This ornament is handmade, by Sue Kouma Johnson, from 2 prints of my acrylic painting of St. Hildegard, placed back to back. She then cut glass to cover both sides, and solder the edges with lead free solder. Approximately 2 1/2" tall by 1 3/8" wide (6.5cm x 3.5cm), it makes a great gift, which can be placed in a tiny easel at bedside, hung with a ribbon from the rear view mirror of a car, or even hung from a Christmas tree!

Hildegard of Bingen, Germany, was a Twelfth Century mystic who excelled in painting, music, science and theology. She was an abbess, a founder of convents, and an adviser to popes. She was a sort of Renaissance woman, as she was interested in the study of many fields, including mathematics, science, herbology, the healing power of stones, music, just to name a partial list. She is credited with invention of the opera, as a music form.

One of the most remarkable persons of all time, this extremely talented woman was a devoted daughter of the Church. She was recently declared to be a doctor of the Church, only the fourth woman and the 34th person to receive that designation. She died in 1179.

Saint Hildegard's feast day is September 17th, and she is patroness of composers, poets, musicians, physicians, and according to some, Catholic nerds. The reason for the last one is that she came up with a mystical language, which involved the use of a new alphabet of 23 letters. Kind of Tolkeinesque. :)

Sue painted this in acrylics on canvas, originally 12 x 24 inches. There are paintings of her visions which she dictated to artists of the time. She tried to capture their style and also the way they depicted her in a few of the paintings. Often there were stars in the images and she loved to speak of the spiritual life as green when growing so she placed trees in the painting. Also water is the symbol for the Holy Spirit, as is the fire Sue depicted above her head.

The same image is on both sides.

All of our pendants are made with lead free solder and glass. Great on a chain or bracelet. We offer a ball chain for $4 elsewhere in our shop. 

If you put the charm/medal on a key chain, it may get broken if not treated kindly. It is glass. If you want one for a key chain, we can custom make your medium charm/medal with a thicker glass for $2. Small charm/medals don't need thicker glass, but either way, they need to be on a chain before you add them to your key ring. 

Our jewelry orders are sent gift wrapped as shown, and we include a holy card of Sue's drawing of Pope Francis!