Support Independent Arts Journalism As an independent publication, we rely on readers like you to fund our journalism and keep our reporting and criticism free and accessible to all. If you value our coverage and want to support more of it, consider becoming a member today. In the granite-lined Gothic courtyard of Eibingen Convent in the verdant Rhine River Valley, a group of nuns stand in the chill air of autumn as snowflakes swirl through the open cloisters, sing antiphons as if they were hovering upon the very breath of the Holy Spirit Herself.
This is September of 1179, during the last days of their founder, 81-year-old Hildegard von Bingen. Wearing long white veils to signal their betrothal to Christ, outfitted in jewel-encrusted crowns each topped with a cross — uncharacteristic for nuns who normally take a vow of poverty — their long hair exposed over their white robes, the sisters sang a song to Hildegard that she herself had written: “And so the highest blessing/ In all of creation/ Lies in the form of a woman/ Since God became man/ In a sweet and blessed Virgin.” Ostensibly a hymn in honor of Mary, Hildegard’s song harkens back to ancient traditions of feminine spirituality: the Jewish kabbalistic belief that God’s indwelling presence, known as the Shekinah, was feminine, and the Greek Platonist account of divine wisdom called Sophia , to name but a few .
Consider a representative image from The Book of Divine Works , completed in 1173, which contains do.
