When geniuses had to be nuns
by digby
In a conversation last night with friends about how in the past one of the only ways a woman could get educated or pursue her intellectual passions was to join a convent, one of them brought up this woman (of whom I am embarrassed to admit I had never heard) as an example of genius of the ages whose accomplishments go far beyond the saintly or mystical:
Saint Hildegard of Bingen, O.S.B. (German: Hildegard von Bingen; Latin: Hildegardis Bingensis) (1098 – 17 September 1179), also known as Saint Hildegard, and Sibyl of the Rhine, was a German writer, composer, philosopher, Christian mystic, Benedictine abbess, visionary, and polymath. Elected a magistra by her fellow nuns in 1136, she founded the monasteries of Rupertsberg in 1150 and Eibingen in 1165. One of her works as a composer, the Ordo Virtutum, is an early example of liturgical drama and arguably the oldest surviving morality play.
She wrote theological, botanical and medicinal texts, as well as letters, liturgical songs, and poems, while supervising miniature illuminations in the Rupertsberg manuscript of her first work, Scivias.
Although the history of her formal recognition as a saint is complicated, she has been recognized as a saint by parts of the Roman Catholic Church for centuries. On 7 October 2012, Pope Benedict XVI named her a Doctor of the Church.
She was obviously an amazing person of great intellect and talent. The litany of her accomplishments, religious, literary, musical, scientific is truly astonishing.
I guess my point of bringing this up is that someone recently asked me why I thought it was that women had left so little mark on history compared to men. There must have been many Hildegards through the ages. But it’s also true that history has been written by men for men so who really knows?
Perhaps everyone knows about her and have heard her sublime music a thousand times. But if, like me, you were unaware, here’s one Hildegard of Bingen’s greatest hits. Enjoy:
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