Author

Hildegard of Bingen

Benedictine abbess, visionary, composer and naturalist, who saw the cosmos and the body as the living work of God.

1098–1179

Also known as Saint Hildegard, the Sibyl of the Rhine

Biography

Hildegard was born in 1098 at Bermersheim, in the Rhineland, the tenth child of a noble family, and as a child was placed with the anchoress Jutta at the Benedictine monastery of Disibodenberg. She later said that she had seen a living light since early childhood. On Jutta’s death in 1136 she became head of the community of women.

In 1141, she wrote, a fiery light filled her mind and she was commanded to write what she saw. The result was Scivias, “Know the Ways”, a vast book of visions and their interpretation, completed around 1151; Pope Eugenius III approved part of it at the synod of Trier in 1147–1148. Around 1150 she moved her nuns to a new monastery at the Rupertsberg near Bingen, and later founded a second house at Eibingen.

Her other works include two further visionary books, the Book of Life’s Merits and the Book of Divine Works; a cycle of chants and the musical drama Ordo Virtutum; works on medicine and natural history; and a large correspondence with popes, emperors and monks. In her sixties she undertook preaching tours through Germany. She died in 1179, and was declared a Doctor of the Church in 2012.

Major works

SciviasTranslation, tr. Columba Hart, Jane Bishop, 1990A complete translation of Hildegard’s first visionary work: twenty-six visions of creation, the Church, redemption and the end of time, each described and then explained, with an introduction to her life and thought.

Philosophical ideas

Scholarship

The cosmos is a living whole, held in God, and the human being is a small world that mirrors it; the greening power (viriditas) of God runs through all living things.

Body and soul are made to sing together in praise; music is a memory of the harmony humanity lost and will regain.

Cite this entry

Chicago (bibliography): “Hildegard of Bingen.” Author. The Library, Unitive Knowledge Society. Last modified November 7, 2026. https://www.unitiveknowledge.org/library/authors/hildegard-of-bingen.
Chicago (note): “Hildegard of Bingen,” author, The Library, Unitive Knowledge Society, last modified November 7, 2026, https://www.unitiveknowledge.org/library/authors/hildegard-of-bingen.
MLA: “Hildegard of Bingen.” The Library, Unitive Knowledge Society, 7 Nov. 2026, www.unitiveknowledge.org/library/authors/hildegard-of-bingen.
BibTeX: @misc{authors-hildegard-of-bingen, title = {{Hildegard of Bingen}}, howpublished = {The Library, Unitive Knowledge Society}, note = {Author. Last modified November 7, 2026}, year = {2026}, url = {https://www.unitiveknowledge.org/library/authors/hildegard-of-bingen} }

Related authors

Often compared with: Catherine of Siena

Related concepts

Related traditions

Christian MysticismTraditionThe contemplative and mystical currents of Christianity, East and West, centred on union with God in love.

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Questions

Is the body an obstacle or a way?Prison, battlefield, temple or expression of the divine: how the contemplative traditions see the body on the path to unity.