Hildegard of Bingen's date of birth is uncertain. It has been concluded that she may have
been born in the year 1098.[4] Hildegard was raised in a family of free nobles. She was
her parents' tenth child, sickly from birth.[5] In her Vita, Hildegard explains that from a
very young age she had experienced visions.[6]
Perhaps due to Hildegard's visions, or as a method of political positioning, Hildegard's
parents, Hildebert and Mechthilde, offered her as a tithe to the church. The date of
Hildegard's enclosure in the church is contentious. Her vita tells us she was enclosed with
another older nun Jutta at the age of eight, though Jutta's enclosure date is known to be in
1112, at which time Hildegard would have been fourteen.[7] Some scholars speculate that
Hildegard was placed in the care of Jutta, the daughter of Count Stephan II of Sponheim,
at the age of eight, before the two women were enclosed together six years later.[8] There
is no written record of the twenty-four years of Hildegard's life that she was in the
convent together with Jutta. It is possible that Hildegard could have been a chantress and
a worker in the herbarium and infirmarium.[9] In any case, Hildegard and Jutta were
enclosed at Disibodenberg in the Palatinate Forest in what is now Germany. Jutta was
also a visionary and thus attracted many followers who came to visit her at the enclosure.
Hildegard also tells us that Jutta taught her to read and write, but that she was unlearned
and therefore incapable of teaching Hildegard Biblical interpretation.[10] Hildegard and
Jutta most likely prayed, meditated, read scriptures such as the psalter, and did some sort
of handwork during the hours of the Divine Office. This also might have been a time
when Hildegard learned how to play the ten-stringed psaltery. Volmar, a frequent visitor,
may have taught Hildegard simple psalm notation. The time she studied music could also
have been the beginnings of the compositions she would later create.[11]
Upon Jutta's death in 1136 Hildegard was unanimously elected as "magistra" of her sister
community by her fellow nuns.[12] Abbot Kuno, the Abbot of Disibodenberg, also asked
Hildegard to be Prioress. Hildegard, however, wanted more independence for herself and
her nuns and asked Abbot Kuno to allow them to move to Rupertsberg.[13] When the
abbot declined Hildegard's proposition, Hildegard went over his head and received the
approval of Archbishop Henry I of Mainz. Abbot Kuno did not relent, however, until
Hildegard was stricken by an illness that kept her paralyzed and unable to move from her
bed, an event that she attributed to God's unhappiness at her not following his orders to
move her nuns to Rupertsberg. It was only when the Abbot himself could not move
Hildegard that he decided to grant the nuns their own monastery.[14] Hildegard and about
twenty nuns thus moved to the St. Rupertsberg monastery in 1150, where Volmar served
as provost, as well as Hildegard's confessor and scribe. In 1165 Hildegard founded a
second convent for her nuns at Eibingen.
Hildegard says that she first saw “The Shade of the Living Light” at the age of three and
by the age five she began to understand that she was experiencing visions.[15] In
Hildegard’s youth, she referred to her visionary gift as her viso. She explained that she
saw all things in the light of God through the five senses: sight, hearing, taste, smell, and
touch.[16] Hildegard was hesitant to share her visions, confiding only to Jutta, who in turn
told Volmar, Hildegard's tutor and, later, secretary.[17] Throughout her life, she continued
to have many visions, and in 1141, at the age of 42, Hildegard received a vision she
believed to be an instruction from God, to "write down that which you see and hear." [18]
Still hesitant to record her visions, Hildegard became physically ill. The illustrations
recorded in the book of Scivias were visions that Hildegard experienced, causing her
great suffering and tribulations.[19] In her first theological text, Scivias ("Know the
Ways"), Hildegard describes her struggle within:
But I, though I saw and heard these things, refused to write for a long time through doubt
and bad opinion and the diversity of human words, not with stubbornness but in the
exercise of humility, until, laid low by the scourge of God, I fell upon a bed of sickness;
then, compelled at last by many illnesses, and by the witness of a certain noble maiden of
good conduct [the nun Richardis von Stade] and of that man whom I had secretly sought
and found, as mentioned above, I set my hand to the writing. While I was doing it, I
sensed, as I mentioned before, the deep profundity of scriptural exposition; and, raising
myself from illness by the strength I received, I brought this work to a close - though just
barely - in ten years. [...] And I spoke and wrote these things not by the invention of my
heart or that of any other person, but as by the secret mysteries of God I heard and
received them in the heavenly places. And again I heard a voice from Heaven saying to
me, 'Cry out therefore, and write thus!'[20]
Hildegard's vita was begun by Godfrey of Disibodenberg under Hildegard's supervision.
