Hildegard, (Saint) of Bingen

b. 1098; d. 1179

Visionary, seer, and prolific writer on mystical, medical and political subjects, born at Böckelheim, Germany. She is called the Sibyl of the Rhine and was abbess of the nunnery of Diessenberg, Lorraine, where she was bought up. She founded the abbey of St Rupert, near Bingen. Under the directions of her confessor she recorded some of her visions. Her Scivias, divided into three books, containing 26 visions, also contains denunciations of the vices of the world and prophesies of disaster. She exerted a wide influence in political and religious matters in her time. Her feast is on 17 September.

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