“On humility: Thus beware lest you attribute to yourself alone those good qualities which are yours in both your spirit and your works. Rather, attribute them to God, from whom all virtues proceed like sparks from a fire. . . For whoever is aware that he has good qualities, but ascribes them to himself alone, that person is like an infidel who worships only the works of his own hands.” Hildegard of Bingen.
These wise words are taken from a letter written by one of the most influential women of the Medieval era – Hildegard of Bingen. Hildegard is best known as a twelfth-century abbess with an extraordinary mind but especially she is known for her visions. Whatever one thinks about the subject of visions and dreams, certainly Hildegard was a wise, talented, intelligent, dedicated, and devout Christian woman who rose above her circumstances to serve God in extraordinary ways.
Hildegard was born around 1098 in Bemersheim, Germany, the daughter of a
nobleman. She was a frail child and had a mystical disposition. She perhaps had the first of her famous visions before the age of five. It may have been this ability to see visions that led her parents to “tithe” her to God. When she was only eight years old, she went to a convent to stay with her Aunt Jutta. Jutta was living as a recluse, walled up in a cell, for she had dedicated her whole life to Christ.
Many recluses expected to stay this way for life, but Jutta attracted other women to join her. When the cell became too small, a Benedictine convent was built for them at Disibodenberg. When Hildegard was fourteen years old she became one of the nuns. We do not know much about her next few years, except that she must have been a good assistant to Jutta. When her aunt died in 1136, Hildegard was chosen to be the abbess in her place. Hildegard was thirty-eight years old.
Now that Hildegard was the superior at the convent, she began to make decisions of her own. She had many talents and it was not until this time that she had an opportunity to display them.
She began by recruiting many nuns. When their numbers were too large for their present convent, she asked to have a bigger facility in a different location built. This was very important because at the convent where she was, she had to get permission from male supervisors before she could do anything. She personally oversaw the construction of the new convent at Rupertsberg, near Bingen, Germany. They moved into the new convent in 1150, and she became known as Hildegard of Bingen.
One of her many talents was writing. Around 1141, she had begun to write a book, Scivias, (or Sciens Vias, “Know the Way”), which eventually took her ten years to complete. This book included 26 drawings of things that she had seen in her visions. She claimed that these visions helped her to understand the Old and New Testaments. Men and women of her day, including the well-known Bernard of Clairvaux, endorsed her visions. Many believed that she could understand the past, present, and future. She astonished people by claiming things which later came true.
After Scivias, Hildegard wrote other books, including the Book of Life’s Merits, and the Book of the Divine Works. She wrote these in Latin, the language of educated men, even though she had not been formally trained in it.
Many people sought Hildegard’s wisdom. Archbishop Philip of Cologne was repeating what many Christians thought when he said that Hildegard had divine gifts including the gift of prophecy.
She wrote hundreds of letters to both lowborn and highborn. Some of the leading lights to whom she wrote included the Emperor Frederick Barbarossa, and King Henry II of England, who you might recall was the husband of the famous Eleanor of Aquitaine – mother of King Richard the Lionhearted. Hildegard’s letters covered many subjects from advice to prophecies and even warnings. One example comes from a letter she wrote to the church community at Mainz. They were tolerating heretics and her advice was, “The church mourns and wails over their wickedness while her sons are polluted by their iniquity. Therefore cast them from yourselves, lest your community and city perish.”
Hildegard was interested in science and medicine. She collected medical lore and compiled it into a book, Causae et Curae, which contained many descriptions of illnesses and their cures. Sounding more like modern times, she also identified mental illnesses such as despair, dread, insanity, and obsession.
Because of her love of nature, she also studied physical phenomena and she gathered many details into an encyclopedia, Physica (“Natural History”). According to historians, what she wrote was on par with the top naturalists of her day.
Besides an amazing scientific mind, Hildegard also possessed a very creative side. In the twelfth century, Bibles were rare. The Church used visual and musical aids to help people memorize Scripture. Hildegard knew that it would be easier to teach her students about the Christian life with imaginative and interesting oral instruction. She set about creating her own teaching aids. She wrote hymns and responses to be used in worship services.
Some time around 1150 in honor of the dedication of the new abbey, Hildegard wrote the first morality play, Play of the Virtues, in which people are given the names of the virtues and then they contend with the devil. In Hildegard’s play the usual order of assigning parts for that day were reversed – women played the parts of the virtues and a man played the part of the devil.
During her lifetime, Hildegard composed seventy vocal works. In the 1980’s they were rediscovered and many have now been recorded. She had composed the music and the lyrics. Her works show her love and her longing for Christ.
When she was about sixty years old, retirement age for many people today, Hildegard undertook several preaching tours. As she traveled around, she even preached to men, a fact which shows how much respect she had gained by this time. Her sermons sound much like many we hear today; she taught on the corruption of the Church and how it needed cleansing. She gave a tongue lashing to those who were “lukewarm and sluggish” in living the Christian life. She berated those who were slow in justice for the poor.
Hildegard died at age eighty-two on September 17, 1179. With her lifelong learning and perseverance she overcame many obstacles for women in her day. She had seized the opportunities placed before her and worked to her limits. She became one of the most influential women of the Middle Ages. She is a fine example to women to not give up. In our day, women complain of not having the same rights as men, but we have way more than Hildegard did. She did not let that stop her; she was an over-comer.