[edit] Works
Attention in recent decades to women of the medieval Church has led to a great deal of
popular interest in Hildegard, particularly her music. Between 70 and 80 compositions
have survived, which is one of the largest repertoires among medieval composers.
Hildegard left behind over 100 letters, 72 songs, seventy poems, and 9 books.[21]
"O frondens virga"
From Ordo Virtutum
Problems listening to this file? See media help.
One of her better known works, Ordo Virtutum (Play of the Virtues), is a morality play. It
is unsure when some of Hildegard’s compositions were composed, though the Ordo
Virtutum is thought to have been composed as early as 1151.[22] The morality play
consists of monophonic melodies for the Anima (human soul) and 16 Virtues. There is
also one speaking part for the Devil. Scholars assert that the role of the Devil would have
been played by Volmar, while Hildegard's nuns would have played the parts of Anima
and the Virtues.[23]
In addition to the Ordo Virtutum Hildegard composed many liturgical songs that were
collected into a cycle called the Symphonia armoniae celestium revelationum. The songs
from the Symphonia are set to Hildegard’s own text and range from antiphons, hymns,
sequences, to responsories.[24] Her music is described as monophonic; that is, consisting
of exactly one melodic line.[25] Hildegard's compositional style is characterized by
soaring melodies, often well outside of the normal range of chant at the time.[26]
Additionally, scholars such as Margot Fassler and Marianna Richert Pfau describe
Hildegard's music as highly melismatic, often with recurrent melodic units, and also note
her close attention to the relationship between music and text, which was a rare
occurrence in monastic chant of the twelfth century.[27] Hildegard of Bingen’s songs are
left open for rhythmic interpreation because of the use of neumes without a staff.[28] The
reverence for the Virgin Mary reflected in music shows how deeply influenced and
inspired Hildegard of Bingen and her community were by the Virgin Mary and the
saints.[29]
The definition of ‘greenness’ is an earthly expression of the heavenly in an integrity that
overcomes dualisms. This ‘greenness’ or power of life appears frequently in Hildegard’s
works.[30]
In addition to her music, Hildegard also wrote three books of visions, the first of which,
her Scivias ("Know the Way"), was completed in 1151. Liber vitae meritorum ("Book of
Life's Merits") and De operatione Dei ("Of God's Activities", also known as Liber
divinorum operum, "Book of Divine Works") followed. In these volumes, the last of
which was completed when she was about 75, Hildegard first describes each vision, then
interprets them through Biblical exegesis. The narrative of her visions was richly
decorated under her direction, with transcription assistance provided by the monk Volmar
and nun Richardis. The book was celebrated in the Middle Ages, in part because of the
approval given to it by Pope Eugenius III, and was later copied in Paris in 1513.
Aside from her books of visions, Hildegard also wrote her Physica, a text on the natural
sciences, as well as Causae et Curae. Hildegard of Bingen was well known for her
healing powers involving practical application of tinctures, herbs, and precious stones.[31]
In both texts Hildegard describes the natural world around her, including the cosmos,
animals, plants, stones, and minerals. She combined these elements with a theological
notion ultimately derived from Genesis: all things put on earth are for the use of
humans.[32] She is particularly interested in the healing properties of plants, animals, and
stones, though she also questions God's effect on man's health.[33] One example of her
healing powers was curing the blind with the use of Rhine water.[34]
Alphabet by Hildegard von Bingen, Litterae ignotae, which she used for her language
Lingua Ignota
Hildegard also invented an alternative alphabet. The text of her writing and compositions
reveals Hildegard's use of this form of modified medieval Latin, encompassing many
invented, conflated and abridged words.[6] Due to her inventions of words for her lyrics
and a constructed script, many conlangers look upon her as a medieval precursor.
