Which Catholic saint was declared a Doctor of the Church in 2012, becoming its 35th member?

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Hildegard of Bingen was declared a Doctor of the Church in 2012, becoming the Catholic Church’s 35th Doctor.

Hildegard was born in 1098 in the Rhineland and became a Benedictine abbess, theologian, composer, writer, and visionary. She founded communities at Rupertsberg and Eibingen and maintained an unusually extensive correspondence with popes, emperors, bishops, and other prominent figures.

Her major works include Scivias, a theological account of her visions, and medical and natural-history writings traditionally known as Physica and Causae et Curae. She also composed religious music, including the sequence collection Symphonia armoniae celestium revelationum.

Pope Benedict XVI formally recognized her as a saint in 2012 through equivalent canonization and named her a Doctor of the Church on October 7 of that year. She was the fourth woman to receive the title, after Teresa of Ávila, Catherine of Siena, and Thérèse of Lisieux.

Source: Wikipedia · fact-checked Sept. 2026

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