Elisabeth of Schönau

She entered the monastery of Schönau, near Bingen, at twelve, and from the age of twenty-three knew ecstasies which she dictated to her brother Egbert, a monk and later abbot. Her three Books of Visions and her Book of the Ways of God were copied into more than a hundred and fifty manuscripts — a considerable diffusion for a twelfth-century woman. She corresponded with Hildegard of Bingen, her neighbour and elder, to whom she confided her doubts about the authenticity of what she saw. She died at thirty-five, magistra of her community.