St. Hildegard of Bingen (1098–1179) was a German Benedictine abbess and one of the most remarkable women of the Middle Ages: a visionary who described her revelations in great illustrated books, a composer whose chants are still sung and recorded today, a writer on medicine and the natural world, and a fearless correspondent of popes, emperors and saints. Pope Benedict XVI extended her veneration to the whole Church and declared her a Doctor of the Church in 2012. Her feast day is September 17. Below are her story, her works, her patronage, and a prayer to St. Hildegard.
A short prayer to St. Hildegard, written for this page:
St. Hildegard, you heard the music of heaven and saw God’s greenness in all creation.
Pray for musicians, writers and healers,
and help me to praise God with my whole life and to care for His creation. Amen.
Who was St. Hildegard of Bingen?
Hildegard was born in 1098 at Bermersheim, in the Rhineland, the tenth child of a noble family, who offered her to God as a child. As a girl she was entrusted to Jutta of Sponheim, a holy woman living an enclosed life of prayer beside the Benedictine monastery of Disibodenberg, and she later made her profession as a Benedictine nun there. When Jutta died in 1136, the women of the community elected Hildegard as their leader. From childhood she had experienced visions of a radiant light, which she called the reflection of the “living Light.” In 1141, at forty-two, she was commanded in a vision to write down what she saw. St. Bernard of Clairvaux encouraged her, and Pope Eugene III, after passages of her work were read to him at the Synod of Trier in 1147–48, gave his approval; about 1151 she completed Scivias (“Know the Ways”).
About 1150 she founded her own convent at Rupertsberg, near Bingen on the Rhine, and later a second house at Eibingen. She wrote two more visionary works, books on medicine and natural science, the lives of saints, and almost four hundred letters, and she composed some seventy chants and the first known musical morality play, the Ordo Virtutum. In her sixties and seventies she made preaching tours through Germany, calling clergy and laity to reform. She died on September 17, 1179.
Her works
- Scivias and two other books of visions, on God, creation, the Church and salvation
- Symphonia, a cycle of chants to God, Mary and the saints, and the Ordo Virtutum
- Physica and Causae et Curae, on plants, animals, the human body and healing
- Letters to popes, emperors, bishops, abbots and ordinary people
She spoke often of viriditas, “greenness,” the life-giving freshness of God’s power in creation and in the soul. For Hildegard, music was a way of joining the praise of the angels, as the last psalm calls every instrument and every spirit to praise God (Psalm 150:3–5, Douay-Rheims):
Praise him with sound of trumpet: praise him with psaltery and harp.
Praise him with timbrel and choir: praise him with strings and organs.
Praise him on high sounding cymbals: praise him on cymbals of joy: let every spirit praise the Lord. Alleluia.
See also Psalm 148, in which all creation praises its Maker.
Saint and Doctor of the Church
Hildegard was venerated as a saint in Germany for centuries, but the canonization process begun in the thirteenth century was never completed. On May 10, 2012, Pope Benedict XVI extended her veneration to the universal Church, an “equivalent canonization,” and on October 7, 2012, he declared her a Doctor of the Church, the fourth woman to receive the title, after St. Teresa of Ávila, St. Catherine of Siena and St. Thérèse of Lisieux. In 2021 Pope Francis added her optional memorial to the General Roman Calendar.
What is St. Hildegard the patron saint of?
St. Hildegard of Bingen is popularly invoked as the patron saint of:
- Musicians and composers
- Writers, scientists and herbalists
- People suffering from illness, and those in the healing arts
Feast day
The optional memorial of St. Hildegard of Bingen, virgin and Doctor of the Church, is September 17, the day of her death.
Frequently asked questions
Who was St. Hildegard of Bingen?
A twelfth-century German abbess, mystic, composer and writer, declared a Doctor of the Church in 2012.
Why is Hildegard a Doctor of the Church?
Because of the depth and lasting value of her teaching on God, creation and the Christian life.
When is St. Hildegard’s feast day?
September 17.
More saints
- Doctors of the Church
- St. Robert Bellarmine
- St. Bernard of Clairvaux
- St. Cecilia prayer
- St. Catherine of Siena prayer
- St. Teresa of Ávila prayer
- St. Benedict prayer
- Saint of the day
Texts and sources
- Psalm 150:3–5 (Douay-Rheims).