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The twelfth-century mystic, herbalist, theologian, visual artist, composer, and poet was born at Bockelheim on the Nache in 1098. Hildegard’s parents, Hildebert and Mechtild, were members of the nobility. They promised her, as their tenth child, to the service of the Church. At age eight, the family sent Hildegard to an archorness named Jutta to receive her religious education. At age fifteen she to the veil. Jutta died in 1136, and Hildegard succeeded her as superior. Between 1147 and 1150 she founded a monastery on the Rupertsberg, in the Rhine Valley near Binge. She was called ‘abbess’ in letters of protection drawn up by Frederick Barbarous.
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