Hildegard von Bingen (1098-1179) was entrusted at the age of seven by her parents to religious life at the monastery of Disibodenberg, not far from Mainz, Germany. This was not unusual for a girl born to affluent, though not noble, parents - especially as she was the last of ten children. Little is known of the first half of her life until a mystical experience in her forty-third year prompted her to start recording her visionary insights in Scivias [Know the Ways, trans. Columba Hart and Jane Bishop. New York 1989], a work that gained the approval of both St. Bernard and Pope Eugenius III at the Council of Trier in late 1147 or early 1148. Soon after 1150, she succeeded in transferring a group of eighteen w…
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Citation: Mews, Constant J.. "Hildegard of Bingen". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 31 August 2004 [https://staging.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=5531, accessed 25 November 2024.]
