advances include providing a home for lepers and whose infirmary is known for not charging women in childbirth. It’s fascinating to learn about the effective herbal remedies healers relied on in the 11thcentury.
And of course, Hildegard wishes to continue writing, despite being told that “Women are not supposed to write books, especially on matters of theology.” The Book of the Rewards of Life and The Book of Divine Works, influence the medieval church. Pope Eugenius, admires her writings in Scivias so much that he reads it at the Synod of Trier, describing the book as “a life-enriching perfume.” Hildegard combines writing and music to create Ordo Virtutum, the first opera. “The words inform the mind,” she says, “but music nourishes the spirit. The harmony of sound is a sign of the divine.”
Author P.K. Adams deftly integrates a great many characters in this book, giving the reader an idea of how extensive a network of powerful leaders Hildegard influences. But in her daily life, Hildegard depends on her small family of sisters and Brother Volmer, the love she sacrificed in her youth, who joins St. Rupert’s Abbey to write her books and provide lifelong emotional support for this “warrior for justice.”
Had Abbess Hildegard been born a boy, she would likely have become an archbishop or even a pope. As it was, her reach spanned many disciplines and extended across Europe. If it’s hard to believe that this larger-than-life character was a real historical figure, read The Column of Burning Spices for yourself, and follow the path of the very human woman who brought a feminine perspective to the Catholic church.