Meet Your Virtual Pilgrimage Presenters
Virtual pilgrimage presenters are key to the continued interest and success of this virtual pilgrimage, first offered in September of 2020.
Table of Contents
Michael M. Conti
Michael M. Conti is the international filmmaker behind The Unruly Mystics, the independent documentary series that explores the spiritual connection to creativity, nature, and health. Each installment has been carefully curated according to subject and theme. Aimed at revealing the insightful stories of mystics, Michael M. Conti explores and engages viewers with existential journeys made possible by visual and animated film techniques. His first film, The Unruly Mystic: Saint Hildegard (2014) lead him to the Hildegard Way in 2019. That experience provided the basis for the first virtual Hildegard pilgrimage offering in 2020.
The Rev. Dr. Matthew Fox
Matthew Fox is a spiritual theologian, an Episcopal priest and an activist for gender justice and eco-justice. He has written 37 books that have been translated into other languages over 70 times. Among them are Original Blessing, The Coming of the Cosmic Christ, A Spirituality Named Compassion, The Reinvention of Work, The Hidden Spirituality of Men, Christian Mystics and The Pope’s War. He has contributed much to the rediscovery of Hildegard von Bingen, Meister Eckhart and Thomas Aquinas as pre-modern mystics and prophets. Fox holds a doctorate in the history and theology of spirituality from the Institut Catholique de Paris. The founder of the University of Creation Spirituality in California, he conducts dozens of workshops each year and is a visiting scholar at the Academy for the Love of Learning.
In joining the Episcopal church over 20 years ago, Fox has been working with young people to reinvent forms of worship by bringing elements of rave such as dance, dj, vj and more into the Western Liturgy. The Cosmic Mass has been celebrated over 100 times and in dozens of cities in North America.
Fox is recipient of the Abbey Courage of Conscience Peace Award (other recipients being the Dali Lama, Mother Teresa, Ernesto Cardenal and Rosa Parks), the Ghandi King Ikeda Award, the Tikkun National Ethics Award and other awards.
His latest books are Naming the Unnameable: 89 Wonderful and Useful Names for God…Including the Unnameable God; Stations of the Cosmic Christ; and The Lotus & the Rose: A Conversation Between Tibetan Buddhism & Mystical Christianity. He is currently a visiting scholar at the Academy of the Love of Learning in Santa Fe, NM and resides in Vallejo, California.
The Rev. Dr. Shanon Sterringer
Pastor, The Community of St. Hildegard. The Rev. Dr. Shanon Sterringer is a theologian and an ordained priest (ARCWP) with over two decades of pastoral experience and a strong advocate for holistic health/spirituality. The Rev. Dr. Sterringer’s 30-Day Journey with St. Hildegard von Bingen, is available as a companion book. Enrich each day with wisdom from our greatest spiritual thinkers. Through brief daily readings and reflections, the 30-Day Journey series invites readers to be inspired and transformed. 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. with wisdom from our greatest spiritual thinkers. Through brief daily readings and reflections, the 30-Day Journey series invites readers to be inspired and transformed. 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
Karen is the executive director and founder of the Hildegard House, Kentucky’s first and only comfort care home. Homeless can’t receive hospice care unless they are housed. Through the support of our community and with the help of many volunteers, we provide a home and compassionate care for individuals at the end of life who have no home or loved ones to care for them so that they may die with dignity.
The Rev. Mary Reaman
Following the call of her longing, Mary has moved through unchartered territories and found herself in a variety of roles including entrepreneur, pastor, teacher, preacher and podcaster. After leaving traditional religion, she founded a spiritual community for seekers in 2006 called Tree of Life Community, affectionately referred to by its members as “the church of I Don’t Know.” Mary has recently become a Reiki practitioner and is enjoying exploring the healing power of energy work. She has also recently begun a podcast called Watering Whole with Mary and is available wherever you listen. Her spiritual journey is immersed in Earth spirituality and one of the ways she engages spiritual practice is through Art as Meditation, which she expresses primarily through writing poetry and painting. She offers a variety of classes for spiritual development including Sacred Embodiment which focuses on chakra balancing and alignment, Art as Meditation, Creation’s Spirituality, and Using Tarot to Explore the Archetypes, and more.
