Hildegard of Bingen

Born around 1098, Hildegard entered religious life and rose to magistra of her convent at Disibodenberg in 1136. She founded her own monastery at Rupertsberg in 1150, then a second at Eibingen in 1165. Between running both houses, she wrote theological works including Scivias (whose manuscript she supervised with miniature illuminations), botanical and medicinal texts, letters, and composed hymns and antiphons - writing both music and words, rare for any medieval composer. Her Ordo Virtutum stands as an early liturgical drama and possibly the oldest morality play. She also created Lingua Ignota, a constructed language of her own invention. Some scholars credit her as the founder of scientific natural history in Germany. She died 17 September 1179, and in 2012 Pope Benedict XVI declared her a saint and Doctor of the Church.