Hildegard von Bingen was born September 16, 1098, in Bockelheim, West Franconia (Germany). Her parents were aristocrats and she was educated at the Benedictine cloister of Disibodenberg by Jutta, a religious recluse and sister of the Count of Spanheim. Hildegard was 15 years old, when she began wearing the Benedictine nun's habit and pursuing a religious life. She succeeded Jutta as prioress in 1136. Having experienced visions she childhood, she consulted her confessor, who in turn reported Hildegard's visions to the Archbishop of Mainz. A committee of theologians confirmed the authenticity of her visions and a monk was appointed to help her record them in writing. The finished work, Scivias (1141-52), consists of 26 visions that are prophetic and apocalyptic in tone; they also involved subjects like the church, the relationship between God and humanity and redemption. Around 1147, Hildegard left Disibodenberg with several nuns, to found a new convent in Rupertsburg, where she continued demonstrating her prophetic gift and recording her visions in writing.
Hildegard was a talented poet and composer, she collected 77 of her lyric poems, each accompanied by a musical score in, Symphonia armonie celestium revelationum. Her expansive body of work also includes, writings on lives of the saints, two treatises on medical and natural history, which reflected a quality of scientific observation, that was extremely rare at the time. She made up her own language, for her own amusement. Hildegard also travelled widely throughout Germany, speaking to large groups about her prophesying visions and religious insights. Her work is also considered visionary and far ahead of her time and her unique thinking and diligence to recording her work, allow her contributions to this day.
Hildegard von Bingen died on September 17, 1179, in Rupertsburg, near Bingen. On that day her sisters claimed they saw two streams of light appear in the sky and cross over the room where she lay dying.
Her earliest biographer proclaimed her a saint and it's been said miracles occurred during her lifetime and at her tomb. However she wasn't officially canonized until 2012, when Pope Benedict XVI, declared her to be a saint. Later that year, Benedict proclaimed Hildegarde a doctor of the church, one of only 4 women to have been named such.
As one of the few prominent women in medieval church history, Hildegard became the subject of increasing interest in the latter half of the 20th century. She is considered by many to be the founder of scientific natural history in Germany. Her writings have been largely translated into English, several recordings of her music were made available and fictional novels, The Journal of Hildegard of Bingen (1993) by Barbara Lachman and Scarlet Music: A Life of Hildegard of Bingen (1997) by Joan Ohanneson, were published.
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Saint-Hildegard
https://www.healthyhildegard.com/hildegard-von-bingen/#1
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Women in Literature and Music
Non-FictionWomen who have changed the world through poetry, books and music.
