When Saint Hildegard von Bingen was proclaimed
„Doctor of the Church“ on October 8th, AIB used this occasion to
celebrate this interesting woman with several activities. After starting
out this semester with a fantastic weekend at Bacharach, neighboring
city of Hildgard's birthplace Bingen and visiting the museum dedicated
to her life, AIB wanted to take the opportunity and make the students
more familiar with her life and work.
Hildegard of Bingen lived during the 12th century and worked as
abbess, reformer, visionary, writer, healer and a lot of other fields as
well. During the last 50 years her work started to receive more and
more recognition worldwide and she became famous. In order to make the
students understand her complex accomplishments AIB started out with a
tour through the Botanical Gardens in Bonn, pointing out different
plants and herbs, which were used since the 12th century because of
their positive healing effects. On Monday Jutta Prinz, an official homeopath and certified in Hildegard von Bingen's treatments, gave a lecture on her life and the healing methods that were used by Hildegard. She told in detail on what some of the most popular healing methods were and how they work. Being confronted with a rather unusual view on medicine and the body and mind, students got to try galangal and parsley honey wine – a unique experience rounding up the guest lecture.
After watching the blockbuster movie „Vision: From the Life of Hildegard von Bingen.“ the student's favorite activity of the week came up: making skin creams after an original recipe from Hildegard von Bingen. With only a couple of ingredients and a little bit of time the students produced a handful of different creams. First was a wonderful marigold cream, good for rough, chapped and cracked skin or sores. Next was a mint balm, which works wonders against headaches and muscle tensions and last the students made a violet cream, which is used for a long lasting moisturizing effect.
All in all it was a fun week and we are sure that students will not soon forget this fascinating, one of a kind woman.
