Today, I am pleased to welcome Mary Sharratt to Books, Belles, and Beaux. She is currently touring with Historical Fiction Virtual Book Tours with her wonderful novel, Illuminations: A novel of Hildegard Von Bingen.
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Hildegard
von Bingen: Reconciling Faith and Science by Mary Sharratt
The
Western world’s first known description of the female orgasm was written by the
12th century abbess and Doctor of the Church, Saint Hildegard of
Bingen (1098-1179):
When a woman is making
love with a man, a sense of heat in her brain, which brings forth with it
sensual delight, communicates the taste of that delight during the act and
summons forth the emission of the man’s seed. And when the seed has fallen into
its place, that vehement heat descending from her brain draws the seed to
itself and holds it, and soon the woman’s sexual organs contract and all parts
that are ready to open up during the time of menstruation now close, in the
same way as a strong man can hold something enclosed in his fist.
Hildegard
von Bingen, Causae et Curae
How
could a celibate Benedictine nun write such a convincing description of the
female sexual experience? Unlike some people in our own age, Hildegard saw no
contradiction between science and religion, between being a religious woman and
addressing every aspect of human experience, including sexuality.
Born in the lush green Rhineland in present day
Germany, Hildegard was a true polymath, a Renaissance woman long before the
Renaissance. She founded two monasteries, went on four preaching tours, and composed
an entire corpus of sacred music. Her prophecies earned her the title Sybil of
the Rhine. She was indeed a visionary in every sense of the word.
Hildegard
wrote nine books on subjects as diverse as cosmology, botany, linguistics, and
medical science, as well as theology. Even though she believed consecrated celibacy
to be the highest calling, her medical text, Causae et Curae, discusses female (and male) sexuality frankly and
without moral judgment. There is not a trace of prudishness or
anti-intellectualism in her work.
In
general, medieval thinkers, including monastics, were far more plain-spoken in
addressing sexual matters than many of us might expect. But Hildegard’s writing
on sexuality was unique in its inclusion of female experience, unlike that of
her male confreres, such as Constantine the African, the 11th
century monk whose book De Coitu manages
to discuss every conceivable carnal pleasure without once mentioning women.
As
the woman who coined the word Viriditas,
or “sacred greening power and vitality,” Hildegard felt a profound connection
to the natural world, which she regarded as the visible face of the invisible Creator
who permeates every living thing. Her book Physica
was devoted to natural science and is an encyclopedic study of plants, trees, mammals,
reptiles, birds, marine life, stones, metals, and elements, describing their physical
and medicinal properties. She lists in extraordinary detail the 37 varieties of
fish to be found in the Nahe, Glan, and Rhine Rivers.
Her
vision of the cosmos changed to reflect the science of her age. In Scivias, her first work of visionary
theology, the universe appeared as a mandorla—shaped like an egg or almond. But
by the time she wrote De Operationae Dei,
the third and final book in her visionary trilogy, her visions reflected the
cosmos as a sphere.
Over eight centuries after her death, Hildegard
was finally canonized in May, 2012. On October 7, 2012, she was elevated to Doctor of the Church, a rare and solemn title reserved for
theologians who have made a significant impact. Presently there are only
thirty-four Doctors of the Church, and only three besides Hildegard are women
(Catherine of Siena, Teresa of Ávila, and Thérèse of Lisieux).
About the Author
The author of four critically acclaimed historical novels, Mary Sharratt is an American who lives in the Pendle region of Lancashire, England, the setting for her acclaimed Daughters of the Witching Hill, which recasts the Pendle Witches of 1612 in their historical context as cunning folk and healers. She also lived for twelve years in Germany, which, along with her interest in sacred music and herbal medicine, inspired her to write Illuminations: A Novel of Hildegard von Bingen. Illuminations won the Nautilus Gold Award for Better Books for a Better World and was selected as a Kirkus Book of the Year.
For more information please visit Mary's website and blog. You can also find her on Facebook and Twitter.
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