Hildegard of Bingen

Hildegard of Bingen was a German Benedictine abbess who lived 1098-1179. She is
considered a Doctor of the Church, a saint of the Roman Catholic Church. Her family
offered her as an oblate, or an individual dedicated to God, to a Benedictine monastery.
Her visions were recorded as written works and in the form of paintings. She also
composed music, was a playwright, helped construct a language, and wrote about science
and medicine. In 1141 she began publically sharing her visions with clergy around
Europe. She continued with four preaching missions in Germany between the years 1158-
1179, demonstrating authority never seen by a Christian woman in Europe.1

Hildegard utilized writing to produce social change. She stated that the church must serve
as a regenerator to society. She even wrote against King Frederick Barbarossa blaming
him for the papal schism and threatened him with Gods judgment. She also correctly
prophesied that the archbishop of Mainz would be exiled.2 A woman of her time
condemning her male superiors would be unheard of; however, she had the approval of
Pope Eugene III, who validated her visions, therefore granting her authority.3

She resisted the patriarchy in how she led her monastery. She was reproached for
allowing her nuns to dress up for the holidays, including wearing tiaras. Instead of
apologizing, she stated that as virgins, her nuns were permitted to dress in bridal
splendor. Furthermore, she encouraged her nuns to be joyful rather than exercise
penance. She even allowed an excommunicated nobleman to be buried in her covenant
cemetery. Her community was excommunicated for her actions, yet she stated that God
had commanded her to permit the burial, and her communitys excommunication was
lifted.4

In her fourth vision, Hildegard of Bingen states:

So God gave the first man a helper in the form of woman, who was mans mirror
image, and in her the whole human race was present in latent wayWithout
woman, man could not be called man; without man, woman could not be named
woman. Thus woman is the work of man, while man is a sight full of consolation
for women. Neither of them could henceforth live without the other. Man is in this
connection an indication of the Godhead while woman is an indication of the
humanity of Gods Son.5

1 Bernard McGinn, The Essential Writings Of Christian Mysticism (New York, N.Y:
Modern Library, 2006), 331.
2 Frances Beer, Women and Mystical Experience In The Middle Ages (Woodbridge:

The Boydell Press, 1992), 20-1.

3 Grace M. Jantzen, Power, Gender And Christian Mysticism (Cambridge: Cambridge

University Press, 2004), 184-6.

4 Frances Beer, Women and Mystical Experience In The Middle Ages, 22-6.
5 Hildegard Von Bingen, Book of Divine Works: With Letters and Songs, ed. Matthew

Fox (Santa Fe: Bear and Co, 1987), 100.

She believed that men and women needed each other. Specifically, she compared man to
God and woman to Jesus. Therefore, Eve and womankind not only birth humankind, but
they also represent Jesus salvation for all. It can be argued that Hildegard of Bingen
exalts the female above the male, making her rather than him the representative human
being and the one through whom salvation would come.6

Hildegard also took a firm stance on menstruation, semen, and womens sin. She resisted
the accepted view that menstruating women should not attend church. Even though she
believed that menstruation was a punishment for humanitys sin, she also thought it was
sacred since it was God-given. Furthermore, she transferred the taboo about menstrual
blood to semen. She also saw semen as poisonous linking males sermon to the serpent in
the garden. Hildegard thought that the semen only became harmless when it entered the
womb. She did not blame Eve entirely for the Fall. Instead, she believed that it was Satan
who first caused Eve to sin. Therefore, she stood against the standard and male
interpretation that Eve was doubly responsible for sin both for eating the fruit and
forcing Adam to join her. Hence, her theology was counter to the male interpretation.7

Overall, Hildegard of Bingen fought against the patriarchy through role as a social
change activist, in her understanding of the relationship between Adam and Eve, and her
attack on taboo issues. As a female public figure, she demanded authority and her music
and artwork are still held in high regard for Christian communities today.

References

Beer, Frances F. Women and Mystical Experience In The Middle Age. Woodbridge:
Boydell Press, 1992.

Bingen, Hildegard Von. Book of Divine Works: With Letters and Songs. Edited by
Matthew Fox. Santa Fe: Bear and Co, 1987.

Fox, Matthew. Illuminations of Hildegard of Bingen. Santa Fe, NM: Bear & Co., 2003.

Jantzen, Grace M. Power, Gender and Christian Mysticism. Cambridge: Cambridge

University Press, 1996.

McGinn, Bernard, ed. The Essential Writings Of Christian Mysticism. New York, N.Y:
Modern Library, 2006.

6 Grace M. Jantzen, Power, Gender And Christian Mysticism, 229.

7 Ibid., 231-3.
Hildegard of Bingen, Sophia: Mother Wisdom, Mother Church, (1165)
Found in: Fox, Matthew. Illuminations of Hildegard of Bingen. Santa Fe, NM: Bear &
Co., 2003.