Hildegard von Bingen
Hildegard von Bingen (1098 - 1179) Credit: Wikipedia Hildegard von Bingen was born in 1098 in Germany, and although she spent her life dedicated to the church, she didn't let the fact that she was a woman prevent her from studying such diverse topics as herbology, cosmology, medicine, and biology. Hildegard came from an upper-class German family and was the youngest of ten children. At the age of seven, her parents sent her to a convent where she was placed under the care of Abbess Jutta von Sponheim. Jutta taught Hildegard how to read and write and introduced her to music. Hildegard claimed to have suffered visions since she was a young girl, and these visions helped her navigate the church's inner workings. She wrote down what she saw and what she thought these visions meant and thus became a well-established visionary, renowned for her wisdom, and much sought after for counsel. Inspired by these visions, Hildegard wrote her first book, the Scivias (the shortened Lati
