Hildegard (1098-1179), mystic and prophet, wishes to be a practical, helping mystic and prophet. She constantly extols the virtue of "usefulness" and in the final sentence of her major work, De Operatione Dei, she tells us that the reason for her work has been "for the usefulness of believers" who are asked to receive her words with a "modest heart." She writes that God "destroys uselessness."
— Matthew Fox, Hildegard of Bingen , Illuminations of Hildegard of Bingen by Matthew Fox