Abbess hildegard biography examples

Hildegard von bingen music

Hildegard of Bingen — , also known as Blessed Hildegard and Saint Hildegard , was a German religious teacher, prophetess , and abbess. At a time when women were often not recognized in the public and religious sphere she was also an author, counselor, artist, physician, healer, dramatist, linguist, naturalist, philosopher, poet, political consultant, visionary, and composer of music.

She wrote theological, naturalistic, botanical, medicinal, and dietary texts as well as letters, liturgical songs, poems, and the first surviving morality play. She also supervised the production of many brilliant miniature illuminations. Hildegard was called the "Sibyl of the Rhine" for her prophetic visions and received many notables asking for her guidance.

Only two other women come close to rivaling her fame during this period: the abbess, Herrad of Landsberg , born about and author of the scientific and theological compendium "Hortus Deliciarum" or "Garden of Delights;" and abbess Heloise , the brilliant scholar of Latin, Greek, and Hebrew, also known for her famous romance with Peter Abelard.

Eleanor of Aquitaine was also a contemporary. Hildegard was born into a family of free nobles in the service of the counts of Sponheim, close relatives of the Hohenstaufen emperors.

Did hildegard of bingen have a child

She was the tenth child the 'tithe' child of her parents, and was sickly from birth. From the time she was very young, Hildegard experienced visions. The one surviving tale of Hildegard's childhood involves a prophetic conversation that she held with her nurse, in which she reportedly described an unborn calf as "white… marked with different colored spots on its forehead, feet and back.

Perhaps due to Hildegard's visions, or as a method of political positioning or out of religious duty, Hildegard's parents, Hildebert and Mechthilde, dedicated her at the age of eight to become a nun as a tithe to the Church. Her brothers, Roricus and Hugo became priests and her sister, Clementia, became a nun. Hildegard was placed in the care of Jutta, a wealthy anchoress [2] who was the sister of Count Meinhard of Sponheim.

Jutta's cell was located outside the Disibodenberg monastery in the Bavarian region of today's Germany.