Hildegard of Bingen's Exceptional Life
A Twelfth Century Nun Defies Gender Roles in Medieval Germany
Nov 15, 2008
Women in the Middle Ages had very limited roles. Philip of Novare’s admonition to “teach women neither letters nor writing,” reflected the view that a woman’s status was chiefly that of child bearer; education was not part of that expectation. Hildegard of Bingen, a 12th Century nun, is a rare notable exception. In her eighty-one years, Hildegard wrote books, composed music still popular today, corresponded with popes and emperors, and founded two religious communities.
Born in 1098 to well-to-do parents, she was the tenth child. Her parents dedicated her to God as a tithe and sent her to a hermitage at the age of eight. Under the care and tutelage of Jutta of Sponheim, she learned Latin. As other women entered the hermitage, a convent was formed.
Hildegard started having visions as a young child. In 1141, she began writing Scivias or Scito vias Domini (Know the Ways of the Lord). Scivias was the result of her many visions. Her writings were approved by Pope Eugenius III in 1148 and Bernard of Clairvaux endorsed her visionary gifts. Her later book Physica was a scientific and medical encyclopedia. Barbara Newman, in Sister of Wisdom, writes that, “her universe rings with the most intricate and inviolate harmonies, yet seethes with the strife of relentless warring forces.” Hildegard had seen the antichrist in one her visions, with “fiery eyes and ears like an ass’…” Paralleling her own personal struggles with Church leadership, the visions of warring opposites fit into the medieval cosmic world order. Despite her many visions, Hildegard is not considered a mystic. According to historian Caroline Walker Bynum, “she wrote not about union but about doctrine.”
An Atypical Medieval Woman
Hildegard lived during a time when the cult of the Virgin Mary was growing in popularity. Although she saw herself as a “poor, uneducated woman,” her preaching journeys and relationships with church leaders enhanced her own prestige. Her visions, according to historian Danielle Regnier-Bohler, led to her comparisons with the Virgin Mary by those that knew her.
Unless a woman was fortunate enough to have been born into a wealthy noble family where some status was possible, the only other route was through the Church. Like other exceptional women of the time, Hildegard’s role as nun and later as Abbess permitted her a greater sense of freedom of expression, resulting in a repertoire of writings and music. Margot Schmidt, in her book Die Fragende Schau der heiligen Hildegard, asserts that, “Hildegard marks the beginning of the history of feminine Christian mysticism.”
Final Struggle
Hildegard’s religious community was placed under interdict in 1178 for her refusal to remove the remains of an errant knight buried in the Abbey’s graveyard. Perhaps a legal “loophole” of the time, Hildegard was successful in having the interdict lifted but died six months later. She has never been canonized but is regarded as a saint. In a society that equated women with the Genesis fall from grace, Hildegard traversed the carnal to the sacred as an exceptional woman in difficult times.
Sources and Further Reading:
Danielle Regnier-Bohler, “Literary and Mystical Voices,” A History of Women: Silences of the Middle Ages (Harvard University Press, 1992)
Caroline Walker Bynum, Holy Feast and Hold Fast: The Religious Significance of Food to Medieval Women (University of California Press, 1987)
Barbara Newman, Sister of Wisedom: St. Hildegard’s Theology of the Feminine (University of California Press, 1987)
Margot Schmidt, Die Fragende Schau der heiligen Hildegard (Johannes Verlag, 1992)
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