Hildegard von Bingen

Hildegard von Bingen was a mystic, composer, healer and natural scientist of the high middle ages. She was born in 1098 as the tenth child of landed gentry in Bermersheim near Alzey. She was probably petite of build and delicate of constitution, suffering her entire life from health problems. In 1112, Hildegard left her parents' home to enter the cloister Disibodenberg along with the Count of Sponheim's daughter Jutta von Sponheim. This cloister lies upon a hill between Staudernheim and Odernheim, not far from where the Glan flows into the Nahe. It is about 3 kilometers down the Nahe from Bad Sobernheim. Here, Hildegard experienced the expansion and rebuilding of the cloister including the construction of the basilica with its three naves which was completed in 1143. In the year 1136, Jutta von Sponheim died and Hildegard took over the duties of Abbess. With this she stepped, as it were, into the spotlight of history.

In the same year (1136) Hildegard began writing down her "visions" in Latin ("Scivias"), supported by her aristocratic student Richardis von Stade and by a monk of the cloister named Vollmar. Her writings were discussed at the Trier Synod in 1147 in the presence of Pope Eugene III and Bernhard von Clairvaux, which led to ultimately making it official that Hildegard, with her visionary descriptions was within the doctrine of the church. Even today, her rich metaphorical language has lost nothing of its fascination.

When she was fiftythree years old, Hildegard received the official allowance from the Abbott Kuno of Disibodenberg to move into her own cloister (founded in 1147) on the Rupertsberg, a hillock near Bingen above where the Nahe flows into the Rhine. Built over the tomb of Saint Rupertus, who worked there 500 years before, the new cloister had many difficulties at the beginning. Due to generous gifts and donations though, these initial difficulties were overcome. Just 2 years later the cloister had the appropriate buildings and even a basilica with two towers. In 1158, the Archbishop of Mainz officially recognized it as an independent cloister.

In the year 1160, Hildegard's scientific and medical writings "Physica" and "Causae et Curae" were completed. They contained the entire practical knowledge of the cloister's apothecary and medicine. It was essentially holistic medicine that concentrated upon the interactions between body and soul. The cloister on the Rupertsberg also produced most of their own musical and choral works, composed in the late Gregorian style. Central to the cloister's reputation was the scriptorium where most of Hildegard's famous oeuvre was written down. Many of her books are illustrated with colorful paintings, among which several miniature pictures show Hildegard working on her writings. The miniature pictures presented here stem from the full-page illustrations of Hildegard's last book "Liber Divinorum Operum" (1163-1170), the so-called "Lucca Codex", which is kept at the state library of Lucca/Tuscany (Italy).

In the years 1158-1170, four successful sermon tours to various parts of the country (among them Cologne and Trier) helped her to interregional importance. In 1163, her second visionary writings appeared. She became more and more politically influential. In the same year, her cloister was granted official protection by Emperor Barbarossa. Her influence was further enhanced by the founding of a second cloister in 1165 on the other side of the Rhine, in Eibingen near Rüdesheim. Through her works at this time, she became very popular and reached the status of a "Saint" of the people. In the year 1174, the third book of her trilogy was published ("De Operatione Dei"). In 1178, a rather trivial event caused a conflict between her and the archbishop of Mainz. She had allowed an excommunicated nobleman to be interred in the cemetery of her cloister. This conflict escalated to the point of a church interdiction, but was settled in 1179. Hildegard died shortly after at the age of eighty-one.

A truly impressive lifework of a valiant woman who knew how to prevail against the powerful of her time and who was amazingly 'modern' in many of her ideas. Some parts of her writings are difficult for us today but, independent of this, her books give us a fascinating and detailed view of the life, culture and way of thinking of the high middle ages.

For further information:
Wisse die Wege —Scivias. Nach dem Originaltext des illuminierten Rupertsberger Kodex der Wiesbadener Landesbibliothek ins Deutsche übertragen und bearbeitet von Maura Böckeler, 8. Aufl. 1987
Charlotte Kerner, Alle Schönheit des Himmels. Die Lebensgeschichte der Hildegard von Bingen, Beltz & Gelberg, 8. Aufl. 1998