Hildegard, the last year

by Barbara Lachman

In 1178, in the eightieth year of her life, Hildegard of Bingen and her community of nuns received a severe punishment: they were forbidden to celebrate the Divine Office, the daily cycle of chanted services that were the structure and symbol of their very existence. Hildegard, the Last Year is Barbara Lachman's extraordinary imagining of Hildegard's thoughts and reflections during that period of enforced silence. Written in the form of a journal, the book is a striking portrait of the visionary musician, theologian, and healer at the end of her long and magnificent life, but it is more too: it is a profoundly moving meditation on the power and meaning of prayer, music, and silence.