“The Word is living, being, spirit, all verdant greening, all creativity. This Word manifests itself in every creature” (St. Hildegard of Bingen).

St. Hildegard of Bingen, whose feast day we celebrate today, is an excellent role model for businesswomen. She was the Catholic doyenne of female leadership, entrepreneurship, and management of her age. She was a foundress, abbess, prolific author, poet and composer. In 1165, seventeen years after founding Rupertsberg Abbey and in response to increasing vocations, she purchased an Augustinian monastery in Eibingen. She took on the leadership of Ebingen and, until her death in 1179, continued to visit Rupertsberg twice weekly by crossing the Rhine. St. Hildegard’s spirituality was rich with gifts of prophecy, visions, and viriditas (“greenness”). Her viriditas illuminated a style of creativity with much value for the modern Catholic businesswoman.

Verily Viriditas

Hildegard’s viriditas was drawn from meditations on Scripture and the Church fathers. Baird and Ehrman, translators of her letters, describe Hildegard’s conceptualization of viriditas this way:

In Hildegard’s usage it is a profound, immense and dynamically energized term. The world in the height of spring is filled with viriditas, God breathed the breath of viriditas into the inhabitants of the Garden of Eden, even the smallest twig on the most insignificant tree is animated with viriditas, the garden where the virtues grow is viriditas, the neophyte must strive for viriditas and the holy Virgin is the viridissima virga. Hildegard can even speak with aplomb of a saint as the viriditas digiti Dei, “the viriditas of the finger of God” as she does of St. Disibod.

For Hildegard, viriditas is a synonym for the spirit of the living God that permeates all categories of the created world.

Hildegard’s business acumen was demonstrated in her success as a foundress, abbess, writer, poet, composer, and political liaison. This success depended on the steady flow of viriditas, virtue, and creativity that characterized her work. In this way, a life-giving atmosphere, in which creature and creator worked in tandem, is one of the reasons her work is evergreen.

Hildedgard was ahead of her time in her ability to maintain a certain stability while working creatively within the boundaries of her vocation. Stable, consistent creative work is a topic of interest and research in business and psychological circles alike. Admittedly, some may question the parallels between an abbess and the modern businesswoman. For me, the parallels became far more apparent within the context of my longstanding friendship with a priest who, himself, was founder and abbot of a monastery.

The Business of Running a Monastery

My conversations with my friend about his work have covered just about every business topic I could think of. We’ve talked about management of monastery finances, sustainability and long-term growth, mission and vision, property management and acquisition, navigating bureaucratic processes, oversight, personnel issues, and audits, among others. I realized quickly how much running a monastery is like running a business and demands some of the same practical skills (not to mention the need for much prayer).

My abbott friend and I also engaged in brainstorming discussions in which thinking creatively, outside the box, helped us solve problems, identify ways to innovate and grow, adapt to change, implement new mechanisms for productivity and efficiency, and generate new ideas for a hierarchy of relevant monastery matters. Creatively exploring the topics together with my friend, we created successful outcomes.

Cultivating Creativity and Viriditas

Given the value of creativity in business, the example of St. Hildegard offers us a helpful reminder to cultivate creativity in our professional life while taking care not to separate ourselves from the creative presence of God’s spirit. Several years ago, researchers from the University of California, San Diego, published a study of methods to increase creative competency. They identified four “measurable, trainable competencies: capturing (preserving new ideas as they occur), challenging (taking on difficult tasks), broadening (seeking knowledge and skills outside one’s current areas of expertise), and surrounding (seeking out new stimuli or combinations of stimuli).”

One necessary step to increase creativity in work is to eliminate creativity killers. Delphine Chui’s recent Catholic Women in Business article, “5 Ways to Unlearn the Art of Overachieving,” outlines effective strategies to simplify life—which creates a landscape where creativity and viriditas can flow.

Besides eliminating creativity killers, here are more ways you can cultivate creativity:

• Select one of the four areas of creativity competency identified by UC San Diego researchers, and take one action step to cultivate it: Keep an idea journal, consider ways to solve “impossible” problems; take a dance class or course in an unrelated field; learn as much as possible about your child’s favorite things; or put yourself into a totally alien environment, such as chess club at your local library, improv theater experiential class, local farming, Lego user group, car club, or Habitat for Humanity building project.

• Ask yourself, “Where is God calling me to work creatively?” Write down the answer.

• In the work setting, ask open-ended questions to yourself and others, such as: What is it like for my employee(s) to work here? What could make the work environment more positive? What are three different ways to solve a problem we’ve identified?

St. Hildegard’s life and legacy can inspire Catholic businesswomen to model her style of viriditas, virtue, and creativity in work. In this way, we can follow Jesus’ example to be co-creators with God so as to complete fully the work he assigns us and proclaim confidently, “I have glorified you on earth by finishing the work that you gave me to do” (John 17:4).

Dr. Lisa Petronis is a licensed clinical psychologist, licensed marriage and family therapist, and certified master Catholic life coach. In addition to her private practice, Dr. Lisa founded Halleluya Living, helping Catholics break out from burnout so they can experience joy and peace in the “work” of prayer, the spiritual life and daily living. Dr. Lisa finds deep joy to serve God by serving up dinner every night for her family and serving the anawim in S. Sudan, Kingston Jamaica, juvenile detention facilities and through a local sports ministry with her husband and sons. Learn more at DrLisaPetronis.com and Halleluyaliving.com.