I had this little piece of embroidery in mind , to work on over Lent , which will begin on Ash Wednesday 26th February this year.
Easter being on Sunday April 12th.
But I changed my mind and decided to begin it now after hearing of the passing of a very dear friend Rev.Fr.James Courtney OSB . A monk from Buckfast Abbey who came to serve here , for a short while at Mullion . A kind , generous and very holy man ....who will be sadly missed by all in the parish .
He will be in my thoughts and prayers while I stitch this .
It is a small section of an illumination manuscript of St Hildegard von Bingen . From Part 3, Vision 5 of the " Book of Divine Works".
It is a small section of a much larger picture/painting . I chose to do the hand of God pouring down His love and Peace on us all .
It is called " Divine Love upon the Wheel ".
I have sketched it out in pencil on a scrap of linen .
The Illuminations/paintings of St Hildegard of Bingen are just so beautiful and amazingly modern looking , the colours are incredible for the time that she lived between 1098 - 1179 .
They all come from the visions that she had from the age of three , and on throughout her life .
Nobody knows for sure if she painted them herself or just described what she saw to another nun or monk who painted them as she dictated . She wrote books on herbs , diet and medicine . She wrote beautiful music ..I have no doubt in my mind , that such a creative person could certainly have been an artist too !
I have stitched many small pieces from these illuminations , you may remember when I was embroidering " medieval stars " in a post a little while ago . They were fun little things to stitch ! This illumination is from a copy done by the nuns in about 1230 called the Lucca manuscript .
These are just simple guidelines done with a pencil , not especially accurate .
I am stitching over these guide lines , in the colours that I intend to embroider this little piece with . These are also not meant to be especially accurate .
This is no way meant to be a tutorial , but merely to show how I am doing it ....but if it inspires you then that is great !
I am making decisions about colour and stitches as I go along and I like to see how it changes . Sometimes surprises , hopefully not too much unpicking .
A lovely way of meditation and prayer .
Peace to you .
