History Profiles

The Greatest Religious and Spiritual Leaders in History

Few forces have shaped humanity like religion. These founders and teachers gave the world its great spiritual traditions and moral philosophies.

  1. 1

    Siddhartha Gautama

    Spiritual Leader · 563 BC – 483 BC

    Siddhartha Gautama, known as the Buddha, was a spiritual teacher of ancient India whose insights into suffering and liberation founded Buddhism, now one of the world's major religions.

    97
  2. 2

    Augustine of Hippo

    Theologian · 354 – 430

    Augustine of Hippo was a Roman North African theologian and philosopher whose works, including Confessions and City of God, shaped Western Christianity and laid intellectual foundations for medieval and modern thought.

    92
  3. 3

    Martin Luther

    Theologian · 1483 – 1546

    Martin Luther was a German theologian and reformer whose challenge to the Catholic Church sparked the Protestant Reformation and reshaped the religious, political and cultural landscape of Europe.

    91
  4. 4

    Thomas Aquinas

    Theologian · 1225 – 1274

    Thomas Aquinas was a medieval Italian theologian and philosopher whose synthesis of Christian theology and Aristotelian philosophy became central to Catholic thought and the high point of scholasticism.

    91
  5. 5

    Hildegard of Bingen

    Composer · 1098 – 1179

    Hildegard of Bingen was a German Benedictine abbess and one of the most remarkable polymaths of the Middle Ages — a visionary, composer, writer, healer and natural philosopher.

    84