Scholars and Pilgrims: A Day with the Scivias Conference

Today the pilgrimage and the scholarship converge. The group attends morning lectures and discussions as part of the Scivias International Conference, running alongside the pilgrimage this year at the Gasthaus in Bad Kreuznach. On the schedule: “The Fountain of Wisdom,” from author Sara Salvadori, and “Hildegard, Psychology, and the Liber Vitae Meritorum,” from Rev. Danae Ashley — a look at Hildegard’s own writings on virtue and vice, one of her lesser-known but strikingly modern-feeling works.

It’s a useful corrective to spend a day like this among scholars, theologians, and fellow pilgrims from outside the group — a reminder that this pilgrimage is one small part of a much larger, ongoing conversation about who Hildegard was and what she still has to say. After lunch with conference attendees, the group returns to Disibodenberg for a special mass held at the monastery ruins, followed by coffee and cake — a quieter echo of the deep visit to the same site a few days earlier, seen now through a slightly different lens.

Registration for the September 2026 pilgrimage is closed, but we’re already planning ahead — Hildegard’s 850th anniversary falls in 2029. Join the waitlist to hear about future journeys first.