But let’s go back to the years she began writing her visionary trilogy. Between 1147 and 1150 her community began to outgrow the monastery of Disibodenberg. So with 20 religious sisters (young noblewomen from rich families), she founded a monastery on the Rupertsberg in the Rhine valley, near Bingen. Many of these sisters financially supported the project. The aristocratic and illustrious Von Stade family were particularly supportive. Richardis, her most beloved pupil, was a member of this family. The new independent monastery of Saint Rupert was dedicated to the Virgin and the saints Philip, James and Martin.
Hildegard was to remain in her new monastery, with its splendid and carefully nurtured Saint Maximin of Trier’s library, for the rest of her life. It was during this time that she became ever increasingly famous as an erudite. Years later, she was called “abbess” in letters of protection drawn up by Frederick Barbarossa (16 April 1163). During this decade, Hildegard made four long religious and diplomatic missions from Rupertsberg across Germany. In or around 1165 she founded a daughter house at Eibingen, on the opposite bank of the Rhine, close to Rüdesheim.
Encyclopedic culture
A restless spirit, she immersed herself in awakening the creative vitality which affected the whole twelfth century. Hildegard wrote extensively on varied topics. Sometimes independently and sometimes in collaboration with others. This impressive output was thanks to her diverse and encyclopaedic knowledge. But even J. P. Migne’s monumental Latin Patrology included only part of her writings. In the religious field she demonstrated her deep knowledge of the Bible and the exegetic tradition of her time. She wrote about theology, ethics, asceticism, exegesis, commented on the Gospel, as well as the Athanasian creed and the Benedictine Rule. She also wrote on the lives of various saints, such as Disibod and Rupert.
A woman ahead of her time, especially considering she was a cloistered nun, her extensive and manifold literary work spanned a wide range of genres but always exuded great piety. Her encyclopaedic vision of life led her to draft scientific writings (such as the so-called “Berlin Fragment”) and treatises in the 1150s. Her medical work, which is basically encompassed by her Causæ et curæ, described such varied issues as the circulation of the blood, migraines, vapours and fears, frenzy, dementia, and specific obsessions. She also wrote about natural history in her Physica, which included interesting studies about physics, botany and zoology (the elements, plants and trees, minerals, fish, birds, four-footed animals and reptiles, etc.).
Hildegard also maintained an extensive written correspondence, in German and Latin, with some of the most important correspondents of the time; among them, various popes (such as Eugene III, Anastasius IV and Adrian IV), emperors, kings and princes (Conrad III, Frederick I Barbarossa and Henry II of England), prelates, bishops and archbishops, abbots and abbesses, lower clergy and laymen, monks and secular governors. Among others, we know that she corresponded with Elisabeth of Schönau, also a nun and her contemporary, who had had visions about the life and martyrdom of Saint Ursula, both nuns no doubt contributing to the renewed interest in this saint. Once in Rupertsberg, she also corresponded with the abbot Cuno of Disibodenberg, whom she served as a spiritual advisor, furnishing him with some of her poems and chants. After her work was publicly accredited by Pope Eugene in 1147, many temporal political leaders asked for her advice. Hildegard hurried to help them in her letters and sermons, but not before “instructing” them and even guiding them with a certain authority as to the decisions which had to be made. She reprehended actions which she believed deserved criticism, and freely gave her opinion about the reformation of the Church. We know that by the year 1148 she enjoyed a very creditable reputation throughout Europe. For example, that very year Odo of Paris praised her in the following manner: “It is said that you are raised to the heavens, that much has been revealed to you, and that you have given form to great writings and discovered new ways of singing.”
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