For the 11 November Dedication of the Church at Sant’Anselmo in Rome, Abbot Primate Jeremias Schröder OSB arranged the loan of a contemporary sculpture, Reliquary of Light, dedicated to Saint Hildegard of Bingen and created by the Austrian artist Philipp Schönborn.

The piece was part of an exhibition at the German-speaking community Church of Santa Maria dell’Anima in Rome. It was first presented in Berlin Cathedral in 2012 and has travelled through Germany in recent years, including Berlin, Naumburg, Helfta, Quedlinburg and Passau, before its exhibition at Santa Maria dell’Anima.

The art piece is a luminous, metre-long chest topped with a stylized basilica roof, with illuminated panels. It consists of photographs which Schönborn took when the original shrine of St. Hildegard was opened for renovation purposes at the abbey of St. Hildegard at Eibingen on the river Rhine. He has kept the architectural language of the original shrine, rendering it in light, colour and printed surface. The panels of the Reliquiary of Light show the outside as well as the inside of the original shrine, allowing a rare insight.

Schönborn’s artistic language is recognised for its precise visual grammar and reflective handling of place, memory and narrative. His artistic interest in shrines has developed over years of photographic and sculptural work. He is the brother of Cardinal Schönborn, the emeritus archbishop of Vienna.

Abbot Primate Jeremias arranged for the loan to Sant’Anselmo for the visit of Pope Leo XIV to the Benedictine headquarters on 11 November. The shrine has since returned to Santa Maria dell’Anima to complete the exhibition cycle there. In late November the Reliquiary of Light will come back to the basilica of Sant’Anselmo and then remain for a longer period.

St. Hildegard was declared a Doctor of the Church in 2012. Her symbolic presence at Sant’Anselmo expresses the long-standing hope to establish a more permanent Roman collegio for nuns and sisters. This decades-old project suffered a severe blow in September when the Benedictine women who study and teach at Sant’Anselmo were suddenly expelled from their residence in Rome. But “where there is life, there is hope”.

The reliquary also appeared on the back cover of the liturgical booklet prepared for the day, allowing participants to carry an image of the work beyond the walls of the basilica.