You migraine sufferers out there know what it's like. The pounding and throbbing inside your brain that makes you feel like your head is going to explode any minute. The magnification of your senses to such an intensity that any light, noise, or smell becomes unbearable. The nausea. The blurred vision. The disorientation. The hallucination. The passionate creativity. Okay, so maybe that last one is less common. But for Hildegard of Bingen, this week's Church Mother starting with the letter H, migraines apparently fueled what for her was a life of ardent, spiritual output in service to God. Her visions, writing, musical composition, scientific pondering, spiritual direction—they all came accompanied by the classic symptoms of migraine sufferers. One of the earliest illustrations of Hildegard has her seated, tablet in hand, as fire streams from heaven and burns into her brain. Her admirers attribute God's grace with enabling this woman to bear so much remarkable fruit while bearing such debilitating headaches.
Twelfth-century Europe was a time of fervent faith as Christianity not only dominated the landscape but sought to extend its dominance into places where it had lost its grip, most notably the Middle East. The Crusades were in full, arrogant, and disastrous swing, encouraged by popes and bishops (who often bought their way into office) and executed by princes—all blinded by their aspirations of power, their prejudice, and the enticements of wealth. Into the materialistic and power-hungry fray, condemning the overreaching of the church and its marriage to the world, stepped Hildegard full of righteous condemnation she declared was derived straight from God.
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