Today is the Feast of St. Hildegard von Bingen. St. Hildegard (1098-1179) was a visionary (she saw visions), an abbess (founding her own abbeys), a scholar (she wrote books on natural science, medicine, theology, metaphysics and music), a correspondent (with popes, scholars, kings and queens), a counselor, a linguist, a philosopher, a physician, an herbalist, a poet, an artist, a composer and lyricist (she gave us the earliest recorded music by a woman, including the first Morality play set to music - Ordo Virtutum ). Today would be a great day to look up a few of her writings or to listen to some of her music on the internet. My living group within the monastery is called St. Hildegard. In honor of our feast day, we have planned surprises throughout the day for the entire community. The first surprise was feathers on all the tables in the dining room (see quote above). It caused quite a bit of stir as people sat down for breakfast and tried to figure out why there were feathers on the tables. Another surprise is the holy card above. The front of the card is an icon written by our own Sister Paula. It is just beautiful. On the back of the card is the above quote from Hildegard herself. We printed up enough cards for each of the community members. A third surprise are St. Hildgard's cookies of joy. In a treatise on medicine, she provides a recipe for spice cookies: "Eat them often," she says, "and they will calm every bitterness of heart and mind - and your hearing and senses will open. Your mind will be joyous, and your senses purified, and harmful humours will diminish..." And to top it off - they are really good cookies! Here are a few photos our our living group preparing the cookies for the community. Mary Elizabth and Cecilia flouring the pans Joan creaming the butter Susan mixing the dough Christine sifting the flour Here I am (with Susan in the back) rolling the dough into cookies Cecilia and I continue rolling and pressing the cookies Mary Elizabeth and Cecilia placing the cookies while Christine continues to sift "These cookies are really great!" St. Hildegard's Cookies of Joy circa 1157 (Recipe reconstructed and adapted from Hildegard's treatise Physica: Liber Simplicis Medicinæ ) 3/4 cup butter or margarine (1 1/2 sticks) 1 cup brown sugar 1 egg 1 tsp baking powder 1/4 tsp salt 1 1/2 cups flour 1 tsp ground cinnamon 1 tsp ground nutmeg 1/2 tsp ground cloves Let butter soften and then cream it with the brown sugar. Beat in the egg. Sift the dry ingredients. Add half the dry ingredients and mix. Add the other half and mix thoroughly. Dough may be chilled to make it workable. Heat oven to 350°. Form walnut sized balls of dough, place on greased and floured cookie sheet and press flat. Bake 12-15 minutes (till edges of are golden brown.) Cool for 5 minutes, remove from cookie sheet and finish cooling on racks. Stay tuned for more surprises to come!!!!