Carl Johann Schroeder
Carl Johann Schroeder is a lifelong mystic whose path led him to work with Hildegard von Bingen for the development of a spiritual teaching system that might yet help humanity to save itself and this garden Earth. As a child Carl longed to join the spirits and wrote stories about friendly aliens, until a vision in fourth grade told him to make computers talk to gain his best friend. So he went to MIT to study artificial intelligence, only to realize upon graduation that human egos were the artificial intelligence. Meditating upon an impossible software assignment he became overwhelmed with divine love and has been unable to stop writing about God ever since. Guided to at least try to live a normal life, he stuck with computers for an income, married twice, adopted kids, bought cars and houses, went to weddings and funerals, etc. But in November 1997 he met Hildegard who told him to start a spiritual arts community with her at the Swedenborg Chapel in Cambridge MA. From 2001 to 2013 Carl trembled and thrilled to run the Mystical Art and Talent Show, a place for artists of all kinds to share their most spiritual art and stories of what it meant to them. This touched and changed many lives, as Carl will talk about on Hildegard’s feast day 2021. Guten Appetit Hildegard!
Brigette Mars
She teaches Herbal Medicine at Naropa University, and School of Health Mastery in Iceland. She has taught at Omega Institute, Esalen, Kripalu, Sivananda Yoga Ashram, Envision, Arise Festivals, and even The Mayo Clinic. She is a founding and professional member of the American Herbalist Guild.
Mars is the author of many books and DVDs, including The Natural First Aid Handbook, The Home Reference to Holistic Health and Healing, The Country Almanac of Home Remedies, The Desktop Guide to Herbal Medicine, Beauty by Nature, Addiction Free Naturally, The Sexual Herbal, Healing Herbal Teas, Rawsome! and co-author of The HempNut Cookbook. Her latest project is a phone app called IPlant. Brigitte is also a psychedelic sitter and end-of-life doula.
Kathi Keville
Internationally known herbalist Kathi Keville is the director of the America Herb Association, and author of 15 herb, gardening, and aromatherapy books. She is also an herbal practitioner and founding member of the American Herbalist Guild. Kathi lectures throughout North America and leads spiritual-botanical journeys in Europe that have included Assisi, Patmos, Mary Magdeline’s St. Baume cave, Mary’s Ephesus home, and Delphi. Her large herb garden with 500 species of medicinal plants is at her Green Medicine Herb School in California’s Sierra Nevada mountains. She sings in a Medieval choral group, has art and education degrees, and has a specific interest in botanical and art history. Kathi’s fascination with Hildegard as a mystic and herbalist began several decades ago and has inspired her own meditations with plants to better understand the energetics and healing potential of herbs on mind, body and spirit.
Grace McLean
Actress-singer-writer-teacher Grace McLean is a Broadway Women’s Fund 2021 Woman to Watch on Broadway. She is a Writer In Residence at Lincoln Center Theater where her first original musical IN THE GREEN was commissioned and 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, Grace McLean is a multi-hyphenate actress-singer-writer-teacher on the rise. In addition to performing on Broadway (Natasha, Pierre & the Great Comet of 1812) and Off (New Group, MCC, LCT3, Public, La MaMa, Vineyard, among others), Grace also makes time for her acclaimed original music with her band Grace McLean & Them Apples.
With an artistry that combines Regina Spektor’s quirkiness, Nellie McKay’s jazz sensibilities, Fiona Apple’s cutting introspection, Kimbra’s sass and Merrill Garbus of tUnE-yArDs’ rhythm, McLean adds up to one beautiful weirdo. Manhattan User’s Guide writes, “this pop and jazz singer writes seriously infectious melodies with seriously antic lyrics. Her voice can raise the roof, or she can slide off a note and break your heart,” and Stephen Holden of the New York Times says “Ms. McLean’s voice [is] a flexible instrument with unexpected reserves of power…Behind her playful adventurousness lies a well of passion.”
The Rev. Dr. Carol Vaccariello
The Rev. Vaccariello holds Ordination credentials in Disciples of Christ, United Church of Christ, Creation Spirituality, Independent Catholic.
