Fiona Maddocks > Quotes

“Hildegard's pragmatism, whether stepped in science and biology or not, can never be divorced entirely from her theology. In her mind, they sprang from the same visionary and prophetic source.”
― Fiona Maddocks, Hildegard of Bingen: The Woman of Her Age

“I do not see with external eyes, and I do no hear it with my external ears; I do not perceive with thoughts of my heart nor by any medium of my five senses, but rather only in my soul, with open eyes, so that I never experience the unconsciousness of ecstasy, but, awake, I see this day and night.”
― Fiona Maddocks, Hildegard of Bingen: The Woman of Her Age

“A man should never put on feminine dress or a woman use male attire so that their roles may remain distinct, the man displaying manly strength and the woman womanly weakness … But as a woman should not wear a man’s clothes, she should also not approach the office of My altar, for she should not take on a masculine role in her hair or in her attire. (SCIVIAS, II, VI)”
― Fiona Maddocks, Hildegard of Bingen: The Woman of Her Age

“Two aspects of Hildegard’s history, however, did set her apart from others, and were to do so for the remainder of her life: her frequent illnesses, and the visions which, as she soon realised herself, others did not experience.”
― Fiona Maddocks, Hildegard of Bingen: The Woman of Her Age

“I saw an extremely strong, sparkling, fiery light coming from the open heavens. It pierced my brain, my heart and my breast through and through like a flame which did not burn; however it warmed me. It heated me up very much like the sun warms an object on which it is pouring out rays.”
― Fiona Maddocks, Hildegard of Bingen: The Woman of Her Age