Hildegarde was the youngest of 10 children. At 8 yrs old she was given to the recluse, Jutta of Sponheim, as a pupil and handmaid. As other women gathered round the recluse, their small community became a Benedictine nunnery. In her teens Hildegarde took a vow of virginity and, when Jutta died in 1136, she was elected abbess. Later, when the community outgrew the facilities at Sponheim, it moved to Rupertsberg near Bingen.

Hildegarde suffered chronic and painful illness as well as inexhaustible energy. Five years after becoming abbess, Hildegarde received a call to “proclaim and write” the visions she had been getting for some time. After overcoming initial reticence, Hildegarde wrote her first book, the 'Scivias' (“Know the ways [of the Lord]”), even illustrating the work herself. She got official, if cautious, recognition from Pope Eugenius III. Among her champions were the archbishop of Mainz and Bernard of Clairvaux, to whom Hildegarde had written for counsel. Thanks to this support, she was able to write and preach without incurring the usual sanctions against female teaching.

Her 1st book was followed by 'Book of Life’s Merits', the 'Book of Divine Works', an encyclopaedia of medicine and natural science, the lives of two saints, several occasional writings, commentaries on the Gospels, the first known morality play, and a body of liturgical music including about 70 chants. In the midst of this intense literary activity she also founded two monasteries for women. The Abbey of St Hildegarde, is still thriving.

Always orthodox, despite the unconventional style and imagery of her writings, she thundered vigorously against heresy and corruption in the church “in head and members”. Concern for reform led her, at age 60, to undertake 4 extended preaching tours. She gave sermons in cathedral cities like Cologne and Trier as well as in numerous monasteries. Hildegarde achieved fame as a visionary, prophet, and healer. Pilgrims thronged to her in search of miracles or spiritual counsel, and those who could not come in person wrote letters. More than 300 of her letters survive. Among her correspondents were Henry II of England, Frederick Barbarossa, and Pope Eugenius III.

Upon her death she became the object of a cult, widely celebrated for miracles. Later generations remembered her less as an author, more as an apocalyptic prophet. In recent times her work has become more valued, especially her writing on the Antichrist and the coming tribulations of the church. Hildegarde is celebrated for her holistic theology of divine wisdom, uniting God, nature, and humanity; for her brilliant visionary language and liturgical poetry; and for a unique mode of vision that combines charismatic jubilation with prophetic indignation, the longing for social order with the quest for social justice.

BORN:1098, Bermersheim vor der Höhe, County Palatine of the Rhine (Germany), Holy Roman Empire

DIED:1179, Bingen am Rhein, County Palatine of the Rhine (Germany), Holy Roman Empire.