Aaron Mahnke

Now that others knew that she was capable of, word started to spread as far as the Vatican.

Pope Eugene III read pieces of Scyvius and encouraged her to keep going.

This was on top of the other work that she'd been doing.

Hildegard was a busy bee, simultaneously working on a collection of musical compositions, a nine-volume medical text, and a mystery play.

She could do it all, then became famous during a time when women were often discouraged from learning or moving up through society.

She was something of an iconoclast, but was she for real?

Had Hildegard truly received visions of light from God?

A number of explanations have emerged over the years.

In 1917, for example, historian Charles Singer posthumously diagnosed her with something called scintillating scotoma, which would have caused her to hallucinate light patterns.

Dr. Oliver Sacks expanded on Singer's diagnosis by writing that scotoma is one of the most common features of migraine headaches.

He thought that it was even more common than the headaches themselves and claimed that they were caused by, and I quote, "...when an individual confronts essentially unsolvable problems."

And it's important to note that Hildegard grew up in a time when being a female theologian, cosmologist, and thinker was frowned upon and even shunned within the church.

Existing as a female polymath in a man's world would have made her problem seem unsolvable, and then exacerbate her condition.

Barbara Newman, Hildegard's biographer, however, believed her visions were actually a tool that she used to function within that patriarchal society, allowing her to feel empowered and able to advocate for herself.

We may never know the truth, but in the end, the truth pales in comparison to Hildegard herself.

She was one of the greatest Renaissance women and mystics the world had ever seen.

To this day, she's revered by feminist scholars, esoteric practitioners, composers, holistic healers, and others for the work that she did.

And after her death on September 17th of 1179, she was venerated as a saint.

It's said that as she lay on her deathbed, her Benedictine sisters stood watch over her in her final moments.

They looked up as they did so and saw something strange.