Hildegard von Bingen: Visions, Authority, and the Medieval Cosmos

Medieval Morsels Podcast

In the 12th century, a Benedictine nun along the Rhine began to record visions she believed were revealed to her by divine light. That woman, Hildegard von Bingen, would go on to become one of the most extraordinary intellectual, spiritual, and creative figures of the Middle Ages.

In this episode of Medieval Morsels, we explore Hildegard’s remarkable life through her visionary theology, her groundbreaking work Scivias, and her extensive correspondence with emperors, bishops, and popes. Drawing from her own writings and modern historical scholarship, we examine how she established authority in a male-dominated religious world—not through institutional rank, but through visionary experience and intellectual force.

We a ...