She writes “the spirituality in which I am grounded is Creation Spirituality. I work with Native Americans and enjoy doing Earth Based Rituals. Heart Space Spiritual Community gathers weekly with a variety of programming including: Medicine Wheel (Native American Treasury of Earth based spiritual teachings), Sacred Space, Relevant and Current Studies, Still Point Prayer of the Heart, and more.”
“I authored, The Lion of God: Archangel Ari’El….personal encounters, 2016. I compose heart chants, lead circle dancing. As a public speaker, I tell true stories about my Pilgrim experiences. I am a plant whisperer, and a spiritual life coach. I serve on the Prayer Team at Mount Saint Benedict’s Monastery in Erie, PA, teaching Still Point prayer of the heart.”
Dr. Annette Van Esser
Founder of the Scivias Institute, and originator of the Hildegard Way in Germany. The name of the Scivias Institute derives from the major visionary work of Hildegard von Bingen (1098-1179), the Scivias. The Latin words “sci vias” mean “know the ways.” Taking this name, we relate to the mystical, prophetic, medical, literary, and musical heritage of the ” seeress of the Rhine.” Yet, her ouevre is not the single content of our program. Rather, her holistic and integrativ approach and her request to know the “ways of God” (scvias Domini) or the “ways of the living light” (scivias lucis) is a challenge for us and our search of a spiritual path today. The foundation of the Scivias Institute for Art & Spirituality is based on this vision.
As a non-profit organization, the Scivias Institute for Art & Spirituality brings together artists, theologians, therapist and all those interested in their own spiritual quest. As a community of leaders and learners in the fields of the arts, of theology and of therapy, we are ecumenical and interreligious. Our intention is to be part of the spiritual movement, to contribute to the academic discourse in mystical theology, and to connect to the contemporary art scene.
The Scivias Institute is located in the Rhine valley between Cologne, Bingen and Bad Kreuznach. Yet, the Scivias Institute is not merely a regional institution. Teachers and members of the Scivias Institute come from all parts of the world. The Scivias Institute invites all to come to the “land of Hildegard.“
Sara Salvadori
Italian-based Salvadori encountered the many-sided figure of Hildegard von Bingen in 2011, upon whom she has focused her research. A musician, she has been long interested in the role music plays in education and places of healing and care, as a chance to reunite the body and soul at times of growth and human fragility. Her 2019 book Hildegard von Bingen: A Journey into the Images presents Hildegard von Bingen’s endlessly compelling prophetic text in all its inspired beauty.
Susan Lincoln
Susan Lincoln is a classically trained musician and former opera singer whose passions and studies have led her into the healing arts. She is a beloved and inspiring teacher who sings the music of Saint Hildegard every day. She is founder of Hilde Girls, song circles for women who have sung for love together for over twenty years using the wisdom and music of Hildegard to strengthen and enrich their lives through classes and retreats called Singing in the Hildegarden throughout the US and Europe.
Lincoln was a featured singer at The Abbey of St. Hildegard’s 100th Anniversary celebration in Eibingen, Germany, and her recording of Karitas from her album Mother Heart ~ Songs for the Sacred Feminine by Hildegard von Bingen, was selected for inclusion on Eckhart Tolle’s Music for Inner Stillness CD. Susan and her beloved husband, Craig Toungate, also have the album Heart to Heart with Hildegard, a collection of contemporary songs and chants written and performed by them based on the teachings of Hildegard.
Lincoln’s relationship with Hildegard began in 1981 and exploded in 1999 when she first sang Hildegard’s songs in the chapel of The Benedictine Abbey of St. Hildegard. Remembering the experience, she says, “It was as if Hildegard herself came into my heart and voice. I was trembling, my knees were buckling, tears streamed down my face, and I had the experience of being sung.” For more than 40 years she has led groups in voice and creative expression. Her exuberant spirit, compassionate heart, and beautiful voice make experiences with her irresistible. She bows deeply from her “Namma” heart to her precious granddaughters Nora and Winnie who keep her spirit alive with divine curiosity.
