(; ) ( 1098 – 17 September 1179 ), also known as Saint Hildegard, and Sibyl of the Rhine, was a German writer, composer, philosopher, Christian mystic, Benedictine abbess, visionary, and polymath.

Hildegard was raised in a family of free nobles.

Some scholars speculate that Hildegard was placed in the care of Jutta, the daughter of Count Stephan II of Sponheim, at the age of eight, before the two women were enclosed together six years later.

Hildegard also tells us that Jutta taught her to read and write, but that she was unlearned and therefore incapable of teaching Hildegard Biblical interpretation.

Upon Jutta's death in 1136, Hildegard was unanimously elected as " magistra " of the community by her fellow nuns.

Abbot Kuno did not relent, however, until Hildegard was stricken by an illness that kept her paralyzed and unable to move from her bed, an event that she attributed to God's unhappiness at her not following his orders to move her nuns to Rupertsberg.

It was only when the Abbot himself could not move Hildegard that he decided to grant the nuns their own monastery.

Hildegard says that she first saw " The Shade of the Living Light " at the age of three, and by the age of five she began to understand that she was experiencing visions.

It was between November 1147 and February 1148 at the synod in Trier that Pope Eugenus heard about Hildegard ’ s writings.

Hildegard did not accept this idea, replying that it was a sin and that the man had been reconciled to the church at the time of his death.

On 17 September 1179, when Hildegard died, her sisters claimed they saw two streams of light appear in the skies and cross over the room where she was dying.

In addition to her music, Hildegard also wrote three books of visions, the first of which, her Scivias (" Know the Way "), was completed in 1151.

In these volumes, the last of which was completed when she was about 75, Hildegard first describes each vision, then interprets them through Biblical exegesis.

Hildegard of Bingen was well known for her healing powers involving practical application of tinctures, herbs, and precious stones.

Maddocks claims that it is likely Hildegard learned simple Latin, and the tenets of the Christian faith, but was not instructed in the Seven Liberal Arts, which formed the basis of all education for the learned classes in the Middle Ages: the Trivium of grammar, dialectic, and rhetoric plus the Quadrivium of arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, and music.

Hildegard was creative in her interpretation of theology.

Hildegard was one of the first persons for whom the Roman canonization process was officially applied, but the process took so long that four attempts at canonization were not completed, and she remained at the level of her beatification.

She was the inspiration for Dr. Gottfried Hertzka's " Hildegard-Medicine ", and is the namesake for June Boyce-Tillman's Hildegard Network, a healing center that focuses on a holistic approach to wellness and brings

Hildegard's reincarnation has been debated since 1924 when Austrian mystic Rudolf Steiner lectured that a nun of her description was the past life of Russian poet Vladimir Soloviev, whose Sophianic visions are often compared to Hildegard.

As the only surviving adult son of Charlemagne and Hildegard, he became the sole ruler of the Franks after his father's death in 814, a position which he held until his death, save for the period 833 – 34, during which he was deposed.

He was the third son of Charlemagne by his wife Hildegard.

" Still hesitant to record her visions, Hildegard became physically ill.

In Roman Catholic mysticism, Hildegard of Bingen celebrated Sophia as a cosmic figure both in her writing and art.

In her Vita, Hildegard explains that from a very young age she had experienced visions.

Hildegard, however, wanted more independence for herself and her nuns and asked Abbot Kuno to allow them to move to Rupertsberg.

In 1165 Hildegard founded a second monastery for her nuns at Eibingen.

Throughout her life, she continued to have many visions, and in 1141, at the age of 42, Hildegard received a vision she believed to be an instruction from God, to " write down that which you see and hear.

The illustrations recorded in the book of Scivias were visions that Hildegard experienced, causing her great suffering and tribulations.

In her first theological text, Scivias (" Know the Ways "), Hildegard describes her struggle within:

Attention in recent decades to women of the medieval Church has led to a great deal of popular interest in Hildegard, particularly her music.

The reverence for the Virgin Mary reflected in music shows how deeply influenced and inspired Hildegard of Bingen and her community were by the Virgin Mary and the saints.

Recent scholars have asserted that Hildegard made a close association between music and the female body in her musical compositions.

The poetry and music of Hildegard ’ s Symphonia is concerned with the anatomy of female desire thus described as Sapphonic, or pertaining to Sappho, connecting her to a history of female rhetoricians.

Such a statement on her part, however, worked to her advantage because it made her statements that all of her writings and music came from visions of the Divine more believable, therefore giving Hildegard the authority to speak in a time and place where few women were permitted a voice.

Frequently, however, the religious perspectives of women were held to be unorthodox by those in power, and the mystical visions of such authors as Julian of Norwich and Hildegard of Bingen provide insight into a part of the medieval experience less comfortable for the institutions that ruled Europe at the time.

* Hildegard of Bingen ( 1098 – 1179 ): Benedictine and missionary, known for her visions, recorded in such works as Scivias ( Know the Ways ).

Hildegard of Bingen, born seven years after the death of St. Peter Damian, reported seeing visions and recorded them in Scivias ( short for Scito vias Domini, " Know the Ways of the Lord ").

Ziese's only daughter, Hildegard, married Swedish Engineer Carl Carlson.

Born in Berlin, and named Gerhard, he was the only child of a well-to-do Jewish couple, Hildegard and Ludwig Hoffnung.

In any case, Hildegard and Jutta were enclosed at Disibodenberg in the Palatinate Forest in what is now Germany.

Hildegard and Jutta most likely prayed, meditated, read scriptures such as the psalter, and did some sort of handwork during the hours of the Divine Office.