Hildegard of Bingen

Life events

1. Born — 1098

   Hildegard was born around 1098 in Bermersheim, near Alzey, to Mechtild of Merxheim-Nahet and Hildebert of Bermersheim, a family of the free lower nobility in the service of Count Meginhard of Sponheim. She is traditionally counted as their tenth child, though records confirm only seven older siblings. Her Vita records that she experienced visions from early childhood.

2. Tonsured — 1112

   On All Saints Day 1112, Hildegard and Jutta of Sponheim — daughter of Count Stephan II of Sponheim and about six years older than Hildegard — were enclosed together at the Benedictine monastery of Disibodenberg in the Palatinate Forest, with their vows received by Bishop Otto of Bamberg. Some scholars place Hildegard's initial entry under Jutta's care at age eight, with formal enclosure six years later.

3. Other — 1136

   Upon Jutta's death in 1136, Hildegard was unanimously elected magistra (mother superior) of the women's community at Disibodenberg by her fellow nuns. Abbot Kuno subsequently asked her to serve as prioress under his authority, but Hildegard pressed instead for the community's independence, eventually appealing over his head to Archbishop Henry I of Mainz.

4. Wrote — 1141

   In 1141, at age 42, Hildegard received a vision she interpreted as a divine command to write down what she saw and heard, and began composing Scivias (Sci vias Domini, 'Know the Ways of the Lord'). The work, recording 26 visionary experiences structured in three parts, was completed around 1151. Portions were read aloud to Pope Eugenius III at the Synod of Trier in late 1147 and early 1148, after which he sent his blessing — later construed as papal approval for her full theological programme.

5. Other — 1150

   In 1150, Hildegard and approximately 20 nuns moved from Disibodenberg to the newly founded St. Rupertsberg monastery near Bingen. Abbot Kuno initially refused; Hildegard appealed to Archbishop Henry I of Mainz and, according to her Vita, was struck by a paralysing illness she attributed to God's displeasure at her delay. Only then did the abbot consent. Volmar of Disibodenberg served as provost and Hildegard's confessor and scribe at Rupertsberg.

6. Other — 1165

   In 1165, Hildegard founded a second monastery at Eibingen, across the Rhine from Rupertsberg. The Eibingen church later became her pilgrimage church and the repository of her relics.

7. Wrote

   Between 1158 and c. 1174, Hildegard completed her two remaining volumes of visionary theology: Liber Vitae Meritorum ('Book of the Rewards of Life', composed 1158-1163) and Liber Divinorum Operum ('Book of Divine Works', begun c. 1163-1164, completed c. 1172-1174). The last was finished when she was in her seventies. Together with Scivias, these form the three great works of her visionary theology.

8. Died — 1179

   Hildegard died on 17 September 1179 at Rupertsberg. Her sisters reported that two streams of light appeared in the skies and crossed over the room where she was dying. Before her death, a dispute arose with the clergy of Mainz over an excommunicated man buried in Rupertsberg's sacred ground; Hildegard refused to exhume the body, insisting the man had been reconciled to the church before death.

Relationships

Documented claims

• Hildegard composed the Symphonia armoniae celestium revelationum ('Symphony of the Harmony of Celestial Revelations'), a cycle of 69 liturgical songs — antiphons, hymns, sequences, and responsories — each with its own original poetic text. More surviving chants are attributed to her than to any other composer from the entire Middle Ages, and she is among the few medieval composers known to have written both the music and the words. (likely)
• Hildegard's Ordo Virtutum ('Play of the Virtues'), thought to have been composed as early as 1151, is the earliest known surviving musical drama not attached to a liturgy and arguably the oldest surviving morality play. It contains 82 songs, all in monophonic plainchant except the devil's role, which is entirely spoken. Scholars believe Volmar played the devil while Hildegard's nuns performed all singing roles. (likely)
• On 10 May 2012, Pope Benedict XVI extended veneration of Hildegard to the entire Catholic Church through equivalent canonization. On 7 October 2012, he named her a Doctor of the Church — the fourth woman to receive that designation — citing 'her holiness of life and the originality of her teaching.' (certain)
• Hildegard invented a constructed language called Lingua ignota ('unknown language') consisting of approximately 1,000 invented nouns, along with an alternative alphabet called Litterae ignotae ('alternate alphabet'). Both survive in two manuscripts: the Riesenkodex (Wiesbaden, Hessische Landesbibliothek MS 2) and the Berlin manuscript, each preserving medieval German and Latin glosses above Hildegard's invented words. (likely)
• Hildegard's Physica, a nine-book catalogue of the scientific and medicinal properties of plants, stones, fish, reptiles, and animals written from her experience directing Rupertsberg's herbal garden and infirmary, is thought to contain the first recorded written reference to the use of hops as a preservative in beer. (plausible)