We do know, however, that during this time, Hildegard told Jutta about the visions she was experiencing. HildegardвЂ™s life during the period between 11 is not well-recorded, and as a result, there is little information about these 23 years of her life. Saint, Witch or Both? The Strange Case of St Columba of Sens.Silence is Golden: Ancient Monks CouldnвЂ™t Even Find Peace and Quiet.Drolleries of the Middle Ages Included Comical Yet Sinister Killer Rabbits and Erotic Art.Hildegard was elected by the nuns of her community as JuttaвЂ™s successor. Jutta died in 1136, when Hildegard was 38 years old. In 1113, at the age of 15, Hildegard took her vows and became a Benedictine nun. Hildegard of BingenвЂ™s Visions and Role in the Church In addition, she was taught to play the ten-string psaltery, a musical instrument resembling a dulcimer. Hildegard was taught to read the Psalter (the Book of Psalms) in Latin, as well as to sing the psalms of the monastic hours, and the Divine Office. The education that the girls received from Jutta was quite rudimentary and of a religious nature. During her later years of her life, JuttaвЂ™s fame spread far beyond the walls of the monastery, and many local nobles sent their daughters to study under her. Jutta, however, was somewhat different form her fellow anchorites, as she was also a tutor to girls from noble families. The only link between the anchorite and the outside world was a small window, through which food could be delivered into the cell, and refuse taken out. Typically, the cell of an anchorite would be built adjacent to a church, so that he/she could follow the services. (Mefusbren69В / Public Domain )ДЄs an anchoress, Jutta lived an ascetic life that was severed from the rest of the world. Hildegard of Bingen was sent to the Benedictine monastery at Disibodenberg. She, however, chose to give up all worldly pleasures and to dedicate her life to God. Jutta was a sister of the Count of Spanheim, which would have made her a noblewoman. Whatever the case, when she was eight years old, Hildegard was set to the Benedictine monastery at Disibodenberg, where she was placed under the care of Jutta, an anchoress (a female anchorite). Yet another story states that HildegardвЂ™s parents decided to dedicate their daughter to the church because she was a weak and sickly child. As the family could not count on feeding her, she was handed to the church from the time of her birth.ДЄccording to another version of the story, although HildegardвЂ™s parents were wealthy, they were also pious Christians, and therefore had her dedicated to the church. According to one version of the story, Hildegard was the 10th child of the family. Later legends would make Hildegard a Countess of Spanheim. These biographers also note that Hildegard came from a noble and wealthy family, though they do not elaborate on the matter further. HildegardвЂ™s early biographers state that the saintвЂ™s parents were Hildebert and Mechtildis (or Mathilda), though they are silent about her family name. Hildegard von Bingen, as she was known in Germany, was born in 1098 at BГ¶ckelheim on the Nahe (in the modern state of Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany). Saint Hildegard of Bingen was theologian who wrote about her visions in the Scivias. In the same year, Pope Benedict XVI declared the new saint a Doctor of the Church, one of only four women to hold this title (the other three, incidentally, being Saints Teresa of ГЃvila, Catherine of Siena, and ThГ©rГЁse of Lisieux). Hildegard was not formally canonized by the Catholic Church until much later, i.e. After her death, Hildegard remained a popular figure in her homeland of Germany and was even proclaimed a saint by her earliest biographer. In addition, she was a respected intellect and wrote on a variety of topics, including theology, botany, and natural history, and a highly-talented musical composer. During her lifetime, she was abbess, mystic, visionary, and composer. Saint Hildegard of Bingen is arguably one of the most remarkable women of the Middle Ages.

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