HILDEGARD, ST. (1098-1179), German abbess and mys tic, was born of noble parents at Bockelheim, near Sponheim, and from her eighth year she was educated at the Benedictine cloister of Disibodenberg by Jutta, sister of the count of Sponheim, whom she succeeded as abbess in 1136. From childhood she ex perienced visions, which in her 43rd year she divulged to her friend, the monk Godefridus, who committed them to writing (1141-50), entitling them Scivias. She corresponded with Anas tasius IV. and Adrian IV. and the emperors Conrad III., and Frederick I., also the theologian Guibert of Gembloux, who sub mitted numerous questions in dogmatic theology for her determi nation. After she migrated with 18 of her nuns to a new con vent on the Rupertsberg near Bingen, she continued to exercise the gift of prophecy and to record her visions in writing. She died on Sept. 17, 1179; she has never been canonized, but her name is in the Roman martyrology.
Though Hildegard's claims to Divine inspiration prevented her from citing profane authors, she seems to have combined frag ments of Aristotle and Galen with elements derived from St. Augustine, Isidore, Bernard of Tours, Hugh of St. Victor and from the Salernitan school. She elaborates the traditional doc trines of the macrocosm and the microcosm, indicates the relation between them, and around these ideas weaves her interesting physiological, psychological and theological opinions.