# Gertrude the Great

Gertrude the Great or Gertrude of Helfta (January 6, 1256 – November 17, 1302) was a German Benedictine nun and mystic who was a member of the Monastery of Helfta. While herself a Benedictine, she also has strong ties to the Cistercian Order; her monastery in Helfta is currently occupied by nuns of the Cistercian Order.

## Life

Little is known of the early life of Gertrude, who was born on the Feast of the Epiphany, January 6, 1256, in Eisleben, Thuringia (within the Holy Roman Empire). At age five, she entered the monastery school at St. Mary at Helfta (variously described both as Benedictine and as Cistercian), under the direction of its abbess, Gertrude of Hackeborn. It is speculated that her devout parents offered her as a child oblate to the church. However, given that Gertrude implies in the Herald that her parents were long dead at the time of writing, it is possible that she entered the monastery school as an orphan.
Gertrude was entrusted to the care of Mechtilde, younger sister of the Abbess Gertrude, and joined the monastic community in 1266. It is clear from her writings that she received a thorough education in a range of subjects. She, and the nun who authored Books 1 and 3-5 of the Herald, are thoroughly familiar with scripture, the Church Fathers such as Augustine of Hippo and Gregory the Great, and also contemporary spiritual writers such as Richard and Hugh of St. Victor, William of St. Thierry, and Bernard of Clairvaux. Gertrude's writing demonstrates that she was well-versed in rhetoric, and her Latin is very fluent.
In 1281, at age 25, she experienced the first of a series of visions which continued for the rest of her days, and which changed the course of her life. Her priorities shifted away from secular knowledge and toward studying scripture and theology. Gertrude devoted herself strongly to personal prayer and meditation and began writing spiritual treatises for the benefit of her fellow nuns. She received "invisible stigmata". Gertrude became one of the great mystics of the 13th century. Together with her friend and teacher Mechtilde, she practiced a spirituality called "nuptial mysticism" in which they came to see themselves as the Brides of Christ.
Gertrude died at Helfta, near Eisleben, Saxony, around 1302.

## Works

Gertrude produced numerous writings, though only some survive today. The longest surviving work is the Legatus Memorialis Abundantiae Divinae Pietatis (known in English today as The Herald of Divine Love or The Herald of God's Loving-Kindness, and sometimes previously known as Life and Revelations), partly written by other nuns. There also remains her collection of Spiritual Exercises. A work known as Preces Gertrudianae (Gertrudian Prayers) is a later compilation, made up partly of extracts from the writings of Gertrude and partly of prayers composed in her style. It is also very possible that Gertrude was the author of a part of the revelations of Mechthild of Hackeborn, the Book of Special Grace.
The Herald is composed of five books. Book 2 forms the core of the work, and was written by Gertrude herself; she states that she began the work on Maundy Thursday, 1289. Books 3, 4, and 5 were written by another nun, or possibly by more than one, during Gertrude's lifetime and probably at least in part at her dictation. Book 1 was written shortly before or after Gertrude's death as an introduction to the whole collection; it is possible it was written by Gertrude's confessor, but more probably by another Helfta nun.

## Devotion to the Sacred Heart

Gertrude was a notable early devotee of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Her Herald of Divine Love vividly describes her visions of Christ's heart. Such veneration was based on the belief that Christ's heart poured forth a redemptive fountain through the wound in his side, an image culminating in a famous articulation by Bernard of Clairvaux in his commentary on the Song of Songs. The women of Helfta—Gertrude foremost, who surely knew Bernard's commentary, and to a somewhat lesser extent the two Mechthilds, Mechthild of Magdeburg and Mechthild of Hackeborn—made this devotion central to their mystical visions. She records a visionary conversation with St John the Evangelist, in which she recalls the account in John 13:23, One of his disciples, whom Jesus loved, was lying close to the breast of Jesus. John had not recounted there either the details of that experience or the inner peace it must have brought him: her conclusion that "the sweet sound of those heartbeats [must have been] reserved for modern times, so that, hearing them, our aging and lukewarm world may be renewed in the love of God", is drawn on by Pope Francis in his reflections on devotion to the Sacred Heart in the modern world.

