Today, I am sharing a fun St. Hildegard feast day science activity to do with your children. This would be great to complete for her feast day on September 17th or at an All Saints Day celebration. The lesson can be done with the entire family. You will learn about this powerful Doctor of the Church along with chemical properties of some common spices! I also have some yummy recipe suggestions.
Be sure to check out this free e-book with the entire lesson as well as the printables.
St. Hildegard, pray for us!
Facts about St. Hildegard:
- She is a Doctor of the Church
- She lived in medieval times
- Patron saint of musicians and writers
- Feast day is September 17th
- She was a Benedictine nun
- She had visions from God since she was a little girl
- She was a musician and composed beautiful music
- She also had many recipes and natural remedies to help people stay healthy and to heal
“If a person eats nutmeg, it will open up his heart, make his judgment free from obstruction, and give him a good disposition. Take some nutmeg and an equal weight of cinnamon and a bit of cloves, and pulverize them. Then make small cakes with this and fine whole wheat flour and water. Eat them often. It will calm all bitterness of the heart and mind, open, your heart and impaired senses, and make your mind cheerful.”
From Natural Sciences
St. Hildegard Science Lesson
Objectives:
- Learn about the life of St. Hildegard.
- Learn about the physical and chemical properties of cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves.
- Use the senses of smell, sight, and touch to explore these spices.
- Explore the medicinal properties of these compounds.
- Optional Extensions:
- Recreate a recipe similar to one that St. Hildegard used.
- Introduce basic Organic Chemistry by learning about the functional groups of each compound.
Materials:
- Whole and ground cloves
- Whole and ground nutmeg
- Whole and ground cinnamon
- Spice Date Sheet printed for notebooking
- Suggested text and/or other St. Hildegard stories and books.
- Optional Extensions: Ingredients and supplies to make St. Hildegard’s Nutmeg Cookies (pg. 53 in suggested text or find one online or in a St. Hildegard-inspired cookbook), molecule printables. The printables with large images of the molecules can be printed, laminated, and used as playdoh mats or with dry erase markers. Print them on regular paper to color with crayons, pencils, or markers.
Printables and free e-book available here.
Instructions:
- Read the St. Hildegard facts (above). If time allows, read the suggested text as a family leading up to the day of this study or read a story about St. Hildegard during, before, or after the study.
- Read “Spice Facts and Hands On Activity” and complete the spice exploration. Have all spices set out in small bowls or cups for easy exploring.
Spice Facts and Hands On Activity
Have each of these spices available for the children to smell and feel. Play a guessing Game: Have the children close their eyes and smell each spice and guess which is which. Whole spices are great for exploring by smell and touch and ground spices are great for smelling*. Print out the Spice Data Sheet and have the child write down adjectives for how each spice looks, feels, and smells, and any other facts that interest them. Have younger children narrate the information for you to record.
*WARNING: Do not allow children to taste the spices. The spices are toxic in large quantities.
Cinnamon
Cinnamomum verum
- This is from the inner bark of the cinnamon tree
- makes your mouth feel hot
- face, nose, and mouth feel sensations too
- anti-inflammatory (reduces inflammation in the body)
- Gets its smell and properties from the chemical compound cinnemalhedyde (si·nuh·mal·duh·hide)
Nutmeg
Myristica fragrans
- This is a seed
- has a citrus flavor
- antioxidant – protects cells from being damaged
Cloves
Syzygium aromaticum
- This is a dried flower bud
- sweet, bitter, and spicy flavor
- Contains a natural anesthetic (numbing agent) called eugenol (you-jen-all)
Suggested St. Hildegard books:
Hildegard of Bingen: Woman of Vision by Carol Reed-Jones
This is a wonderful read aloud book about the life of St. Hildegard. This book portrays St. Hildegard’s life accurately and in an engaging way for the entire family. The book contains 12 chapters. Most of the chapters are only a couple of pages. Reading one chapter a day (and splitting the longer chapters over 2 days) is restful and enjoyable for the entire family. We highly recommend adding this little gem of a book to your library!
This book also has a delicious and nutritious spice cake recipe that we recommend making with your children.
St. Hildegard’s Garden by Paul Ferris
Feel free to substitute and use any books that include St. Hildegard. You may also wish to explore one of the many cookbooks that have been written based on her recipes such as this new one that just came out by Paul Ferris!
This extremely well-research book is both a valuable reference book and cookbook. It contains an abundant amount of information on St. Hildegard’s life. Even though St. Hildegard lived during medieval times, many of the medicinal properties of plants that she discovered have been confirmed by modern science!
The pictures in this book are also stunning. My kids and I love looking through the section on common herbs that St. Hildegard used and that can still be found and easily grown today. The book even contains instructions for laying out your own medicinal garden.
There are medicinal wine, herbal tea, porridge, compote, soup recipes, and a medieval chicken recipe as well! (Be sure to consult with a doctor before trying the medicinal or herbal recipes.) The Laurel and Almond Cookies are a fancier version of the spice cake recipe found in the chapter book by Carol Reed-Jones mentioned above.
Be sure to find more September feast days to celebrate in your home and parish here!