St. Hildegard (also called Hildegard of Bingen, Sybil of the Rhine) was 42 before she started writing anything down (She was 15 years old when she began wearing the Benedictine habit). Having experienced visions since she was a child, at age 43 she consulted her confessor, who in turn reported the matter to the archbishop of Mainz. A committee of theologians subsequently confirmed the authenticity of Hildegard’s visions, and a monk was appointed to help her record them in writing. The finished work, Scivias (1141–52, "Know the Ways of the Lord"), consists of 26 visions that are prophetic and apocalyptic in form and in their treatment of such topics as the church.
A talented poet and composer, Hildegard collected 77 of her lyric poems, each with a musical setting composed by her, in Symphonia armonie celestium revelationum. Her numerous other writings included lives of saints; two treatises on medicine and natural history, reflecting a quality of scientific observation rare at that period; and extensive correspondence, in which are to be found further prophecies and allegorical treatises.
It is now generally agreed that Hildegard suffered from migraine, and that her visions were a result of this condition. The way she describes her visions, precursors to visions, as well as debilitating aftereffects, point to classic symptoms of migraine sufferers. Although a number of visual hallucinations may occur, the more common ones described are the "scotomata" which often follow perceptions of phosphenes in the visual field. Scintillating scotomata are also associated with areas of total blindness in the visual field, something Hildegard might have been describing when she spoke of points of intense light, and also the "extinguished stars." Migraine attacks are usually followed by sickness, paralysis, blindness-all reported by Hildegard, and when they pass, by a period of rebound and feeling better than before, a euphoria also described by her. It is a tribute to the remarkable spirit and the intellectual powers of this woman that she was able to turn a debilitating illness into the word of god, and create so much with it.
https://www.rochester.edu/newscenter/6-things-you-didnt-know-about-saint-hildegard-of-bingen-370772/
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