Viriditas: St. Hildegard and the greenness of God

St. Hildegard of Bingen wrote about herbs, fevers, and the greening power of God — viriditas — as if the garden and the cloister were not two religions. They are not.

Modern readers try to make her a wellness founder. She was an abbess. The plants were for the infirmary. The music was for the Office. The body was for God. If you take the tincture and leave the psalter, you have not recovered Hildegard. You have founded a brand.

What is worth stealing: she took the flesh seriously without worshipping it. Sleep, food, bile, melancholy — all of it was material for care. The Church still has an infirmary instinct. Use a doctor. Use a kitchen. Use a garden if you have one. Then go back to the choir.

Via Salutis keeps her on the shelf next to the fasting calendar, not next to the influencer. The greenness of God is grace in matter. That includes magnesium. It also includes the Eucharist, which she would not have confused with a superfood.