November 1 is All Saints’ Day, a wide-reaching Christian holiday. While exact traditions vary, honoring the dead is a key part — praying, visiting cemeteries, and going to church are common practices on All Saints’ Day.
If we were to choose a saint to celebrate today, it’d have to be Hildegard von Bingen, one of the patron saints of creativity.
Born in 1098, Hildegard von Bingen had many titles: writer, composer, teacher, scientist, and healer. Here’s a truly tiny sampling of von Bingen’s countless creative accomplishments:
- Wrote poetry, hymns, and one of the first morality plays, Ordo Virtutum
- Invented her own fictional language
- Founded the discipline of scientific natural history in Germany
We’re truly only scratching the surface of this awe-inspiring woman’s creative legacy — check out her Wiki page for a deeper dive!