My Story - The Testimony Behind Hildegard's Way

My story has its roots in my infancy in Poland. I was only four months old when I first became ill with pneumonia and received my first dose of antibiotics. Since antibiotics were a “go-to” medicine back then, with relatively little awareness of their side effects, each time I became ill again, our family doctor turned to antibiotics. Unfortunately for me, pneumonia and bronchitis became almost seasonal occurrences. Interestingly, my older brother did not experience anything like this.

My parents didn’t understand that the first dose of antibiotics had significantly lowered my immunity, and the fact that my mom breastfed me for only the first couple of months didn’t help. I didn’t have much support in restoring my microbiome and building my immune system. On the contrary, further courses of antibiotics decreased my immunity, and by the age of three, I had developed environmental and food allergies along with eczema.

My beloved parents tried to help me. They took me regularly to an allergist, and my grandpa applied various herbs to my skin, but nothing seemed to help because the problem was my messed-up microbiome. Eventually, I simply became accustomed to itchy skin and learned to live with it. Conventional medicine wasn’t helping. To some extent, it soothed certain symptoms, but it also left me with plenty of side effects.

The one thing that was probably helping preserve my health was the clean food we ate at home. Most of our food was homegrown, either on my uncle’s farm or in my parents’ backyard garden. Even though we lived in a city, we participated in growing our food and preserving it for the winter. My parents’ love for gardening shaped a lifestyle that I inherited—one that today fits so beautifully with St. Hildegard’s teaching.

Sometime in my late teenage years, my eczema gave me some relief, and I struggled mainly with environmental allergies. I moved to the United States, and sometime later I met the man who became my husband. We married and began bringing children into this world.

With each pregnancy, little by little, my eczema returned. By the time we had our fourth baby, my skin itched just as it had in my childhood. I knew I needed to do something because my hands and forearms felt and looked terrible and were constantly flared up.

Encouraged by an experienced person whom I had known for years, I began following the GAPS diet, which supposedly was helping people with autoimmune conditions like mine. Unfortunately, after a month and a half of following it, I was left in a miserable condition. My skin was flared up from head to toe. Whatever I ate, I ended up itching all over my body.

Trying to determine which foods were causing it, I began eliminating various products from my diet, one after another, until I reached a point where I could eat only pumpkin, cooked cabbage, chicken, and cooked apples. After eating these four foods, my skin itched only a little.

As a result, I became anemic and lost quite a lot of weight and energy. Conventional medicine wasn’t able to help me, and supplements didn’t solve my problem either. I was seriously worried.

I was experiencing joint pain. Under the skin of my hands, small, painful rheumatic bumps began to appear. My skin was swollen, and I looked at least ten years older than I actually was. I weighed around 106–108 pounds at a height of 5'5".

My only hope was in God.

I wondered how I was going to look after our four small children. So we prayed. Our entire family prayed—my husband, our children, our parents, siblings, and friends.

I was praying for a miracle because I could no longer see any practical solution within man’s power that could heal me. I had visited various doctors, and no one had an effective solution.

About two years after this dramatic experience with the GAPS diet, I learned about St. Hildegard. It intrigued me that she was a Doctor of the Church and that so many people in Europe—even people of no faith—experienced complete healing from their health conditions by following her wisdom.

I found some books at my local library and began exploring the subject.

First, I decided I would try spelt.

I remember being very afraid to attempt eating a gluten-containing grain because, by that point, I had known for about 15 years that my body didn’t tolerate gluten. Yet I was so desperate that I simply trusted St. Hildegard’s reputation as a Doctor of the Church, and I ate spelt.

To my huge surprise, my skin didn’t itch.

So I ate more.

Again, my skin didn’t itch.

Although I was still cautious, I was bursting with joy. I had found one more food I could eat. And there was something more: for the first time in a long while, I finally felt full. I could literally feel how this one food was nourishing me from within. I couldn’t get enough of it.

Slowly, I began adding basic Hildegardian spices—Bertram and galangal. Fennel became part of every dinner, and every morning I ate a teaspoon of fennel seeds. I applied almost all of the remedies for skin issues that Dr. Strehlow described in his books.

Sticking strictly to the basic Hildegardian diet and applying various homemade remedies brought me amazing results. Within two months, the eczema regressed from my entire body. Only my hands took longer to heal—six months.

I did not touch any sugars other than those naturally occurring in fruit. I followed St. Hildegard’s recommendations very diligently for another year.

I felt so FREE!

I felt so full of joy and energy!

Not only did my skin clear up, but, as a side effect, my sinuses cleared up as well. I began to realize that throughout the years I had been living with other small “inconveniences” that I had simply grown accustomed to. I hadn’t realized what a pain in the neck they were until they were gone.

After a year of strictly following St. Hildegard’s diet, I began gradually reintroducing foods I had been allergic to—even foods that had caused problems for me years before the GAPS diet, such as eggs and dairy. We even decided to get a dog. Until then, I had always refused because I couldn’t tolerate dog or cat hair. Now, to my surprise, having a dog no longer bothered me.

Having experienced this spectacular healing, I was—and still am—so grateful!

Up to this point, my entire family had been on a gluten-free diet. Now I had no hesitation about switching to spelt for our daily meals. I began experimenting with the flour, and the more I worked with it, the more I loved it. Our whole family enjoyed spelt in various forms, and it felt like an upgrade for us because gluten-free foods simply couldn’t compare to this ancient grain.

As we continued to follow St. Hildegard’s diet, I noticed that our immunity to seasonal illnesses increased. Our children recovered much faster from various infections, usually brought home from school, than they had before. Typically, the problem was gone within a day or two, whereas previously our illnesses had dragged on for two weeks.

St. Hildegard brought enormous changes to our lifestyle. Along the way, we also began to recognize how much of our grandparents’ wisdom probably derived, to a great extent, from the same traditional wisdom we encountered in St. Hildegard.

I had prayed so hard for a miracle.

I truly believed Jesus could work one for me. He knew I needed it, and I knew He could hear me. What I didn’t understand was why He wasn’t responding for so long.

When my prayers were finally answered, I came to understand something I hadn’t understood before: had God answered my prayer in the way I wanted to be healed, I might have remained stuck in my old habits for the rest of my life. I would have continued following all the discoveries of “modern healthy lifestyles” that would never have taken me where I am now.

Had I not been so desperate to find a remedy for my health issues, I would never have tried spelt, knowing that it contains gluten.

As St. Hildegard says:

“In all of Creation, within trees, plants, animals, stones, minerals—are hidden the mysteries of God, of which no person can know, nor investigate, nor invent, nor experience, unless God Himself reveals them to him.”

Today, our family is feeling great. And I feel that I received not only the gift of healing, but another gift as well: the gift of being a mom who knows how to respond to her children’s health needs.

I became a mom who doesn’t rely on a doctor’s opinion alone. I am now in the driver’s seat because I know my children best. Fortunately, our family doctor supports me and works with me, seeing the benefits of these changes. God places good people in my path.

It brings me great peace of mind knowing that our children are growing up with St. Hildegard’s wisdom from an early age. It allows them to see the world of health through a different lens—one through which they can see more clearly.

Justyna - Founder of Hildegard's Way