Lauren Cole
Lauren Cole is a longtime student of Hildegard. She is particularly interested in the relationship between Hildegard’s medicine and theology. Having studied Hildegard for 6 years in the U.K., Lauren is now a PhD student at Northwestern University in the US working with Hildegard scholar Professor Barbara Newman. Lauren speaks internationally on Hildegard and has several forthcoming publications on Hildegard’s medicine. Lauren brings Hildegard to new audiences on TikTok, where she founded the hashtag #HildegardTok. Follow her on TikTok and Twitter.
Thomas Edward Morgan
Recognized as a “many-splendored musician” (The Boulder Daily Camera) and leading interpreter of new choral music, Thomas Edward Morgan has led the evolution of Ars Nova Singers from a local choral treasure to an intrepid professional choir with national acclaim. Under his leadership, the ensemble has pursued daring repertoire, innovative collaborations, and numerous commissioning projects, along with touring nationally and internationally.
In addition to his work with Ars Nova Singers, Morgan served as Music Director of St. John’s Episcopal Church in Boulder, CO for more than 30 years. Morgan has studied choral and orchestral conducting with experts in the field including Dale Warland, Helmut Rilling, and Giora Bernstein, and has taken masterclasses with Eric Ericson and Herbert Blomstedt. In 2016 he received the Dairy Center Honors Lifetime Achievement Award in the Arts and the University of Colorado-Boulder College of Music selected him as the Distinguished Alumnus of the college in 2019. He received his Bachelor of Arts degree in Music from Macalester College in St. Paul, Minnesota and a Master of Music degree in composition from the University of Colorado.
As a composer, Morgan was an artist-in-residence of the Lucas Artists program at the Montalvo Center for the Arts in Saratoga, California (2006-2008). He collaborated with New York visual artist Lesley Dill in the production of an extended work for a cappella chorus, I Heard a Voice, which was premiered by the Ars Nova in 2002. His composition Psalm 88 for orchestra and chorus received the prestigious BMI Award, and his choral work Four Poems of e. e. cummings was presented on the opening program of the eighth Internacional de Musica Nueva festival in Mexico City. Several of his works have been performed internationally by the Peiyang Chorus of Tianjin, China.
Chris Piorkowski
Chris Piorkowski is an award-winning composer, artist, and educator. Completing his graduate studies with a major in Music Composition for Film and Multimedia, Professor Piorkowski holds the Master of Music (M.F.A.) terminal degree from Vermont College of Fine Arts.
As a performer, pianist, and composer, Associate Professor Piorkowski participated in a music performance for Pope John Paul II, performing a solo piano concert at “Palais des Congrès de Paris” in Paris, France with over three thousand visitors present. He has also accompanied several notable opera and musical singers including Melissa Swift-Sawyer, Anne Demougin, and Lisa Fairmont. In 1999 Professor Piorkowski was selected, because of his outstanding achievement in composition and arrangement, to score, produce and arrange the Theme Song of The Boxing World Cup in Helsinki. In addition to his many composition projects, he was chosen as an orchestrator, composer, arranger, and audio engineer for German Popstar and recording artist Guildo Horn (Eurovision Song Contest 89’).
Piorkowski worked on countless projects at the legendary Sound City Studios in Los Angeles, CA (now recording studio hall of fame). He scored over 40 Feature and Short Films as well as many TV commercials. Piorkowski’s music appears on ShowTime, PBS, and other network television. Among many other film trailers and multimedia projects, he composed music for Michael M. Conti’s The Unruly Mystic Series.
Joyce Ray
Ray’s award-winning YA historical novel, Feathers & Trumpets, A Story of Hildegard von Bingen, imagines the life of the 12th century mystic and abbess, now Saint Hildegard and Doctor of the Church. Joyce holds an MFA from Vermont College of Fine Arts’ Writing for Children and Young Adults program. In 2008 the Vermont Studio Center awarded her an artist’s grant in poetry.
“One day I read about an abbess named Hildegard who lived 900 years ago in the Middle Ages. Her story intrigued me because her childhood visions resulted in a decision that would be unheard of today. Despite living in a world where men made all the rules and women followed them, Hildegard grew up to be the strongest female voice in the twelfth century. I wanted to tell her story to young people. When Hildegard became a saint in 2012, I became a hagiographer, an author & writer of the lives of saints. But I like being an ordinary writer too.”
