 In her "Vita", Hildegard states that from a very young age she had experienced visions.From early childhood, long before she undertook her public mission or even her monastic vows, Hildegard's spiritual awareness was grounded in what she called the "umbra viventis lucis", the reflection of the living Light.Her letter to Guibert of Gembloux, which she wrote at the age of seventy-seven, describes her experience of this light with admirable precision