A Polymath Nun and Why She Matters on this Mothers' Day

Sermons-First Unitarian Universalist Society of San Francisco

"A Polymath Nun and Why She Matters on this Mothers' Day"
Sunday, May 12, 10:50 am, 2024

Reflections on Hildegard von Bingen: The Patron Saint of Late Bloomers. She founded her own abbey, created her own language, and wrote one of the first musical plays. She was a wonderful composer who set her own lushly poetic texts. Hildegard was 42 before she started writing anything down, and she was also someone who didn’t accept her place in the world. In a male-dominated church, she went on preaching tours at a time when women were not supposed to preach, especially in public. She refused to behave in a certain way. She wrote at a time when, if the church authorities had not thought she was divinely inspired, she could easily have been put to death as a heretic. Let's witness how else she might inspire.

Dolores Perez Heilbron; Louise Diskerud; Judith Stoddard; Kathleen McClung; Nancy Munn; Maggie McGrann, Worship Participants; Carmen Barsody, Worship Associate; Reiko Oda Lane, Organist; UUSF Choir led by Mark Sumner, Music Director; Yuhi Aizawa Combatti, Guest Soprano soloist, Nancy Munn, Akané Ota, Soloists; Wm. García Ganz, Pianist

Shulee Ong, Camera; Jackson Munn, Camera; Jonathan Silk, Communications Director; Thomas Brown, Jose Matias Pineda, Francisco Castellanos, Sextons; Judy Payne, Flowers; Linda Messner, Head Usher