Parish church of Eibingen (Relics of St. Hildegard of Bingen)

The Story

The parish and pilgrimage church of St. Hildegard in Eibingen, a district of Rüdesheim am Rhein in Germany's Rheingau wine country, houses the principal relics of St. Hildegard of Bingen (1098-1179), one of the most remarkable figures of the medieval Church. The church, formally dedicated to St. Hildegard and St. John the Baptist, stands on the grounds of the monastery Hildegard herself founded. Hildegard was a Benedictine abbess, mystic, theologian, composer, and student of the natural world. From childhood she reported visionary experiences, which she recorded — with the encouragement of St. Bernard of Clairvaux and the approval of Pope Eugene III — in works such as Scivias. She founded the monastery of Rupertsberg near Bingen around 1150 and a second community at Eibingen in 1165, and she corresponded with popes, emperors, and abbots while preaching publicly, a rare role for a woman of her age. After Rupertsberg was destroyed by Swedish troops in 1632 during the Thirty Years' War, the nuns carried Hildegard's relics to Eibingen, where they have rested since 1641. Today the relics are kept in a gilded shrine in the parish church, which was rebuilt in 1935 after a fire destroyed the previous building in 1932; walls and monuments from Hildegard's era survive on the grounds. Though venerated as a saint for centuries, Hildegard was formally inscribed in the catalog of saints when Pope Benedict XVI extended her liturgical cult to the universal Church in May 2012, and on October 7, 2012, he declared her a Doctor of the Church — one of only four women to hold that title. Each year on September 17, the anniversary of her death, the Hildegardisfest draws pilgrims to Eibingen for Mass and a procession with the relic shrine. On the hillside above the village, the Benedictine Abbey of St. Hildegard, founded in the early twentieth century, continues her monastic legacy amid the vineyards of the Rheingau.

Church Recognition

Pope Benedict XVI extended St. Hildegard's cult to the universal Church in May 2012, completing her canonization, and declared her a Doctor of the Church on October 7, 2012; the veneration of her relics at Eibingen is a long-standing, Church-sanctioned devotion.

Catholic Teaching

The veneration of St. Hildegard's relics expresses the Church's teaching that the bodies of the saints, temples of the Holy Spirit, are rightly honored (CCC 1674); as a Doctor of the Church she witnesses to the harmony of faith, reason, and wonder at God's creation.

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Practical

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Pilgrims visit the gilded shrine of St. Hildegard's relics in the parish church and often walk to the nearby Abbey of St. Hildegard above the vineyards. The annual Hildegardisfest on September 17 features Mass and a procession with the relic shrine.

Go Deeper

Benedict XVI's 2012 apostolic letter proclaiming Hildegard a Doctor of the Church, her visionary work Scivias, and the website of the nearby Abbey of St. Hildegard offer rich further reading; the church belongs to the parish of Heilig Kreuz Rheingau.