Scholars believe that Hildegard used her Lingua Ignota to increase solidarity among her
nuns.[35]
Hildegard's musical, literary, and scientific writings are housed primarily in two
manuscripts: the Dendermonde manuscript and the Riesenkodex. The Dendermonde
manuscript was copied under Hildegard's supervision at Rupertsberg, while the
Riesencodex was copied in the century after Hildegard's death.
Mutterschaft aus dem Geiste und dem Wasser (Motherhood from the Spirit and the
Water), 1165
Hildegard's visionary writings maintain that virginity is the highest level of the spiritual
life; however, she also wrote about secular life, including motherhood. In several of her
texts, Hildegard describes the pleasure of the marital act.
In addition, there are many instances, both in her letters and visions, that decry the misuse
of carnal pleasures. She condemns the 'sins' of same-sex couplings and masturbation.[36]
After confession, severe repentance expressed in fasting and bodily penance is needed to
obtain forgiveness from God for such sins. For instance, in Scivias Book II Vision Six.78:
God united man and woman, thus joining the strong to the weak, that each might sustain
the other. But these perverted adulterers change their virile strength into perverse
weakness, rejecting the proper male and female roles, and in their wickedness they
shamefully follow Satan, who in his pride sought to split and divide Him Who is
indivisible. They create in themselves by their wicked deeds a strange and perverse
adultery, and so appear polluted and shameful in my sight...
...a woman who takes up devilish ways and plays a male role in coupling with another
woman is most vile in My (God's) sight, and so is she who subjects herself to such a one
in this evil deed...
...And men who touch their own genital organ and emit their semen seriously imperil
their souls, for they excite themselves to distraction; they appear to Me as impure animals
devouring their own whelps...
...When a person feels himself disturbed by bodily stimulation let him run to the refuge of
continence, and seize the shield of chastity, and thus defend himself from uncleanness.
(translation by Mother Columba Hart and Jane Bishop)[37]
Human beings show forth God's creative power, and man and woman have
complementary roles in the world.
...When God looked upon the human countenance, God was exceedingly pleased. For had
not God created humanity according to the divine image and likeness? Human beings
were to announce all God's wondrous works by means of their tongues that were
endowed with reason. For humanity is God's complete work.... Man and woman are in
this way so involved with each other that one of them is the work of the other. Without
woman, man could not be called man; without man, woman could not be named woman.
Thus woman is the work of man, while man is a sight full of consolation for woman.
