Hildegard of Bingen

Nuns in her monasteries were influenced by her unorthodox regime. They were allowed extraordinary freedom; they could wear their hair long, uncovered, and even crowned with flowers.

She had faced many controversies in her lifetime. The monks protested vigorously when she moved her monastery to Bingen from her original location. She questioned Emperor Frederick Barbarossa for supporting three antipopes. She challenged the Cathars, who rejected the Catholic Church to follow Christianity. She also protested when a local bishop forbade the celebration of Eucharist at the Bingen monastery. This sanction was lifted only a few months before her death.

Hildegard was born around the year 1098, in West Franconia, Germany, to Mechtild of Merxheim-Nahet and Hildebert of Bermersheim. She belonged to a family of lower nobility, who were in the service of the Count Meginhard of Sponheim. She had nine siblings.

From a very young age, she had experienced visions.She had visions of humans as “living sparks” of God’s love, coming from God as daylight comes from the sun. She saw harmony of God’s creations, and envisioned humans’ place in it.

Due to her visions, and also because of the custom of surrendering the tenth child to the Church, she was offered as an oblate to the Benedictine monastery at the Disibodenberg under the guidance of an older girl, Jutta of Sponheim. She was professed at the age of eight, and at 18, she became a nun.

From Jutta’s biography, written by monk Volmar, her secretary, we come to know about the hard life of a nun. They stayed in small cells with a single window, and were allowed just one meal a day in winter and two in summer. They prayed throughout the day and night, at regular intervals. As a result, they were often weak and ill. Hildegard was often bedridden by various illnesses throughout her life.

After Jutta’s death in 1136, her fellow nuns elected Hildegard as magistra of the community. At age of 43, she consulted her confessor about her visions, who reported the matter to the archbishop of Mainz. A panel of theologians tested her and confirmed the authenticity of her visions. Thereafter, a monk was appointed to help her record her visions in writing.

Hildegard took almost ten years to complete her first work ‘Scivias’ (Know the Ways). After Pope Eugene III encouraged her to continue writing, she wrote ‘Book of the Merits of Life’ and ‘Book of Divine Works’.

The three volumes of her visionary theology were ‘Scivias’ (composed between 1142-1151), ‘Liber Vitae Meritorum’ (‘Book of Life's Merits’ or ‘Book of the Rewards of Life’, composed between 1158-1163); and ‘Liber Divinorum Operum’ (‘Book of Divine Works’, composed between 1163/4-1172). In these works, she first describes each vision, and then interprets their theological contents in the words of the "voice of the Living Light."

Scivias consists of 26 prophetic and apocalyptic visions. It dealt with topics like the church, relationship between God and man, redemption, and many others.

Her works include three volumes of visionary theology, a number of musical compositions, and a musical morality play called ‘Ordo Virtutum’. She also wrote 400 letters addressed to popes, emperors, abbots and abbesses. She also wrote two volumes of material on natural medicine and cures, as well as various minor works like gospel commentary and two works of hagiography.

During her lifetime, many of her manuscripts were produced, including the Rupertsberg manuscript of Scivias; the Dendermonde Codex, consisting of her musical works; and the Ghent manuscript, which was her final theological work, the Liber Divinorum Operum. At the end of her life, all her works were edited and collected into the Riesenkodex manuscript.