Doctor of the Church

Vatican Radio confirmed the news this morning. St. Hildegard of Bingen is now a Doctor of the Church. She was officially canonized in May of this year, putting the Pope’s seal on a sainthood bestowed by popular acclamation centuries ago. A link here to an earlier post about her follows (link). She was a multifaceted person of genius who lived at the peak of Christianity’s efflorescence, born 1098, died 1179. She was a visionary, composer, poet, mystic, playwright, writer, preacher, founder of houses, and administrator. She also created a new alphabet. The Vatican today brought an image of her I’d never seen before. It is tiny; no higher resolution is available; but what it shows is that Hildegard also seems to have done the humbler work of bringing home the wheat at harvest time.