Hildegard of Bingen as a Holy Healer: Healing the patient, restoring the world

Simple item page
dc.contributor.authorWatanabe, Ami
dc.date.accessioned2026-02-06T23:54:33Z
dc.date.available2026-02-06T23:54:33Z
dc.date.issued2008
dc.description.abstractBy examining the five letters exchanged between Hildegard of Bingen and two monks concerning a demon-possessed woman, this article explores the ways in which twelft h-century ecclesiastics understood and treated demonic possession. A close examination of the letters reveals that demonic possession was considered as a communal illness that threatened not only an individual’s well-being but also the spiritual integrity of the community. The identification of demonic possession as a communal disease explains why an ecclesiastic had to write to implore the help of Hildegard, who was known to her contemporaries as both a saint and a healer. Medieval understanding of demonic possession required a specific kind of cure: miraculous healing performed by a saint. This healing was culturally constructed in a way to restore the spiritual well-being of the community that medieval subjects imagined demonic possession disrupted.
dc.description.scholarlevelGraduate
dc.identifier.citationWatanabe, A. (2008). Hildegard of Bingen as a Holy Healer: Healing the patient, restoring the world. Illumine, 7(1), 17–34. https://doi.org/10.18357/illumine7120081491
dc.identifier.urihttps://doi.org/10.18357/illumine7120081491
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/1828/23230
dc.language.isoen
dc.publisherIllumine
dc.rightsCC BY-NC 4.0
dc.rights.urihttps://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
dc.subject.departmentDepartment of English
dc.titleHildegard of Bingen as a Holy Healer: Healing the patient, restoring the world
dc.typeArticle

Files

Original bundle
Now showing 1 - 1 of 1
Thumbnail Image
Name:
watanabe_ami_illumine_2008.pdf
Size:
224.98 KB
Format:
Adobe Portable Document Format
Download

Collections

Illumine, Vol. 07, No. 1 (2008)
 
University of Victoria Libraries

We acknowledge and respect the Lək̓ʷəŋən (Songhees and Esquimalt) Peoples on whose territory the university stands, and the Lək̓ʷəŋən and W̱SÁNEĆ Peoples whose historical relationships with the land continue to this day.