Hildegardis

Hildegardis, also known as Hildegard of Bingen (c. 1098–1179), was a Benedictine abbess, writer, composer, mystic, and natural philosopher who became one of the most influential figures of the medieval church. Born near Bermersheim vor der Höhe in the Electorate of Mainz, she joined the Benedictine monastery at Disibodenberg and later led a community she founded at the Rupertsberg near Bingen. She acted as an adviser to both church and secular rulers and participated in church reform movements of her time.

Her surviving writings present a wide range of concerns, including theology, visionary theology, and natural philosophy. The major works are Scivias, Liber Vitae Meritorum, and Liber Divinorum Operum, which record her visions, moral reflections, and theological expositions. She is also associated with works on natural history and medicine, sometimes attributed to her as Physica and Causae et Curae. In addition to prose, Hildegard produced a substantial body of correspondence with popes, emperors, and fellow clerics.

Hildegardis was also a composer, producing sacred music that survives in several collections. Her musical language, including the works gathered in Symphonia armonie celestium revelationum and the morality play Ordo Virtutum, is among the earliest substantial examples of medieval liturgical drama with preserved notation.

Her legacy endures in theology, mysticism, and music studies. In 2012, she was declared a Doctor of the Church by the Catholic Church and remains widely venerated as a saint; her feast day is September 17.