David M. Dupuis
As an author, Dupuis has published numerous local, historical non-fiction books. His fascination with world history, papal history, prophecy and fiction culminate in this intriguing, genre series.
Tackling events throughout the early 20th century, The Seven Keys of Hildegard: Of Mercy & Of Death will challenge the very truth of what the church and the world knows. Through two world wars, and from the Vatican in Rome, Italy, to New York City and small town Canada, two knowing popes, an unsuspecting archbishop and a monsignor become entangled in Hildegard’s ancient web of prophecies. And one thing is certain—Armageddon is nigh.
Sarah Riehm
Sarah Riehm has been a lifelong creative artist. From a young age, she was a working musician, starting out at age nine as a church organist and also a singer and performer. She holds an MBA and an MFA in Writing for Stage and Screen.
Earlier in her career, she earned a living writing books and as a journalist for national publications. In the mid 1990s, she turned to playwriting and has had her works produced across the south, in the Soho Theater in New York and the Kennedy Center. Her most recent play about the last year in the life of Albert Einstein, called Bibo and Bertie, was recently produced via ZOOM by the Public Theater in San Antonio.
She recently completed a big-ass Texas musical, called Yellow Rose, slated for production in Tampa, Florida in 2022. She writes plays under the name Sarah Lawrence. As a Hildegard fan and researcher, she writes a (free) daily blog on Hildegard’s teachings that can be found at www.LivingHildegard.com. She also works as a church music director and soloist on the piano, organ and harp.
She writes “The Living Hildegard blog has been a labor of love for me; it takes 4-6 hours per day to read, research, write and post each blog. I have learned so much from my research, and also from your many comments and suggestions. Writing a daily blog is like dairy farming–you really can’t ever take a day off!”
Mary Sharratt
American writer Mary Sharratt is on a mission to write women back into history. Originally from Minnesota, Mary now lives in Portugal, near the beautiful medieval town of Obidos on the Silver Coast.
Her latest novel REVELATIONS, is drawn from the colorful life of Margery Kempe, 15th century mystic, intrepid world traveler, and author of the first autobiography in the English language.
Her 2018 novel ECSTASY , drawn from the dramatic life of composer and life artist Alma Schindler Mahler, has been praised by NPR as “historical fiction at its best.”
Mary’s explorations into the hidden histories of Renaissance women compelled her to write THE DARK LADY’S MASK , based on the story of the ground-breaking poet, Aemilia Bassano Lanier.
Mary lived for eighteen years in the Pendle region of Lancashire, England, the setting for her acclaimed novel, DAUGHTERS OF THE WITCHING HILL, which recasts the Pendle Witches of 1612 in their historical context as cunning folk and healers.
Previously she lived in Germany. This, along with her interest in sacred music and herbal medicine, inspired her to write her award-winning ILLUMINATIONS: A NOVEL OF HILDEGARD VON BINGEN, which explores the life of the 12th century Benedictine abbess, composer, polymath, and powerfrau.
Winner of the 2013 Nautilus Gold Award, the 2005 WILLA Literary Award, and a Minnesota Book Award Finalist, Mary has also written the novels SUMMIT AVENUE, THE REAL MINERVA, THE VANISHING POINT, and co-edited the subversive fiction anthology BITCH LIT, which celebrates female anti-heroes–strong women who break all the rules. Her short fiction has been published in Twin Cities Noir and elsewhere.
Mary’s articles and essays have appeared in The Wall Street Journal, The Huffington Post, Publisher’s Weekly, Enchanted Living, Lit Hub, Minnesota Magazine, and Historical Novels Review. When she isn’t writing, she’s usually riding her spirited Welsh mare.
The Rev. Susan Woodward Springer
Rev. Susan Springer is the rector of St. John’s Episcopal Church, a progressive and historic church in downtown Boulder, Colorado. Her parish is very engaged in social justice work and contemplative practice. As a theologian-writer, Susan has written an essay to her congregation every week for the past nine years. Her book on the confluence of yoga and Christianity is due out in the spring. She’s written other books and articles and taught at conferences. Susan lived off the road system in Alaska for nearly twenty years before hearing and following a call to ordained ministry. For more information: https://www.susanwspringer.com
