Summary: Nine hundred years ago, Hildegard of Bingen was given by her parents to the Catholic Church as a child. She was literally “walled up” in a tiny convent, completely cut off from the outside world. But over the course of her long and varied life, she emerged from the walls to embrace the world. She founded her own convents, and traveled across Europe on preaching tours. She spent decades caring for the sick and infirm, resulting in her seminal medical text that endured for centuries. She is also much celebrated today as a composer: she wrote hauntingly beautiful music that was rediscovered just 100 years ago. But she is perhaps most famous for her vivid and prophetic religious visions. She did what her visions told her to do, even if it meant defying the Pope himself.<br> <br> Our guest is Professor Alice Chapman, author of Sacred Authority and Temporal Power in the Writings of Bernard of Clairvaux and Associate Professor of Medieval History in the History Department at Grand Valley State University.
