St. Hildegarden (Hildegard von Bingen )

Ø  12th-century German nun Ø  The first woman to be officially recognized as a "prophetess" by the Roman Catholic Church Ø  German writer, composer,German mystic Ø   Benedictine abbess Ø  Known as the as the “Sibyl of the Rhine” Ø  She founded the monasteries of Rupertsberg  and Eibinge Ø  Declared a Doctor of the Church by Pope Benedict XVI on 7 October 2012
Born	1098 at Bermersheim, Rhineland Palatinate (modern Germany)
Died	17 September 1179 at Bingen, Rhineland Palatinate (modern Germany) of natural causes
Beatified	26 August 1326 by Pope John XXII
Canonized	10 May 2012 by Pope Benedict XVI
Feast	17 September

Hildegard of Bingen, a 12th century German, was the first woman to be recognized as a prophetess by the Roman Catholic Church. Hildegard has inspired both church leaders and feminists for years.   She was born at Rheinhesse in Germany in 1098. She was the tenth child of Hildebert and Mechthild von Bermersheim, minor nobility of the Holy Roman Empire. Hildegarde of Bingen was dedicated at birth to the church. At age of 8 her aristocratic family sent Hildegarde to be educated by an anchoress named Jutta von Spanheimat a Monastery in Disibodenberg near Rheinhesse. Hildegard of Bingen took the veil and made her nun's vows at the age of 15. A convent was built next to the Monastery and Hildegarde became the Abbess. She then founded a convent at Bingen.   Hildegarde suffered from terrible migraines which many believed led to her visions. She confided the visions only in Jutta and in a monk named Volmar. The visions clarified the meaning of major Biblical and religious texts. She documented this in the Scivias.   St. Hildegard was one of the most active women of her time. She wrote about theology and morals, but also about medicine and science. She even found the time to compose 78 musical pieces.     Hildegard once said, “These visions which I saw—I beheld them neither in sleep nor dreaming nor in madness nor with my bodily eyes or ears, nor in hidden places; but I saw them in full view and according to God’s will, when I was wakeful and alert, with the eyes of the spirit and the inward ears.”   Hildegard of Bingen died in 1179 at the age of 82 years of age. *Although, she has been considered a saint for centuries, she has officially recognized as a saint by Pope Benedict XVI on 10th May 2012.   Declared a Doctor of the Church by Pope Benedict XVI on 7 October 2012.