Death of Hildegard of Bingen

September 17, 1179

The German abbess, visionary, composer, and herbalist died at eighty-one in her Rhineland convent. She had corresponded with emperors and popes, written the earliest known morality play, and produced a body of monophonic music that would be rediscovered and celebrated eight centuries later. Her scientific writings on natural history and medicine, drawing on both observation and mystical revelation, were unmatched by any woman of her era.