Hildegard of Bingen: The Music of the Living Light

This medieval German nun wrote music and plays, recorded her visions, and broadened the European understanding of Christianity.

"Hildegard von Bingen" by Karlheinz Oswald, Eibingen, Germany. Public Domain

Far from an ordinary abbess, the polymathic Hildegard of Bingen left behind sacred music, medical treatises, and evocative descriptions of divine visions.

In the 12th century, Benedictine nun Hildegard of Bingen wrote dozens of works under the influence of what she called “the living light.” She went on to become one of the most remarkable figures of the Middle Ages: a theologian, composer, scientist, and visionary whose inspiring work transcended her historical context.

Illness, Visions, and the Living Light

Born around 1098 in the heart of the feudal Holy Roman Empire, Hildegard was the youngest of at least seven. Her parents belonged to Germany’s lower nobility. They served the Count Meginhard of Sponheim, a position that gave them and their children access to material resources otherwise unavailable to the ordinary person.