“Heaven was opened and a fiery light of exceeding brilliance came and permeated my whole brain and inflamed my whole heart and my whole breast…”

Hildegard von Bingen

Hildegard von Bingen

PART 1 – Medieval Polymath: Writer, Composer, Doctor, Philosopher, Mystic & Visionary

Hildegard lived the strict life of a cloistered nun, run to the ground physically by the harsh rules and meager lifestyle of the Benedictine Monks, and she’s somehow able to not only survive, but THRIVE.

She writes, composes, and creates works so profound and so important that the whole world takes notice and she’s able to ascend to a position of great importance, both inside and outside of the Church. What does she do with this immense power? And how does she accumulate it in the first place? Well, you’ll have to listen to find out!

PART 2 – Visions, Madness, or Machinations?

In Part 1 we dug into the extensive work produced by the prolific medieval polymath Hildegard von Bingen, but we saved the most interesting piece of her story for Part 2: Her first writings, of her own accord, weren’t from her own mouth, but from the mouth of God himself in her VISIONS. WHAT?!?! 

Were Hildegard’s visions real? If so how did she know they were from God? How did this fact change the course of her life and propel her to unimaginable heights, especially for a woman, a NUN, in the medieval times? And then what did Hildegard do with this great power accorded to her?! Well, you’ll have to listen to find out!

“From my early childhood, before my bones, nerves, and veins were fully strengthened, I have always seen this vision in my soul, even to the present time when I am more than seventy years old. In this vision my soul, as God would have it, rises up high into the vault of heaven and into the changing sky and spreads itself out among different peoples, although they are far away from me in distant lands and places. And because I see them this way in my soul, I observe them in accord with the shifting of clouds and other created things. I do not hear them with my outward ears, nor do I perceive them by the thoughts of my own heart or by any combination of my five senses, but in my soul alone, while my outward eyes are open. So I have never fallen prey to ecstasy in the visions, but I see them wide awake, day and night. And I am constantly fettered by sickness, and often in the grip of pain so intense that it threatens to kill me, but God has sustained me until now. The light which I see thus is not spatial, but it is far, far brighter than a cloud which carries the sun. I can measure neither height, nor length, nor breadth in it; and I call it “the reflection of the living Light.” And as the sun, the moon, and the stars appear in water, so writings, sermons, virtues, and certain human actions take form for me and gleam.”

Hildegard von Bingen

“But I, though I saw and heard these things, refused to write for a long time through doubt and bad opinion and the diversity of human words, not with stubbornness but in the exercise of humility, until, laid low by the scourge of God, I fell upon a bed of sickness; then, compelled at last by many illnesses, and by the witness of a certain noble maiden of good conduct and of that man whom I had secretly sought and found, as mentioned above, I set my hand to the writing. While I was doing it, I sensed, as I mentioned before, the deep profundity of scriptural exposition; and, raising myself from illness by the strength I received, I brought this work to a close – though just barely – in ten years. […] And I spoke and wrote these things not by the invention of my heart or that of any other person, but as by the secret mysteries of God I heard and received them in the heavenly places. And again I heard a voice from Heaven saying to me, ‘Cry out, therefore, and write thus!”
Hildegard von Bingen