Hildegard of Bingen

1098 — 1179

Saint-Empire romain germanique

LiteratureMusicSciencesMiddle AgesHigh Middle Ages (12th century), a period of monastic renewal and the rise of universities in Western Europe

A twelfth-century German Benedictine nun, Hildegard of Bingen was at once a mystic, composer, naturalist, and theologian. She founded her own monastery and corresponded with the most powerful figures of her time, including popes and emperors.

Famous Quotes

« I am a feather on the breath of God. »

« Music is the path to God. »

Key Facts

Born in 1098 at Bermersheim vor der Höhe in the Rhineland (Holy Roman Empire)
Founded the Rupertsberg monastery near Bingen in 1150
Composed the Symphonia armonie celestium revelationum around 1150, a collection of 77 liturgical chants
Wrote the Physica and Causae et Curae, encyclopedias of medicine and natural science
Canonized and declared a Doctor of the Church by Pope Benedict XVI in 2012

Works & Achievements

Scivias (Know the Ways) (1141-1151)

Hildegard's masterwork, this treatise describes twenty-six cosmological and theological visions illustrated with magnificent miniatures. It earned her the official recognition of the Church at the Synod of Trier.

Symphonia armonie celestium revelationum (c. 1150-1179)

A collection of 77 musical compositions (hymns, sequences, antiphons) for the monastic liturgy. It is one of the most significant medieval musical corpora preserved from a single composer, including the dramatic work Ordo Virtutum.

Physica (Liber subtilitatum) (c. 1150-1160)

A natural encyclopedia describing the properties of 213 plants, 63 trees, minerals, animals, and metals. It establishes a system of medicine based on the balance of humors and the virtues of natural elements.

Causae et curae (c. 1150-1160)

A medical treatise on the causes and cures of diseases, combining clinical observation, Galenic humors, and a Christian vision of the human body. It notably addresses sexuality and gynecology.

Liber divinorum operum (1163-1173)

A theological and cosmological summa describing a vision of the world as harmony between God, humanity, and nature. Considered her most mature and ambitious intellectual work.

Correspondence (approximately 400 letters) (1146-1179)

Exchanges with popes, emperors, abbots, kings, and ordinary believers, attesting to her exceptional political and spiritual influence. These letters constitute a major historical source on the 12th century.

Lingua Ignota (c. 1150)

A constructed language with its own alphabet (Litterae Ignotae) and a vocabulary of nearly 900 words, one of the earliest known artificial languages in Western history. Its precise purpose remains debated among scholars.

Anecdotes

At the age of five, Hildegard is said to have experienced her first luminous vision, which she called the 'living light.' Long kept secret, this mystical experience became the foundation of her entire spiritual and intellectual work.

In 1148, at the Synod of Trier, Pope Eugene III publicly read excerpts from Hildegard's Scivias and officially authorized its circulation. This was an extraordinary recognition for a woman at a time when public speech was virtually forbidden to them.

Hildegard composed a secret language called the Lingua Ignota, complete with its own alphabet and a vocabulary of around 900 words. Possibly intended for liturgical use within her monastery, it remains one of the earliest known constructed languages in history.

At over sixty years of age, Hildegard undertook four preaching tours across the Germanic Empire, speaking publicly in cathedrals before crowds of clergy and laypeople — a practice entirely unprecedented for a woman of her time.

Near the end of her life, Hildegard clashed with the Archbishop of Mainz, who had ordered the exhumation of an excommunicated man buried in her monastery. She refused to comply, risking an interdict on her convent. She ultimately prevailed, just a few months before her death.

Primary Sources

Scivias (Know the Ways) (1141-1151)

And behold, in the year 1141 of the Incarnation of the Son of God... a blazing light of extraordinary brightness came from the open heaven, poured through my whole brain and kindled my whole heart.

Physica (Liber subtilitatum) (c. 1150-1160)

Peony is warm and slightly dry. It is useful against gout if worn on one's person, for its warmth and subtlety resist gout.

Correspondence with Bernard of Clairvaux (c. 1146-1147)

I beseech you, by the love of God, counsel me, you who are full of goodness: I, a poor little figure of a woman, have not lived a single hour in security since my childhood.

Causae et curae (c. 1150-1160)

The man whose bile is pure and whose blood is temperate is cheerful, kind, compassionate, and well-disposed toward all those around him.

Letter to Emperor Frederick Barbarossa (c. 1163)

Listen, king, if you wish to live; otherwise my sword will strike you.

Key Places

Bermersheim vor der Höhe (Rhineland, Germany)

Hildegard's birthplace in 1098, located in the Duchy of Franconia. Her noble family resided there, and it was in this Rhenish setting that she was offered to the Church as an oblate.

Disibodenberg Monastery (Germany)

A mixed Benedictine monastery where Hildegard spent the first forty years of her monastic life, first as an oblate and later as magistra of the women's community.

Rupertsberg Monastery, Bingen-on-Rhine (Germany)

Founded by Hildegard around 1150 on a promontory overlooking the confluence of the Rhine and Nahe rivers. It served as the center of her intellectual, artistic, and spiritual activity for nearly thirty years.

Eibingen Monastery (Germany)

A second monastery founded by Hildegard in 1165 on the right bank of the Rhine, still active today. Hildegard's relics have been kept there since the 13th century.

Trier (Germany)

The episcopal city where the synod of 1147–1148 was held, officially approving Hildegard's visions in the presence of Pope Eugene III, granting her legitimacy throughout the Christian world.