Seeking natural relief for respiratory woes? St Hildegard's divine revelations unveil a highly effective herbal remedy. In this post, we'll explore St Hildegard's holistic approach to coughs and sore throats.
In the midst of a lingering battle with a stubborn cold, our family found ourselves grappling with relentless coughs, sore throats, and runny noses. Sleep eluded us, breathing became a challenge, and our collective misery seemed insurmountable. Unwilling to resort to convenient yet harmful pharmaceuticals, my search for an alternative led me to a compelling solution hidden on my bookshelf: Hildegard of Bingen's Medicine by Dr. Wighard Strehlow and Gottfried Hertzka, M.D.
The two German doctors who authored this book have used St. Hildegard's remedies for decades with thousands of patients and found them to be highly effective. While I had previously dabbled in a few of her remedies with success, I had yet to explore the breadth of her healing arsenal. In hindsight, being better prepared would have been ideal, but the positive outcomes from this recent trial have inspired me to delve deeper (and I plan to share more of St. Hildegard's healing remedies with you in future blog posts).
Thumbing through the pages of this fascinating book, I discovered St. Hildegard's tonic for all cases of runny nose, coughing, and hoarseness: it is called spezies grippales compositum. Fortunately, the necessary herbs were already nestled in my kitchen, and the results were nothing short of remarkable for our weary family.
Just a single day of diligently administering this treatment sufficed for the majority of us to bid farewell to the incessant coughs that had plagued our household. Remarkably, even our five-year-old, who required an extra day of care, experienced a significant improvement.
I believe her slight delay in recovery was most likely due to the fact that she only drank teeny bits of her tonic (the taste is very potent). In the future, for younger children, I would take a small amount of tonic and mix it with juice, so that the taste of the juice overpowers the taste of the tonic.
Recently I fell ill again and had a second chance to try out this remedy. This time around I had contracted a respiratory infection, so I needed Our Lady's Immunity Drink to address that. However, St. Hildegard's tonic still worked wonders as a soothing expectorant and I drank it several times a day for several days.
Here is how to prepare St. Hildegard's tonic for coughs and sore throats.
Spezies Grippales Compositum Recipe for Coughs & Sore Throats
From St. Hildegard
Ingredients
- Mullein
- Fennel
- Dill
- Horehound
Instructions
- Combine equal parts mullein, fennel, and dill with 1/3 part horehound (for example, 3 tbsp mullein, 3 tbsp fennel, 3 tbsp dill, 1 tbsp horehound). Store this mixture in a jar and label it for future use. Or use our jar of pre-mixed herbs here.
- Add 1 tsp of the herb mixture to a cup of good wine (no cooking wine, please!).
- Pour the wine and herbs into a small cooking vessel, cover, and bring to a boil. The alcohol in the wine will extract the nutrients from the herbs and burn off, so that less than 2% alcohol remains (if you don't want any alcohol in your tonic, allow it to simmer for a minute).
- This step is optional, but recommended. As soon as the wine comes to a boil, turn off the heat and immediately pour a small amount of cold water (about a half a cup) into the boiling wine to quench it. Quenched wine, St. Hildegard says, does wonders to improve your mood.
- Strain the herbs through a cheese cloth, coffee filter, or another strainer, and pour back into the cup. Sip while still hot. Administer this treatment a few times throughout the day.
