Hildegard of Bingen was born in the small village of Bemersheim, Germany as the
century came to a close in 1098. She had divine visions from a very early age, so in her eighth year her noble
family entrusted 
her
to the care of
the abbess of a small community of nuns attached to the Benedictine monastery near Bingen. So began a life in
which she was destined to become the most celebrated woman of her age as a spiritual visionary and mystic,
naturalist, playwright, poetess and composer. Her bodies of work establish her as one the most creative persons
of the Middle Ages, and history leaves her as the first western composer with a known biography. She was a woman
of depth and talent.
In 1141, she succeeded the abbess. Though visions were a common occurrence throughout her life, that year would reveal a profound and transforming experience, feeling a blinding light flowing into her mind and illuminated her heart, revealing new meaning. Following this inspiration, she devoted herself to a life of intense spiritual creativity and contemplation. She wrote two books on natural history and medicine, Physica and Cause et Cure, and a morality play, Ordo Virtutum, which pre-dates all other works of that kind by hundreds of years. Her book of visions, Scivias, occupied her for ten years between 1141 and 1151, and she composed music which is still popular today for its simplicity, beauty and expression of the Divine.
Hildegard was also a diplomat, and her friendship and advice were sought by popes, emperors, kings, archbishops, abbots and abbesses, with whom she corresponded regularly. The ‘Sybil of the Rhine,’ as she was known, died on the 17th of September 1179, leaving behind a strong tradition of women in spirituality that lives on today.
