– (Mauricio Planel/)
What it was: theologian
Where did you live: Germany
When he was born and died: 1098-1179
She is one of the first opera composers in history. She was abbess of two monasteries, which she designed herself. She wrote books on medicine, theology, and philosophy. She exchanged over 400 letters with popes and kings.
Hildegard de Bingen was something of a pop star of his time. She was only beatified in 1940, but since the Middle Ages she was considered an important saint. She has been cited by different pontiffs, including John Paul II and Benedict XVI, as a Doctor of the Church.
The nun was born in Bermersheim vor der Höhe, in present-day Germany. From the age of 3 she had visions – in fact, she would describe them as full sensory experiences, altering her five senses.
YOUNG ABBEESS
As soon as she was 8 years old, she was dedicated to the religious life. She was very close to her superior, Jutta of Sponheim. She was elected abbess at age 38, when Jutta passed away. But the sisters lived in a wing of the friars’ building in Disivodemberg.
She fought to get permission to build her own, all-female monastery on Rupertsberg. To do so, she had to override her boss and contact the bishop directly. She moved into her new house in 1150.
There she composed plays and musical works and took care of the health of the residents. She did not trust the river in the region and prescribed that people drink beer. To communicate in code within the monastery, she created her own language, which she called Lingua Ignota (Latin for «unknown language»). Demand was so great that in 1165 she opened a branch, a monastery in Eibingen.
Regarding visions, Hildegard obtained papal authorization to describe them. He then published three works, in which he reported what he saw and felt and related everything to excerpts from the Holy Scriptures. In her texts, she describes the creation of the world, the original sin of Adam and Eve and the songs sung in heaven by choirs of angels. She also describes the return of Jesus and her personal version of the Apocalypse.
MOTHER POP
She is also the author of two medical books, in which she argues that health depended on a number of factors, including hygiene, an emotionally balanced life and a lot of prayer. She described different teas, infusions and ointments, detailing the application of each. She had a vast knowledge of botany and still found time to describe different species of fish, reptiles and mammals.
The nun was so popular that many women followed her as fans do today with their music and TV idols. When she died on September 17, 1179, she was in bed. The room, full of nuns. Several of them said they saw two rays of light coming from the sky, as if they formed a path for the soul of the nun.
The famous mother now names a planet, 898 Hildegard, and a plant genus called Hildegardia.
YOUR GREAT ACHIEVEMENTS
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attracted crowds
Forget the traditional image of the cloistered nun. The public preaching tours of Hildegard gathered hundreds of faithful -
defended the women
The word didn’t even exist, but the nun was a feminist. She described intercourse and orgasm from a women’s point of view. -
asked for reforms
Centuries before Martin Luther started the Protestant Reformation, in 1517, she already complained about the abuses of Church leaders
YOUR GREAT FAILURES
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was elitist
With the argument that she wanted to avoid social conflicts between her nuns, she did not accept nuns who did not come from the high nobility. With that, she only dealt with the daughters of the most powerful and influential people, which brought her prestige. -
Mixed faith and science
At a time when medicine in Europe already had a certain autonomy in relation to religion, it still defended that diseases were the fault of Adam, the first man according to the Bible, and that women carried original sin and deserved to suffer the pains of death. childbirth
movie tip
Barbara Sukowa lives Hildegard in Visiona German production directed by Margarethe von Trotta