The following scholars, theologians, musicians, herbalists, and artists presented during our virtual Hildegard pilgrimage programs, first offered in September 2020. Each brings a unique and personal connection to the life and legacy of Saint Hildegard von Bingen.
Rev. Dr. Matthew Fox — Theologian and Author
Matthew Fox is a spiritual theologian, Episcopal priest, and activist for gender and eco-justice. He has written 37 books translated into more than 70 languages, including Original Blessing, The Coming of the Cosmic Christ, and A Spirituality Named Compassion. He has contributed significantly to the rediscovery of Hildegard of Bingen, Meister Eckhart, and Thomas Aquinas as pre-modern mystics. His Hildegard titles include Illuminations of Hildegard of Bingen, Hildegard’s Book of Divine Works with Letters and Songs, and Hildegard of Bingen, a Saint for Our Times. Fox holds a doctorate in the history and theology of spirituality from the Institut Catholique de Paris and is a recipient of the Abbey Courage of Conscience Peace Award — whose other recipients include the Dalai Lama, Mother Teresa, Ernesto Cardenal, and Rosa Parks.
Rev. Dr. Shanon Sterringer — Hildegard Haus
Rev. Dr. Shanon Sterringer is a theologian and ordained priest (ARCWP) with over two decades of pastoral experience and a commitment to holistic health and spirituality. Her 30-Day Journey with St. Hildegard von Bingen offers daily readings and reflections inspired by Hildegard’s wisdom. The Hildegard Haus in Fairport Harbor, Ohio is the home of The Community of St. Hildegard — an inclusive Christian community where all are welcome to fully participate in the sacramental celebrations.
Karen Cassidy — Hildegard House
Karen Cassidy is the executive director and founder of Hildegard House, Kentucky’s first and only comfort care home. The house provides shelter and compassionate end-of-life care for individuals who have no home or loved ones to care for them, so that they may die with dignity.
Rev. Mary Reaman — Tree of Life Community
Following the call of her longing, Mary has moved through uncharted territories as entrepreneur, pastor, teacher, preacher, and podcaster. After leaving traditional religion, she founded a spiritual community for seekers in 2006 called Tree of Life Community. A Reiki practitioner and host of the podcast Watering Whole with Mary, her spiritual journey is immersed in Earth spirituality expressed through Art as Meditation, poetry, and painting. She offers classes in Sacred Embodiment, Creation Spirituality, and Art as Meditation.
Carl Johann Schroeder — Mystic and Writer
Carl Johann Schroeder is a lifelong mystic whose path led him to work with Hildegard of Bingen on a spiritual teaching system. A graduate of MIT in artificial intelligence, a transformative experience in meditation led him to write ceaselessly about God and spirituality. In November 1997 he encountered Hildegard, who guided him to found a spiritual arts community at the Swedenborg Chapel in Cambridge, MA. From 2001 to 2013, Carl ran the Mystical Art and Talent Show — a gathering space for artists to share their most spiritual work and the stories behind it.
Brigette Mars — Herbalist and Author
Brigette Mars teaches Herbal Medicine at Naropa University and the School of Health Mastery in Iceland, and has taught at Omega Institute, Esalen, Kripalu, and the Mayo Clinic. A founding member of the American Herbalist Guild, she is the author of numerous books including The Natural First Aid Handbook, The Country Almanac of Home Remedies, The Desktop Guide to Herbal Medicine, and Beauty by Nature. She is also a psychedelic sitter and end-of-life doula.
Kathi Keville — Herbalist and Author
Kathi Keville is the director of the American Herb Association and author of 15 books on herbs, gardening, and aromatherapy. A founding member of the American Herbalist Guild, she leads spiritual-botanical journeys in Europe and maintains a herb garden of 500 species at her Green Medicine Herb School in California’s Sierra Nevada. She sings in a medieval choral group and has a specific interest in botanical and art history. Her fascination with Hildegard as a mystic and herbalist has inspired her own meditations with plants to explore the energetics of healing herbs on mind, body, and spirit.
Grace McLean — Actress, Singer, Writer
Grace McLean is a Broadway Women’s Fund 2021 Woman to Watch on Broadway and a Writer in Residence at Lincoln Center Theater, where her first original musical In the Green — inspired by the life of Hildegard von Bingen — was commissioned, produced, received a 2020 Richard Rodgers Award, and earned her a Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Musical. Called “electrifying” by the Huffington Post and “phenomenal” by the New York Times, she also performs on Broadway and with her band Grace McLean & Them Apples.
Rev. Dr. Carol Vaccariello — Creation Spirituality
Rev. Dr. Carol Vaccariello holds ordination credentials in Disciples of Christ, United Church of Christ, Creation Spirituality, and Independent Catholic. Grounded in Creation Spirituality, she works with Native American traditions and Earth-based ritual through Heart Space Spiritual Community. She is the author of The Lion of God: Archangel Ari’El (2016), leads circle dancing and heart chants, and serves on the Prayer Team at Mount Saint Benedict’s Monastery in Erie, PA.
Dr. Annette Esser — Scivias Institute for Art and Spirituality
Founder of the Scivias Institute and originator of the Hildegard Way in Germany. The Institute’s name derives from Hildegard’s major visionary work — Scivias, “Know the Ways.” Taking Hildegard’s holistic and integrative approach as its foundation, the Scivias Institute brings together artists, theologians, therapists, and spiritual seekers in an ecumenical and inter-religious community located in the Rhine valley between Cologne, Bingen, and Bad Kreuznach. Teachers and members come from around the world, united by the invitation to come to the land of Hildegard.
