Q 01/05

Hildegard of Bingen's nature writings are often cited as an early source on which plant preserving beer?

A) Juniper

B) Hops

C) Yarrow

D) Heather

Answer · why

B) Hops

Hops kept beer from spoiling, she noted in her 12th-century book on nature. It is often cited as the earliest source, though hopped beer is documented...

Q 02/05

Neurologist Oliver Sacks argued that Hildegard of Bingen's visions were caused by which condition?

A) Epilepsy

B) Sleep paralysis

C) Migraine

D) High fever

Answer · why

C) Migraine

Migraine was his verdict: he called her visions indisputably migrainous, and the bright lights and auras she described do resemble an attack. He added...

Q 03/05

Which rare Catholic title, also held by Teresa of Ávila, did Hildegard of Bingen receive in 2012?

A) Doctor of the Church

B) Mother of the Church

C) Defender of the Faith

D) Apostle to the Apostles

Answer · why

A) Doctor of the Church

Doctor of the Church is an honour for saints whose writings shaped doctrine, and she was only the fourth woman to receive it. The pope who conferred i...

Q 04/05

In Hildegard of Bingen's musical play Ordo Virtutum, which character never sings and only shouts?

A) The Patriarch

B) The Soul

C) The Prophet

D) The Devil

Answer · why

D) The Devil

The Devil is denied music because, in her view, he cannot produce divine harmony. Every other role, from the Virtues to the human soul, is sung in pla...

Q 05/05

898 Hildegard, thought to be named after Hildegard of Bingen, is what kind of celestial object?

A) An asteroid

B) A dwarf star

C) A lunar crater

D) A moon of Mars

Answer · why

A) An asteroid

An asteroid about 12 km wide, it circles the Sun in the main belt every four and a half years. German astronomer Max Wolf discovered it from Heidelber...