Catholic Saint

st Gertrude the Great

Virgin (1256 -1301) 

Saint of the day November 16

St Gertrude was born on 6 January 1256 in Saxony, and at five was placed in the Benedictine convent at Helfta under the saintly Abbess Gertrude of Hackeborn and with the latter’s sister, St Mechtilde, as her mistress. In that exemplary atmosphere the intelligent young nun made rapid progress in the liberal arts. At 26 she experienced the first of a long series of remarkable visions and revelations which continued for 20 years until her death. As a result she saw her profane studies in a new light and zealously substituted them with sacred contemplation and the study of Holy Scripture and of the theological treatises of the Church Fathers, all of which she copied and translated herself.

Of all her remarkable writings only a few have survived “The Herald of Divine Love” being her own life story, written at Our Lord’s command, “Spiritual Exercise”, composed for the sanctification of her Sisters in religion, and “The Book of Special Grace”, which deals with St Mechtilde.

An essential characteristic of Gertrude’s spiritual life was the unity that constant attention to God helped establish among all the activities in her monastic life. The spirituality she practised was called “nuptial mysticism”, i.e., he came to see herself as the bride of Christ, and as such belonging exclusively to him. Her spiritual life was a deep personal union with Jesus and his Sacred Heart, leading her into the very life of the Trinity. For her, the liturgy was not simply a duty to be fulfilled by the clock, but rather the very rhythm of a life of prayer. The Liturgy, together with Scripture, furnished her with the doctrinal themes of her piety, being as it was a “mystery”, a sacrament of the very presence of Christ himself. Thus, her liturgical and personal prayer, were, instead of being in contradiction, ever in profound harmony.

On the merits of suffering and the complete abandonment to Divine Providence Our Lord once revealed to her: “Sufferings in body and soul are proof of the spiritual union of God with the soul”; “I am better pleased with your good intentions which you offer when in a state of suffering, than with the sweetness of your devotion which gives pleasure to yourself’; “He who suffers patiently for the love of me that which he is unable to cure, gains a glorious prize”; “He who communicates with a pure desire to render me glory, will never communicate irreverently”.

At the request of the King of Spain, St Gertrude, who died on 17 November 1301, was declared patron of the West Indies.