Hildegard was enclosed at the Benedictine monastery of Disibodenberg and took vows as a nun, beginning her formal monastic life.
In 1112, Hildegard was formally enclosed at the Benedictine monastery of Disibodenberg and professed vows as a Benedictine nun. She had been placed in the care of the anchoress Jutta of Sponheim as a child, and this enclosure ceremony marked her official entrance into religious life within the small community of women attached to the monastery.
This event was foundational to Hildegard's development: it gave her access to Latin literacy, scriptural study, and the liturgical life of the monastery, all of which would shape her later visionary and theological writings. Female religious enclosure in the twelfth century was one of the few socially sanctioned paths by which a woman could receive an education and exercise intellectual and spiritual authority.
Her time at Disibodenberg under Jutta's tutelage and later leadership prepared her for her eventual role as magistra of the community. The enclosure represents the beginning of a monastic career that would culminate in Hildegard becoming one of the most significant female intellectual and spiritual figures of medieval Europe, whose influence extended far beyond the walls of her small convent.
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