Editing Hildegard of Bingen (section)

===Visions===

Hildegard said that she first saw "The Shade of the Living Light" at the age of three, and by the age of five, she began to understand that she was experiencing visions.<ref>Underhill, Evelyn. ''Mystics of the Church'' (Pennsylvania: Morehouse Publishing, 1925), p. 77.</ref> She used the term {{lang|la|visio}} (Latin for 'vision') to describe this feature of her experience and she recognized that it was a gift that she could not explain to others. Hildegard explained that she saw all things in the light of God through the five senses: sight, hearing, taste, smell, and touch.<ref>Schipperges, Heinrich. ''Hildegard of Bingen: Healing and the Nature of the Cosmos'' (New Jersey: Markus Wiener Publishers, 1997), p. 10.</ref> Hildegard was hesitant to share her visions, confiding only to [[Jutta von Sponheim|Jutta]], who in turn told Volmar, Hildegard's tutor and, later, secretary.<ref>Maddocks, Fiona. ''Hildegard of Bingen: The Woman of Her Age'' (New York: Doubleday, 2001), p. 55.</ref> Throughout her life, she continued to have many visions, and in 1141, at the age of 42, Hildegard received a vision she believed to be an instruction from God, to "write down that which you see and hear."<ref>Ruether, Rosemary Radford. ''Visionary Women'' (Minneapolis: Augsburg Fortress, 2002), p. 8.</ref> Still hesitant to record her visions, Hildegard became physically ill. The illustrations recorded in the book of {{lang|la|Scivias}} were visions that Hildegard experienced, causing her great suffering and tribulations.<ref>Underhill, Evelyn. ''Mystics of the Church'' (Pennsylvania: Morehouse Publishing, 1925), pp. 78–79.</ref> In her first theological text, {{lang|la|[[Scivias]]}} ("Know the Ways"), Hildegard describes her struggle within:

{{blockquote|But I, though I saw and heard these things, refused to write for a long time through doubt and bad opinion and the diversity of human words, not with stubbornness but in the exercise of humility, until, laid low by the scourge of God, I fell upon a bed of sickness; then, compelled at last by many illnesses, and by the witness of a certain noble maiden of good conduct [the nun [[Richardis von Stade]]] and of that man whom I had secretly sought and found, as mentioned above, I set my hand to the writing. While I was doing it, I sensed, as I mentioned before, the deep profundity of scriptural exposition; and, raising myself from illness by the strength I received, I brought this work to a close – though just barely – in ten years.{{nbsp}}[...] And I spoke and wrote these things not by the invention of my heart or that of any other person, but as by the secret mysteries of God I heard and received them in the heavenly places. And again I heard a voice from Heaven saying to me, 'Cry out, therefore, and write thus!'|Hildegard von Bingen, {{lang|la|Scivias}}, translated by Columba Hart and Jane Bishop, 1990<ref>Hildegard von Bingen, ''Scivias'', translated by Columba Hart and Jane Bishop with an Introduction by Barbara J. Newman, and Preface by Caroline Walker Bynum (New York: Paulist Press, 1990), pp. 60–61.</ref>}}

It was between November 1147 and February 1148 at the synod in Trier that [[Pope Eugene III|Pope Eugenius]] heard about Hildegard's writings. It was from this that she received Papal approval to document her visions as revelations from the Holy Spirit, giving her instant credence.<ref name="ReferenceA">Oliveira, Plinio Correa de. "St. Hildegard Von Bingen, 17 September". St. Hildegard von Bingen, Saint of 17 September.</ref>

On 17 September 1179, when Hildegard died, her sisters claimed they saw two streams of light appear in the skies and cross over the room where she was dying.<ref name="Madigan, Shawn 1998" />