Neither of them could henceforth live without the other. Man is in this connection an
indication of the Godhead while woman is an indication of the humanity of God's Son.[38]
[edit] Significance
"Universal Man" illumination from Hildegard's Liber Divinorum Operum, 1165
Hildegard communicated with popes such as Eugene III and Anastasius IV, statesmen
such as Abbot Suger, German emperors such as Frederick I Barbarossa, and other notable
figures such as Saint Bernard of Clairvaux, who advanced her work, at the behest of her
abbot, Kuno, at the Synod of Trier in 1147 and 1148. Hildegard of Bingen’s
correspondence with many people is an important element of her literary work because
this is where we can see her speaking most directly to us.[39]
Many abbots and abbesses asked her for prayers and opinions on various matters.[40] She
traveled widely during her four preaching tours.[41] She had several rather fanatic
followers, including Guibert of Gembloux, who wrote frequently to Hildegard and
eventually became her secretary after Volmar died in 1173. In addition, Hildegard
influenced several monastic women of her time and the centuries that followed; in
particular, she engaged in correspondence with another nearby visionary, Elisabeth of
Schonau.[42]
Contributing to Christian European rhetorical traditions, She “authorized herself as a
theologian” through alternative rhetorical arts.[43] Hildegard is creative in her
interpretation of theology. She believed that her monastery shouldn’t allow novices who
were from a different class than nobility because it put them in an inferior position. She
also stated that ‘woman may be made from man, but no man can be made without a
woman’.[44] Due to church limitation on public, discursive rhetoric, the medieval
rhetorical arts included: preaching, letter writing, poetry, and the encyclopedic
tradition.[45] Hildegard’s participation in these arts speaks to her significance as a female
rhetorician, transcending bans on women’s social participation and interpretation of
scriptures. The acceptance of public preaching by a woman, even a well-connected
abbess and acknowledged prophet was highly impressive during this time. She conducted
four preaching tours throughout Germany, speaking to both clergy and laity in chapter
houses and in public, mainly denouncing clerical corruption and calling for reform.[46]
Maddocks claims that it is likely she learned simple Latin, and the tenets of the Christian
faith, but was not instructed in the Seven Liberal Arts, which formed the basis of all
education for the learned classes in the Middle Ages: the Trivium of grammar, dialectic,
and rhetoric plus the Quadirivum of arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, and music.[47] The
correspondence she kept with the outside world both spiritual and social transgressed the
cloister, as a space of female confinement and served to document Hildegard’s grand
style and strict formatting of medieval letter writing.[43] Recent scholars have asserted
that Hildegard made a close association between music and the female body in her
musical compositions.[48] The poetry and music of Hildegard’s Symphonia is concerned
with the anatomy of female desire thus described as Sapphonic, or pertaining to Sappho,
connecting her to a history of female rhetoricians.[49]
In recent years, Hildegard has become of particular interest to feminist scholars. Her
reference to herself as a member of the "weaker sex" and her rather constant belittling of
women, though at first seemingly problematic, must be considered within the context of
the patriarchal church hierarchy. Hildegard frequently referred to herself as an unlearned
woman, completely incapable of Biblical exegesis.[50] Such a statement on her part,
however, worked to her advantage because it made her statements that all of her writings
and music came from visions of the Divine more believable, therefore giving Hildegard
the authority to speak in a time when few women were permitted a voice.[51] Hildegard
used her voice to condemn church practices she disagreed with, in particular simony.
Hildegard has also become a figure of reverence within the contemporary New Age
movement, mostly due to her holistic and natural view of healing, as well as her status as
a mystic. She was the inspiration for Dr. Gottfried Hertzka's "Hildegard-Medicine", and
is the namesake for June Boyce-Tillman's Hildegard Network, a healing center that
focuses on a holistic approach to wellness and brings together people interested in
exploring the links between spirituality, the arts and healing,.[52]
Before Hildegard’s death, a problem arose with the clergy of Mainz. A man buried in
Rupertsburg had died excommunicate, therefore, the clergy wanted to remove his body
from the sacred ground. Hildegard did not accept this idea, replying that it was a sin and
that the man had been reconciled to the church at the time of his death.[53] In September
17, 1179, when Hildegard died, her sisters claimed they saw two streams of light appear
in the skies and crossed over the room where she was dying. Hildegard’s life had been
marked by her visions of light and it appears she was marked by this same light when she
died.[44]
Hildegard was one of the first persons for whom the canonization process was officially
applied, but the process took so long that four attempts at canonization were not
completed, and she remained at the level of her beatification. Hildegard's name was
nonetheless taken up in the Roman Martyrology at the end of the sixteenth century. Her
feast day is September 17. Numerous popes have referred to Hildegard as a saint,
including Pope John Paul II [54] and Pope Benedict XVI.[55] Hildegard’s Parish and
Pilgrimage Church house the relics of Hildegard, including an altar encasing her remains,
in Eibingen near Rüdesheim.
Hildegard of Bingen also appears in the calendar of saints in various Anglican churches.
In the Church of England she is commemorated on 17 September.