Hildegard–Jutta relationship

The relationship between Hildegard of Bingen and Jutta of Spanheim joined a child’s religious formation to the daily life of a recluse’s hermitage. Sent to Jutta at eight, Hildegard learned to read the Bible in Latin and chant the Psalms; when Jutta died, Hildegard succeeded her as abbess of the women’s community that had developed around them.

Hildegard’s Arrival at the Hermitage

Jutta lived as a recluse in a small hermitage attached to the Benedictine monastery at Disibodenberg. Hildegard, the youngest of ten children in a wealthy noble family with political and ecclesiastical connections, was sent there to be Jutta’s companion and handmaid. Her parents regarded the offering as a pious act, but Hildegard never saw them again. She entered the relationship not simply as a pupil but as a child whose family life had been replaced by a religious household.

The hermitage shaped its residents’ days through its closeness to the monastery’s worship. Jutta could observe Mass through a small opening and hear the Gregorian chant of the Divine Offices. Her dependence on the monks for food and the removal of refuse was part of the practical arrangement of her enclosed life. The setting joined separation from the wider world to regular contact with the monastery’s liturgy, the pattern within which Hildegard’s early formation took place.

Instruction and Shared Religious Practice

Jutta taught Hildegard to read Scripture in Latin and to chant the Psalms as part of the Benedictine Divine Offices. Their two voices in the confined room contrasted with the monks’ deeper voices, while following the monastic schedule gave structure to their day. The account identifies Jutta’s teaching as direct and practical: reading, chant, and participation in a recurring liturgical routine formed Hildegard’s early religious education.

The monks may also have taught Hildegard the Benedictine tradition and provided her with an intellectual education, though the account presents this as a possibility rather than a certainty. Other women were drawn to Jutta’s hermitage, and it eventually became a nunnery. The relationship therefore unfolded within a community that grew beyond the original pair, while retaining the daily practices through which Hildegard had been taught.

From Companion to Abbess

As a teenager, Hildegard made a formal profession as a nun. When Jutta died in 1136, Hildegard became abbess of the women’s community. This succession marks a change in their relationship: Hildegard’s early place as Jutta’s young companion and learner gave way to leadership of the community that had formed around the hermitage. The account does not describe the personal circumstances of Jutta’s death or the details of Hildegard’s appointment; it does establish that Hildegard’s formation under Jutta preceded her assumption of authority.

Jutta’s influence is most clearly visible in the practices Hildegard learned and in the institutional path from hermitage to nunnery. The relationship connected instruction in Scripture and liturgy with the emergence of a women’s religious community, and Hildegard’s later leadership followed the years she had spent within Jutta’s household.