Sara Salvadori — Author and Musician
Italian-based Sara Salvadori encountered Hildegard von Bingen in 2011 and has focused her research on her ever since. A musician with a long interest in the role music plays in healing and education, her 2019 book Hildegard von Bingen: A Journey into the Images presents Hildegard’s prophetic text in all its inspired visual beauty.
Susan Lincoln — Singer and Founder of Hilde Girls
Susan Lincoln is a classically trained musician and former opera singer whose passions have led her into the healing arts. She is the founder of Hilde Girls — song circles for women using Hildegard’s wisdom and music to strengthen and enrich their lives — active for over 20 years throughout the US and Europe. A featured singer at the Abbey of St. Hildegard’s 100th Anniversary celebration in Eibingen, her recording of Karitas was selected for inclusion on Eckhart Tolle’s Music for Inner Stillness CD. Her relationship with Hildegard began in 1981 and she has been singing and teaching her music ever since.
Lauren Cole — PhD Researcher, Northwestern University
Lauren Cole is a longtime student of Hildegard with a particular interest in the relationship between her medicine and theology. Having studied Hildegard for six years in the UK, Lauren is a PhD student at Northwestern University working with Hildegard scholar Professor Barbara Newman. She speaks internationally on Hildegard and has forthcoming publications on her medicine. Lauren brings Hildegard to new audiences on TikTok, where she founded the hashtag #HildegardTok.
Thomas Edward Morgan — Conductor, Ars Nova Singers
Thomas Edward Morgan has led the evolution of Ars Nova Singers from a local choral treasure to a nationally acclaimed professional choir. Under his leadership the ensemble has pursued daring repertoire, innovative collaborations, and numerous commissioning projects with national and international touring. Morgan served as Music Director of St. John’s Episcopal Church in Boulder for more than 30 years and received the Dairy Center Honors Lifetime Achievement Award in the Arts in 2016 and the University of Colorado–Boulder Distinguished Alumnus award in 2019.
Chris Piorkowski — Composer and Educator
Chris Piorkowski is an award-winning composer, artist, and educator holding an MFA in Music Composition for Film and Multimedia from Vermont College of Fine Arts. He has performed for Pope John Paul II, scored over 40 feature and short films, and composed music appearing on Showtime and PBS. He composed music for Michael Conti’s The Unruly Mystic Series and worked at the legendary Sound City Studios in Los Angeles.
Joyce Ray — Author, Feathers & Trumpets
Joyce Ray is the author of the award-winning YA historical novel Feathers & Trumpets: A Story of Hildegard of Bingen, which imagines the life of the 12th-century mystic and abbess. She holds an MFA from Vermont College of Fine Arts and received an artist’s grant in poetry from the Vermont Studio Center in 2008. When Hildegard was canonized in 2012, Joyce became a hagiographer — an author of the lives of saints.
David M. Dupuis — Author
David M. Dupuis has published numerous local and historical non-fiction books. His fascination with world history, papal history, and prophecy culminates in The Seven Keys of Hildegard: Of Mercy & Of Death — a genre series spanning two world wars, from the Vatican in Rome to New York City and small-town Canada, in which two knowing popes and an unsuspecting archbishop become entangled in Hildegard’s ancient web of prophecies.
Sarah Riehm — Writer and Musician
Sarah Riehm is a lifelong creative artist — working musician, playwright, journalist, and author. She holds an MBA and an MFA in Writing for Stage and Screen. Her plays have been produced across the South, at the Soho Theater in New York, and the Kennedy Center. She writes daily at LivingHildegard.com — a free blog on Hildegard’s teachings that represents 4–6 hours of daily research and writing. She also works as a church music director and soloist on piano, organ, and harp.
Mary Sharratt — Historical Novelist
American writer Mary Sharratt is on a mission to write women back into history. Her award-winning novel Illuminations: A Novel of Hildegard von Bingen explores the life of the 12th-century Benedictine abbess and polymath — winner of the 2013 Nautilus Gold Award. Her other novels include Revelations (Margery Kempe), Ecstasy (Alma Mahler — praised by NPR as “historical fiction at its best”), and Daughters of the Witching Hill. Her articles and essays have appeared in the Wall Street Journal, Huffington Post, Publisher’s Weekly, and Lit Hub. She now lives in Portugal.
Rev. Susan Woodward Springer — St. John’s Episcopal Church
Rev. Susan Springer is the retired rector of St. John’s Episcopal Church in downtown Boulder, Colorado — a progressive and historic parish deeply engaged in social justice and contemplative practice. A theologian-writer, she has written an essay to her congregation every week for nine years. She lived off the road system in Alaska for nearly twenty years before following a call to ordained ministry. More at susanwspringer.com.
Michael M. Conti — Pilgrim-Filmmaker
Michael M. Conti is the filmmaker-pilgrim behind The Unruly Mystic Series — an independent documentary series exploring the spiritual connection to creativity, nature, and health. His first film, The Unruly Mystic: Saint Hildegard (2014), led him to walk the Hildegard Way in 2019, which became the foundation for the first virtual Hildegard pilgrimage in 2020. He is the founder of Crazy Wisdom Films and leads the annual Saint Hildegard Way pilgrimage each September.