This portrait of St. Hildegard painted on silk was created by Sr. Kathleen Burke, OSU. She visited the Hildegard Haus in 2017 and had plans to offer a retreat in this space in 2018. Unfortunately, that never materialized.  On July 24, 2018, Sr. Kathleen died following a brief illness. Shortly following her death, we received a call that she had left several Hildegard themed items to our space including this beautiful hand-painted silk piece which hangs on the wood of our choir loft (aka: our anchorage).

An medieval anchorage was a small cell or room attached to a male monastery for a cloistered nun (referred to as an anchorite). In some instances, there may have been a couple of women in the cell. To commit oneself to the life of an anchorite meant that one would essentially “die to the world” and would live her days out in seclusion. A funeral rite was often celebrated as part of the ritual. The cell would have a window attached to the church so the anchorite could attend various liturgical services and also a second window for passing through food, clothing, and waste. In certain contexts, anchorites might also make themselves available through this window to counsel pilgrims. However, it was expected that the woman would never again emerge from the cell.  Hildegard was tithed as an anchorite to the male monastery at Disibodenberg but in reality, she never fully functioned in that role. The women’s quarters grew quickly beyond an anchorage which ultimately created a need for her to build her own monastery following the death of her spiritual mother Jutta von Sponheim.

Regardless of how Hildegard may have functioned (or not) as an anchorite, we have assigned the name, “anchorage” to our icon prayer loft because it is a space where one can retreat from the world for a few hours in personal meditation and prayer. It seemed the perfect spot to hang Sr. Kathleen’s silk portrait of Hildegard inviting one to a time of solitude.

Both Scivias and the Book of Divine Works contain self-portraits of Hildegard (Scivias in the introduction and Book of Divine Works on each of the ten visions). This piece from Sr. Kathleen captures the essence of the portraits in these two works.

In addition to this piece, we also received from Sr. Kathleen a box of memories from her pilgrimage to the Land of St. Hildegard in 1998 and retreat materials that she has used over the years. These items are precious to our pastor Rev. Shanon Sterringer and will become a part of our parish library one day.