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Eibingen Abbey
Photo: Wikimedia Commons · Hildegard of Bingen

Eibingen Abbey

Hildegard of Bingen · Germany

Hildegard was given to a convent at the age of eight and later became its abbess. She had visions all her life, and at 42 she began to write them down. She also wrote about plants and healing and was bold enough to correct popes and emperors in her letters. Today the Benedictine nuns of St Hildegard's Abbey above the Rhine still live by her example, and her relics are kept in the parish church of Eibingen below.

Did you know?

Her music is among the earliest by a composer we know by name. In 2012 she was made a Doctor of the Church.

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An inspiring story

Write what you see

Is it ever too late to start?

Since childhood Hildegard had seen visions of light, but she kept them to herself for decades. She was a nun, a woman in the 12th century, and who would listen to her? Then, at the age of 42, she heard a voice: 'Write what you see and hear.' Why did she finally obey? Because keeping silent had made her ill, and she understood that her gift was not meant to stay hidden. What followed was astonishing: books about faith, nature and medicine, music that is still sung today, and letters to popes and emperors. In her sixties she went on preaching tours.

Hildegard only began at 42. What you have to give may just be waiting for your courage.

Write what you see and hear.Hildegard of Bingen, Scivias

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