In 2023, our Garden Committee began the work of installing a pergola over the John William Leonard Memorial Bench in our front gardens. The committee did not begin with a clear vision of how St. Hildegard’s charism would manifest in this project. It took several months of discussion before the project began to unfold.

As we stood outside admiring the wooden beams being placed on the top of the pergola (hand cut by David Linn), Mary Ray suddenly pointed out that the carvings resembled one of the angels from Hildegard’s work Scivias. They were the wings from her vision entitled Zeal of God! An image from one of Hildegard’s visions was unfolding in our midst!

As part of the overall project, Rick Sterringer designed the metal work depicting the vine and branches (a theme that runs through our space) as well as a replica of the Zeal of God angel to place on the front of the pergola. This odd looking angel with a red fiery face and three wings is found in Book Three, Vision Five:

“After this, I looked and behold! In the north corner, where the buildings two kinds of walls joined, there appeared a head of marvellous form, planted firmly by the neck at the outside of the corner, at the same height from the ground that the wall itself rose to in that corner and no higher, so that the top of the head just equalled the summit of the wall. And this head was fiery in color, sparkling like a fiery flame; and it had a terrible human face, which looked in great anger toward the North… It had three wings of wondrous breadth and length, white like a cloud; they were not raised, but extended straight out from each other so that the head was slightly higher than they were…” (371)

“The three wings symbolizes the expansion of the ineffable power of the Holy Trinity. No one can comprehend the extent of Its glory and the limits of Its power as It shines with the immense sweetness and brightness of Divinity; in Its righteous vengeance it subdues all human minds, as they flit hither and thither diffusely like clouds…” (377)

At another place in the vision, there is a reference to the dedication of a Church. This angelic vision belongs to a larger vision referred to as the Edifice of Salvation. This particular vision is focused on the heavenly Jerusalem.

In the following spring, following the completion of the pergola, the Garden Committee planted Riesling grapes to grow up and around the structure. These plants were chosen as a way to connect us physically and spiritually to the Land of St. Hildegard in Eibingen, Germany. Eibingen exists within a verdant area along the Nahe and Rhine Rivers, lined with Riesling vineyards.