Saint Hildegard of Bingen
Rhineland abbess: visionary, composer and author of works on nature and medicine
- Rank
- Saint
- Kind
- Mystic, Religious, Doctor of the Church
- Life
- 1098 – 1179
- Era
- 12th century
- Feast
- 17 September
- Countries
- Germany
Life story
Hildegard was born in 1098 at Bermersheim in the Rhineland, into a noble family. At about the age of eight she was placed in the care of an anchoress at the abbey of Disibodenberg, and she later took Benedictine vows there. In 1136 the sisters chose her as head of the women's community.
From around 1141 she began to write down visions that she said she had seen since childhood, and she completed her book Scivias around 1151. A group of clergy sent by Pope Eugene III examined her, and he allowed her to continue writing. Around 1150 she moved her community to Rupertsberg near Bingen, and later opened a second house at Eibingen across the river.
Hildegard left a body of work unusual for a medieval woman: the songs gathered in the Symphonia, the moral play Ordo Virtutum, two books on nature and medicine, Physica and Causae et curae, and several hundred letters to popes, emperors, bishops and monks. She also made preaching journeys to towns along the Rhine.
She died at Rupertsberg on 17 September 1179. Veneration of her continued in Germany through the centuries. On 10 May 2012 Pope Benedict XVI extended her cult to the whole Church, and on 7 October of the same year he declared her a Doctor of the Church. Her songs are still performed and recorded, and her medical and natural writings are studied by historians of medieval science as rare witnesses to how a monastic community understood plants, animals and the human body.
Works and witness
- Became head of the women's community at Disibodenberg in 1136
- Wrote the visionary work Scivias, completed around 1151
- Composed liturgical music in the Symphonia and the play Ordo Virtutum
- Wrote Physica and Causae et curae on nature and medicine
- Declared a Doctor of the Church in 2012
Saints from the same country
References
- Hildegard of Bingen, Scivias
- Hildegard of Bingen, Symphonia armonie celestium revelationum
- Dicastery for the Causes of Saints – biographical profile
Written by Anawim from documented history. Some details about ancient saints rest on tradition and are marked as such.