Our Holy Father Pope Benedict has written a great deal about St. Hidegard of Bingen.
Here is an article about the great German mystic by best-selling author Nancy Bilyeau.
1.) Hildegard was given to
the church at age 8. She was born at Bockelheim on the Nahe, the tenth child of
a German count who historians believe was a military man in the service of Meginhard of
Spanheim. Hildegard was sent to be instructed by Meginhard’s sister, Jutta, a nun who lived in
an enclosed set of rooms, referred to as a vault, in a Benedictine monastery. Hildegard
took vows herself at age 15.
2.) Sickly most of her life,
she made it to age 81. As a child she was often too weak to walk and sometimes
could not see. As an adult she could be in bed, paralyzed, for days. Historians
now believe she suffered from severe migraine.
3.) Hildegard said she had
visions of God her whole life. The first “shade of the living light” came at
age 3 and the visitations never stopped. She
described one as “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, not like a burning but like a warming flame.” At age 43, she said God
told her to “write down what you see and hear” and for the first time revealed
her visions to the world.
(Read entire post.)
I will add that Hildegard asserted her authority against unjust actions by certain prelates for the sake of justice, not to rebel or put herself forward. She was an obedient Daughter of the Church, and one on fire for justice and truth.
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