Hildegard of Bingen

Hildegard of Bingen was a German Benedictine abbess, mystic, and composer of the Middle Ages. She was a polymath who excelled in music, poetry, theology, philosophy, botany, medicine, and writing. She is among the earliest composers in Western music identifiable by name.

When Hildegard was fourteen, her family sent her to the Benedictine monastery at Disibodenberg, where she remained for over three decades. Beginning in 1147, Hildegard worked to found her own abbey in Rupertsberg, near Bingen, officially becoming its abbess in 1163 under the protection of the Holy Roman Emperor. Throughout this period, Hildegard was exceptionally active in politics and diplomacy, holding “correspondences with popes, emperors and other … leaders as well as lower members of the clergy and lay persons.”¹

Hildegard was among the most prolific composers of the Medieval period. In addition to nearly eighty monophonic chants, Hildegard pioneered the genre of the music drama with the Ordo Virtutum, the first sacred music play, whose eighty-two melodies present a battle between the Virtues and the Devil. Hildegard’s music is highly individualistic, often featuring soaring, decorative, and meditative melodies that are carefully bound to her lyrics — both designed to inspire contemplation.

Hildegard died in 1179. In 2012 she was formally canonized as a saint by Pope Benedict XVI and named a “Doctor of the Church,” a title reserved for the most influential figures in Roman Catholic history.