Hildegun of Neuss
Ninth Day of Easter
Year A
When Hildegun of Neuss was born she was destined for life as a mere woman, but things didn’t stay that way for long. Before he took her along on pilgrimage, her father dressed her up as a boy for her protection. When they got home, she kept up the disguise and joined the Cistercian monks at Schönau, Germany. Nobody knew she was really a woman until she was dead and then I guess somebody discovered it. That was in 1188.
Imagine living your whole life as someone who is not really yourself? Yet, we all have to do it sometimes. And some people make a whole life of it. Some people even harm their bodies with hormones and surgeries to be the opposite sex (Which just perpetuates the binary, btw. It does not fight it.) But, why? Hildegun, of course, had a reason. She wanted to be a monk. But, most of us can have whatever profession we want regardless of sex. So, why can’t we all just be who we want to be? And why can’t we let others dress how they want, wear makeup, or not wear it, wear pants, or dresses, or an abaya, or whatever the hell else they want to do? Or, even have a different kind of haircut, or no hair, or bad hair? Let everybody just be who they want to be. That’s what I say.
The legend about Hildegun is that she was a miracle worker. Well, I guess she’d have to be to not be discovered!
Of all the stories about people living as the opposite sex, hers has the best and most convincing documentation by her own order.
Blatant plagiarism from here:
“Blessed Hildegun of Schönau“. CatholicSaints.Info. 7 April 2010. Web. 20 April 2020. <https://catholicsaints.info/blessed-hildegun-of-schonau/>
My good friend, Dale McNeil also posted on Hildegun and this is a more complete story.
"Born to a noble family, her father Harper took her on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land in 1182, when she was 12. However, after landing at Tyre, Lebanon, Harper took ill and knew he would die. He entrusted her to the care of his manservant and, realizing the dangers that could meet the girl on her return journey, her father dressed her as a boy.
No sooner was Harper buried, however, when the servant absconded with the money given him for expenses and abandoned Hildegun. Still dressed as a boy, she took the name Joseph for the patron of families and children. Left to beg on the streets, a well-connected German pilgrim saw her and offered to return her home. For several reasons, though, this never happened.
By 1187, Hildegun also discerned a call to the religious life. Thus she entered the Cistercian monastery at Schönau — without mentioning that she was a young woman.
After a year’s novitiate, and three days before she was to take her monastic vows, she took ill, dying on April 20, 1188. Only while bathing her for burial did the monks discover her actual sex."
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