Who was Hildegard of Bingen?
Hildegard was an abbess, prophetess, poet, healer, theologian, and musician. She was born in one of the most innovative and creative centuries of the Middle Ages, and is herself symbolic of the apex of medieval culture. One of the most educated, prolific women of all time, she preached against heresy and corruption, wrote massive works on medicine and visionary theology, was a prolific and highly original composer, and commanded the respect of an entire continent. Although she called herself but a “simple creature,” and “a poor little womanly creature,” she was known to others in her age as the Sibyl of the Rhine and Old Wrinklegard. The tenth child of a noble family, Hildegard was given by her parents to the monastery of Disibodenberg, a cloistered community of men and women, when she was seven or eight years old. When her mentor died in 1136, she was unanimously elected abbess of the community. Twelve years later, she broke from the male monastery and established a convent near Binge
