A nun in her 40s wrote a letter to the French cleric Bernard of Clairvaux in 1146. Hildegard of Bingen was, for the very first time, disclosing the religious experiences she had had since childhood: “Father, I am greatly disturbed by a vision which has appeared to me through divine revelation …” Swiftly responding with words of encouragement, Bernard wrote back: “We rejoice in the grace of God which is in you.”
A few years later, Hildegard, now with support from the pope, moved from her native Disibodenberg in Germany and established a new abbey in the region of Eibingen. An author, artist, composer and visionary, Hildegard went on to complete – no doubt aided by her cloistered sisters – three major theological volumes (including the bejewelled illuminated manuscript Scivias filled with records of her visions), two scientific treatises (with texts specifically targeting the needs for women, such as the plants used for an abortion), and invented her own language (the “Lingua Ignota” – a glossary of 1,000 words). By the time of her death in 1179, aged 81, she had penned 77 sublime liturgical songs that are still regularly performed today.
