A community of consecrated women in Rome prepares meals for retreats based on the principles of St. Hildegard of Bingen. The food prepared for guests is the same food consumed by the community members. Simona Ferrara of Casa Santa Maria degli Angeli emphasizes that welcoming others in the spirit of St. Hildegard involves simplicity and joy. The focus is on offering hospitality to spiritual seekers.
2 days ago
Consecrated women Simona Ferrara, Fabiana Ferrara, and Katerina Welz run Casa Santa Maria degli Angeli near Rome's central train station.1
They host pilgrims, retreatants, and families of patients from Umberto I Hospital, offering hospitality inspired by St. Hildegard of Bingen.1
The community belongs to Opus Sanctorum Angelorum and has followed Hildegard's principles for over 10 years.1
St. Hildegard, a 12th-century Benedictine abbess and Doctor of the Church, pioneered natural medicine through divine revelations.1
She linked physical health to spiritual well-being, stating the body thrives only when the soul is free from vices.1
Her remedies treat ailments like melancholy, now akin to modern stress and depression, using foods and herbs.1
Meals follow Hildegard's diet with unprocessed spelt, fresh fennel, chestnuts, and quince jam.1
Key remedies include galangal for circulation and fatigue, a mix of galangal, curcumin, and ginger for immunity, and Roman pellitory for stress.1
Retreats limit groups to 12, featuring Mass, adoration, talks, and communal meals to foster authentic connections.1
Healing begins with listening to personal stories and encouraging sacraments like confession.1
The community promotes reconciliation, family rebuilding, and devotion to Our Lady Undoer of Knots.1
Even without physical cures, spiritual peace is prioritized, accepting God's will.1
Hildegard's use of healing stones like rock crystal is rooted in creation's relation to God, unlike esoteric rituals.1
Father Joachim Welz emphasizes esotericism ignores God, positioning Hildegard as a Church response to occult practices.1
Fabiana Ferrara critiques commercial exploitation, noting Hildegard's medicine suits the poor and requires patience.1
The women took vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience as lay consecrated, without habits.1
Fabiana was a lawyer, Simona worked in medicine, and Katerina moved from Germany.1
They prioritize heavenly vocations, simplicity, and joy as St. Hildegard's "saint of joy."1
For heart issues, boil 1.5 liters white wine with 8-10 parsley stems, add honey to taste, reboil, then add 2-3 tablespoons white wine vinegar and reboil once more.1
Filter parsley and serve warm or cold.1
Explore Catholic consecrated women’s hospitality traditions
Catholic tradition views hospitality as a core work of mercy, where consecrated persons, including women, welcome guests as Christ Himself. The Council of Trent explicitly mandated that those holding ecclesiastical benefices, including religious, practice hospitality "with alacrity and kindness," recalling the holy Fathers' commendation that hosts receive Christ in their guests. This duty weighs heavily on religious orders, particularly monastic ones, which renounce worldly goods to perform mercy works. St. Benedict's Rule (c. 530 AD), foundational for many women's monasteries, instructs: "Let all guests who come to the Monastery be entertained like Christ Himself, because He will say: 'I was a stranger and ye took Me in.'" Practices include greeting with prayer, humility (bowing or prostrating), reading Scripture to edify guests, and washing their feet, emphasizing the poor and strangers as receiving Christ most truly.
For contemplative nuns, hospitality balances enclosure with charity, enabling "wider forms of reception and hospitality" within the monastic cloister's rigorous discipline. Cor Orans (2018) affirms this as associating divine worship's primary function with guest welcome, preserving separation from the world. Pope Paul VI's Evangelica Testificatio (1971) urges regulating "fraternal hospitality" in houses to avoid disturbance, ensuring guests attain union with God while contemplatives renew their souls amid external activities. Benedictine chapters detail logistics: the abbess (or prior) shares meals with guests; a separate guest kitchen prevents disruption; a wise porter at the gate responds charitably to knocks or cries for aid; strangers testing monastic life are hosted discerningly. These ensure the monastery is self-sufficient, minimizing external excursions that harm souls.
"Let the Abbot pour water on the hands of the guests, and let both him and the whole Community wash the feet of the same, after which they shall say this verse: 'We have received Thy mercy, O God, in the midst of Thy temple.'"
Such traditions foster edification without compromising contemplation.
Active consecrated women extend hospitality through service to the abandoned, sick, and marginalized, embodying Christ's tenderness. Bl. Genoveva Torres Morales (1870-1956) founded the Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and Holy Angels in Valencia to create a "true family hearth" for jubilated (elderly) women, assisting them materially and spiritually as the "Angel of Solitude." Her work addresses timeless ills like loneliness, urging successors to imitate her charism. Similarly, Bl. Rafael Guízar Valencia inspired care for forsaken women, though his context highlights parallel feminine apostolates. Pope John Paul II addressed the Daughters of St. Camillus (2002), calling them to make "the merciful Christ present" via fraternal love, transforming nursing into vocation amid suffering and marginalization. They promote humanity and Gospel proclamation in health care and social institutions.
This hospitality is "tangible signs of Christ's tenderness," sensitive to human needs per Mulieris Dignitatem.
Popes reinforce hospitality ecumenically and universally: Pope Francis (2020) praises it as recognizing other Christians as siblings in Christ, a mutual gift of the Holy Spirit, rejecting past hostilities. Historical bishops maintained hospices from faithful offerings, evolving into canons regular sharing the bishop's table—a model influencing women's communities.
Consecrated women's hospitality traditions integrate ancient monastic rigor (Benedictine Rule, Trent) with modern contemplative norms (Cor Orans, Evangelica Testificatio) and active charity (saints' examples), always welcoming Christ amid enclosure or outreach. These practices edify hosts and guests, countering isolation with merciful encounter.