Hildegard von Bingen

Hildegard of Bingen was born in 1098 and died in 1179. She was an outstanding woman, a pioneer in many fields such as music, arts, medicine, and theology which includes visionary works. Her writings and visions were so powerful and true that kings, bishops, and even popes consulted her. Unfortunately, she was the 10th child to a noble family, and as it was customary with the child the family could not feed, she was dedicated to the church. She then started to have visions of luminous objects at the amazing age of three.

Hildegard was against schismatics; the 12th century was the times of schisms which were denominations or divisions, and religious foment. She was particularly against the Cathars.
There was a time, when Hildegard wanted her visions to be approved by the Catholic Church. She even wrote to St. Bernard to ask him for his blessings. Pope Eugenius encouraged her to finish her writings, that is how she finally concluded her first visionary work Scivias (Know the Ways of the Lord).

She later wrote music and texts for the songs for the convent she was in charge of. These songs were liturgical plainchant honoring saints and the Virgin Mary. The background music you are listening now is performed by Sequentia; the song’s name is O Ierusalem. Hildegard considered music to be central in her life and so she prioritized it. As formerly mentioned, she wrote plainchant, which is a series of single melodic lines.

Some of her major scientific works were based on views that came from the ancient Greek cosmology of the four elements fire, air, water, and earth, with their qualities of heat, dryness, moisture, and cold; and the corresponding four humors, in the body choler (yellow bile/temper), blood, phlegm, and melancholy (black bile/temper). The constitution of the human being was based on the preponderance of one or two of the humors. Words such as: “choleric”, “sanguine”, “phlegmatic”, and “melancholy” are still used today to describe personalities.

We can finally conclude that Hildegard “von” Bingen was a lot more than just a nun; and the misfortune to have been born in a big family was in fact a blessing for many people of the time. Having highlighted the works and a portion of the outstanding intellectual and spiritual powers of this woman; we realize that just an article is not enough to describe such remarkable power, strength and illumination.