Tea at Trianon: St. Hildegard’s Divine Visions

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Tuesday, October 21, 2025

St. Hildegard’s Divine Visions

From US Catholic:

Hildegard of Bingen was a prolific figure, active throughout her long life as an influential church leader, theologian, mystic, visionary, poet, composer, and scientist. She was born the tenth child of a family in Germany, and her parents dedicated their daughter to the church. At age fourteen, she lived in a small room with a religious hermit named Jutta, who was six years her senior. Jutta became a confidant and mentor to Hildegard, and it was with Jutta that Hildegard shared one of her greatest secrets—that since a very young age, Hildegard had been receiving divine visions from heaven.
Hildegard kept this secret very private until, at the age of forty-two, she received a vision in which God unveiled understanding and wisdom about creation and the spiritual life. “The heavens were opened and a blinding light of exceptional brilliance flowed through my entire brain. And so it kindled my whole heart and breast like a flame, not burning but warming” (Joe Staines, The Rough Guide to Classical Music [London: Rough Guides LTD, 2010], 256). The vision instructed Hildegard to begin writing down what God had told her over the course of her life.
Hildegard began writing down all that had been revealed to her over a lifetime of visions. Her writings were extensive and covered a wide range of subjects, including botany, medicine, theology, and music. Her musical compositions are considered one of the origins of Western classical music. Hildegard believed that making music brought one closer to God. “Words symbolize the humanity of the son of God,” Hildegard wrote, “but music symbolizes his divinity” (“The Life and Works of Hildegard von Bingen [1098-1179],” Kenyon College). Hildegard collected her musical compositions into a large compendium, which she called the Symphonic Harmony of Celestial Revelations. (Read more.)