Hildegard of Bingen

Who they were

Hildegard was born at Böckelheim on the Nahe in 1098, the child of noble parents who promised her to God. Weak and sickly, she was placed at eight with the recluse Jutta at Disibodenberg, learned to read and chant the Latin psalms, and became a Benedictine nun. When Jutta died in 1136 Hildegard became superior, and later, as she said by divine command, moved her growing community to the Rupertsberg near Bingen.

Called 'the Sibyl of the Rhine', she was a seer and prophet whose visions, writings and letters made her one of the great figures of her age. She died on the Rupertsberg in 1179.

The miracles

Her canonisation process was one of the first ever opened in Rome but was never completed. On 10 May 2012 Benedict XVI extended her veneration to the whole Church by 'equivalent canonisation', and on 7 October 2012 named her a Doctor of the Church.

Why that counted as sanctity

A sickly girl with little schooling became, through God's gifts and her obedience to them, a prophet, teacher and abbess who spoke fearlessly to the powerful and sang the glory of God in all creation.

Connected on this site

• Jutta von Sponheim Saint Teacher
• Disibod Saint
  “Hildegard of Bingen around 1170 composed a Vita of Saint Disibod.” — Wikipedia