Table of Contents
This account says Hildegard von Bingen was given to religious life as a child and placed with Jutta, who taught her to read and write at Disibodenberg. Fear of being called a fraud, the speaker says, left her ill until a voice ordered her to record what she saw and heard. Starting that record brought her strength back, and the work took about a decade. She wrote to Bernard of Clairvaux. A pope, in this account, read her pages aloud and blessed them. She later made four preaching journeys through German river valleys, rare for a woman of her time, and people called her the Sibyl of the Rhine. Five beast images, including a fiery dog and a gray wolf, are often pinned to specific centuries. The speaker claims those timelines were built later by writers working backward, and that Hildegard did not tie the beasts to one war or country. A burial dispute, miracle reports sent to Rome, and the later title doctor of the church close the account.
Key points
- The account says Jutta raised Hildegard at Disibodenberg and taught her to read and write.
- A voice is said to have ordered the visions written down, after which her illness eased and the work took about ten years.
- Bernard of Clairvaux, a papal blessing, and four unusual preaching journeys are presented as the rise of her authority.
- Five beast images, from a fiery dog to a gray wolf, are described without the modern dates often attached to them.
- The account says those century charts were built afterward and were not Hildegard’s own ties to particular wars.
- A disputed burial, examined miracle reports, and the later title doctor of the church close the account.
Short quotes
Because there was just a little girl lying in bed with the name Hildegard.
Narrator, Forgotten Prophecies of Hildegard von Bingen
The opening stresses how unlikely her later public role would have seemed from a frail childhood. Watch at 1:06
And what she was starting to write would take her 10 years to finish.
Narrator, Forgotten Prophecies of Hildegard von Bingen
This marks the long labor of recording visions once she began to write. Watch at 4:24
Why is everyone so interested in her prophecies?
Narrator, Forgotten Prophecies of Hildegard von Bingen
The narrator turns from biography toward the future visions that draw modern interest. Watch at 8:19
That whole timeline you see everywhere was put together by modern writers working backwards trying to make her five ages lined up with history.
Narrator, Forgotten Prophecies of Hildegard von Bingen
The speaker warns that popular century by century charts were imposed on her images later. Watch at 12:28
Video by Messenger of God. Watch on YouTube.