Hildegard

As a girl Hildegard was placed in the care of a devout nun and at the age of eighteen herself became a Benedictine nun. A mystic from her childhood, Hildegard recorded twenty-six of her visions in a work titled Scivias. These visions concern the vices of the world and suggest impending catastrophe. As abbess, she supervised the relocation of her community and the building of a great convent near Bingen. She also won fame as a correspondent, counselor, and theologian. Hierarchs, saints, and princes were among her correspondents. Covering a variety of themes, her works combine mysticism with an empirical and scientific sensibility that looks forward to later developments in western intellectual life.