Hildegard of Bingen (1098 to 1179) was a German Benedictine abbess, Christian mystic, composer, theologian, natural philosopher, and one of the most remarkable intellectual figures of the Middle Ages. From an early age, she reported experiencing vivid visions that she understood as revelations from God, though she kept many of them private for decades.

At the age of forty-two, in the year 1141, she described receiving a powerful vision accompanied by a divine command to record and share what she had seen. The result was Scivias (“Know the Ways”), written between about 1142 and 1151, a work that combines symbolic visions with theological reflection and became the foundation of her public ministry.

The opening declaration of Scivias recounts this pivotal “First Vision” type experience and marks the beginning of her emergence as one of the great visionary voices of medieval Christianity:

This happened in AD 1141 when I was 42 years and 7 months old: A fiery light, of the greatest flashing brightness, coming out of a cloudless sky, flooded my entire mind and so inflamed my whole heart and my whole breast like a flame — yet it was not blazing but glowing hot, as the sun makes anything on which its rays fall hot. And I suddenly experienced the understanding of the exposition of books, that is, of the Psalter, the Gospel, and of the other orthodox volumes of both the Old and the New Testaments…¹

She also notes:

And behold, in the forty-third year of my passing course, while I was intent upon a heavenly vision with great fear and tremulous effort, I saw a great splendour, in which a voice came from heaven saying to me:

‘O weak mortal, both ash of ash and rottenness of rottenness, say and write what you see and hear. But because you are fearful in speaking and simple in explaining and unlearned in writing these things, say and write them not according to human speech nor the understanding of human creativity nor according to the will of human composition, but according to this rule: that you reveal by interpreting the things you see and hear among heavenly matters from above, in the wonders of God, just as also a hearer receiving his teacher’s words makes them known according to the tenor of his speech, as he wishes, shows, and teaches. So then you also, o mortal — speak the things you see and hear; and write them not according to yourself or any other person, but according to the will of the One Who knows, sees, and disposes all things in the hidden places of his mysteries.’

And again I heard a voice from heaven saying to me: ‘Therefore speak these wonderful things and write and say them in the manner they were taught.’²

She began having such visions at a young age:

But indeed I had already experienced (as I was still doing) in myself in a wondrous manner the power and mystery of hidden and wonderful visions from my girlhood, that is, from the time that I was five years old, right up until the present time. But I did not make that known to any person except to a certain few, also in the religious life, who were living the way of life as I was also myself. But in the meantime up to that time at which God desired this to be made manifest by His grace, I sank down beneath a quiet silence. But I have not received the visions that I saw in dreams, neither while I was sleeping nor in a frenzy; nor with bodily eyes nor with the ears of the outer person nor in hidden places. But I received them while waking and attentive, in a clear mind, with the eyes and ears of the inner person, in open places, according to God’s will. It is difficult for any one of flesh and blood to find out how this comes about.³

In another place she writes:

From my early childhood, before my bones, nerves and veins were fully strengthened, I have always seen this vision in my soul, even to the present time when I am more than seventy years old. In this vision my soul, as God would have it, rises up high into the vault of heaven and into the changing sky and spreads itself out among different peoples, although they are far away from me in distant lands and places. And because I see them this way in my soul, I observe them in accord with the shifting of clouds and other created things. I do not hear them with my outward ears, nor do I perceive them by the thoughts of my own heart or by any combination of my five senses, but in my soul alone, while my outward eyes are open. So I have never fallen prey to ecstasy in the visions, but I see them wide awake, day and night. And I am constantly fettered by sickness, and often in the grip of pain so intense that it threatens to kill me, but God has sustained me until now. The light which I see thus is not spatial, but it is far, far brighter than a cloud which carries the sun. I can measure neither height, nor length, nor breadth in it; and I call it “the reflection of the living Light.” And as the sun, the moon, and the stars appear in water, so writings, sermons, virtues, and certain human actions take form for me and gleam.⁴

In sum, 26 such visionary experiences were captured by Hildegard in Scivias.

In previous posts I’ve noted the similarities of these visions with Joseph Smith’s First Vision, but I think I won’t continue with that format. I think many will be able to tell the similarities. I have compiled these visions, and will continue to do so, to help show that Joseph Smith was not unique in having such mystical experiences, but they have been had by many people, in different cultures and traditions, all around the world and throughout history. People continue to have these experiences today.

If you would like to submit a “First Vision” account, either personal or found, for inclusion on this website, please click here.

1. Hildegard of Bingen. “Opening Declaration (Protestificatio) to Scivias.” Scivias. Edited by A. Führkötter and A. Carlevaris, vol. 43–43A, Corpus Christianorum, Continuatio Mediaevalis, Brepols, 1978, pp. 3–6. Translated by Abigail Ann Young, 1999. Internet Archive, https://web.archive.org/web/20231203075806/http://homes.chass.utoronto.ca/~young/protest.html ↩︎
2. Ibid. ↩︎
3. Ibid. ↩︎
4. Newman, Barbara. “Hildegard of Bingen: Visions and Validation.” Church History, vol. 54, 1985, pp. 163–175. Accessed via the Hildegard of Bingen Wikipedia page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hildegard_of_Bingen. ↩︎