Hildegard of Bingen - Prophetess, Composer, Mystic
Gone Medieval
History Hit
4.5 • 2.7K Ratings
🗓️ 9 June 2026
⏱️ 64 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
How did a cloistered, twelfth century nun become a visionary, composer, healer, preacher, and adviser to popes and emperors?
Despite having visions from childhood - even in the womb, she claimed - Hildegard of Bingen waited until the age of 42 when she heard a divine command to “write what you see and hear”, a moment that launched one of the most remarkable careers of the medieval world, including as creator of the most distinctive surviving sacred music of the Middle Ages.
Dr. Eleanor Janega is joined by Dr Hetta Howes, to explore the extraordinary life, dazzling theology, and legacy of Hildegard.
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Julian of Norwich
Lives of Medieval Nuns
Gone Medieval is presented by Dr. Eleanor Janega. Audio editor is Amy Haddow, the producer is Rob Weinberg. The senior producer is Anne-Marie Luff.
All music used is courtesy of Epidemic Sounds.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | From long-lost Viking ships and kings buried in unexpected places to tales of murder, |
| 0:07.7 | power, faith, and the lives of ordinary people across medieval Europe and beyond. |
| 0:13.2 | Join me, Matt Lewis, Dr. Eleanor Jarniger and some of the world's leading historians, |
| 0:18.0 | as we bring history's most fascinating stories to life only on |
| 0:22.3 | History Hit. With your subscription, you'll unlock hundreds of hours of exclusive documentaries |
| 0:27.2 | with a brand new release every week exploring everything from the ancient world to World War II. |
| 0:33.6 | Just visit historyhit.com forward slash subscribe. |
| 0:41.7 | Hello, I'm Dr. Eleanorianica, and welcome to Gone Medieval from History Hit, |
| 0:46.8 | the podcast that delves into the greatest millennium in human history. |
| 0:51.1 | We uncover the greatest mysteries, the gobsmacking details, and the latest groundbreaking |
| 0:57.6 | research from the Vikings to the Normans, from kings to popes, to the Crusades. We delve into |
| 1:05.1 | the rebellions, plots, and murders that tell us who we really were. And how we got here. |
| 1:20.3 | Within the cloistered silence of her convent, beneath the Rhineland Hills, |
| 1:26.5 | Hildegard of Bingham lived a life of prayer and service. |
| 1:31.2 | To her fellow nuns, she seemed a woman of calm authority, modest and disciplined. |
| 1:39.2 | But Hildegard harbored an incendiary secret. |
| 1:49.0 | Since childhood, she had seen things that others did not. |
| 1:54.5 | A brightness that shimmered at the edges of the visible world. |
| 2:03.1 | Voices that spoke not to the ear, but directly to the soul. Her visions came not in dreams, but in full waking awareness. |
| 2:08.7 | Then, in the year 1141, the divine presence that had hovered for decades descended upon |
| 2:17.4 | her with irresistible force. Her cell filled |
| 2:22.6 | with an unearthly fire that was alive with intelligence. It showed her cosmic shapes |
... |
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