## Later reputation and influence

After her death, Gertrude's works seem to have vanished almost without trace. Only five manuscripts of the Herald have survived, the earliest one being written in 1412, and only two of these manuscripts are complete. With the invention of printing, Gertrude became far more prominent, with Latin, Italian and German editions being published in the sixteenth century. She was popular in seventeenth-century France, where her trust in and burning love for God were potent antidotes to Jansenism.
Philip Neri and Francis de Sales both used her prayers and recommended them to others. In Spain, Bishop Diego of Tarragona, the confessor to Philip II, read the revelations of Gertrude aloud to the king as he lay dying in the Escorial.
Her works were also popular with the Discalced Carmelites in the sixteenth century. Francisco Ribera, the confessor to Teresa of Ávila, recommended that she take Gertrude as spiritual mistress and guide. At the height of Spanish female mysticism, the Spanish Jesuit Alonso de Andrade published a biography of Gertrude, giving Teresa a clear medieval antecedent. Her influence spread to European colonies in Latin America.
In the 19th century, Dom Prosper Guéranger, the restorer of Benedictine monasticism in France, was influenced by Gertrude. His Congregation of Solesmes was responsible for most of the work done on Gertrude in the nineteenth century.

## Veneration

Gertrude was never solemnly canonized, but a liturgical office of prayer, readings, and hymns in her honor was approved by Rome in 1606, considered the equivalent of a canonization. The feastday of Saint Gertrude was extended to the Latin Church by Pope Clement XII and is nowadays celebrated on November 16, her presumed dies natalis, or date of death. Some religious communities, including some Benedictines, celebrate her liturgically on November 17, which had originally been chosen, but was already occupied by Gregory Thaumaturgus. In the event, November 15 became the date for Gertrude, since become November 16. Pope Benedict XIV gave her the title "the Great" to distinguish her from Gertrude of Hackeborn and to recognize the depth of her spiritual and theological insight.
In 2022, The Episcopal Church of the United States added Gertrude, along with Mechtilde, to its calendar of saints with a feast day on November 21.
Gertrude showed "tender sympathy towards the souls in Purgatory" and urged prayers for them.

## Iconography

Images of Gertrude often show her gazing up to heaven, clothed as a nun with the ample sleeves typical of the choir habit. In the Baroque period it became a widespread artistic practice for the habit to be clearly depicted as that of a Benedictine, though this detail is not historically certain. At times she is also shown as an abbess, carrying a copy of the Rule of St Benedict in one hand and often also a crosier in the other hand. This latter detail is certainly mistaken and arose from confusing Gertrude the Great with Gertrude of Hackeborn, the abbess of St Mary at Helfta. Other artistic attributes distinguishing images of Gertrude are commonly a cross held in her hand and on occasion a heart in the other. Sometimes the heart is displayed on her breast, surrounded by golden rays, and containing within it either a cross, or an image of the Sacred Heart of Jesus or a small figure of the Child Jesus.

## Patronage

Numerous authors mention that in compliance with a petition from King Philip IV of Spain she was declared Patroness of the West Indies in 1609. She made patron saint of the American cities Puebla de los Ángeles in New Spain (1747). In Peru her feast is celebrated with great pomp, and in New Mexico the town Santa Gertrudis de lo de Mora was built in her honor and bears her name.

## Gallery

* Stained glass depicting the Sacred Heart (top), John the Evangelist (left), Marguerite Marie Alacoque (right), and Gertrude the Great (bottom).
* Lithograph of Saint Getrude
* Stained glass depicting Saint Getrude the Great and Saint Elizabeth of Hungary
* Sacred Conversation by Antonio González Velázquez, 1749

## Legacy

* The Monastery of St. Gertrude in Cottonwood, Idaho, is home to a community of some 25 professed Benedictine nuns.
* Parishes are dedicated to Saint Gertrude in Washington, Missouri; Cincinnati, Ohio; Kingsville, Texas; Woodstock, New Brunswick, Canada; Franklin Park, Illinois; Vandergrift, Pennsylvania; and Chicago, Illinois.
* St. Gertrude High School is a Catholic college preparatory day school for young women in grades 9–12 in Richmond, Virginia.
* Saint Gertrude Church in Firies, Killarney, County Kerry, Ireland.
* Saint Gertrude the Great Catholic School (TK-8th Grade) and Parish in Bell Gardens, California.
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* Church of St. Gertrude, Kaunas, Lithuania.