Fr Charles Cummings, OCSO

St. Gertrud the Great was born in 1256 and began school at the age of five in the monastery of Helfta in Germany.  She may have been a child oblate or an orphan taken in by the sisters.  St. Gertrud was never the abbess of Helfta, although her abbess was also named Gertrud.  This identity of names, one a canonized saint and the other not, has been a persistently confusing factor, just as it is confusing to determine whether the abbey of Helfta was Cistercian or Benedictine, since it followed the Cistercian way of life but was not incorporated into the Order.

In her youth and young adulthood, Gertrud was avid for learning in every subject, especially secular literature, not without curiosity and pride. Her teacher, friend, and spiritual companion was the gifted St. Mechtilde of Hackeborn (1241-1298).  Mechtilde was a younger sister of the abbess of Helfta, Gertrude of Hackeborn (1232-1292).

After about twenty years in the monastery, she realized she that instead of drawing closer to God she had erected “a tower of vanity and worldliness” (Herald II.1.1).  God brought her, by means of a vision, to a spiritual awakening in 1281.  “From a grammarian she became a theologian,” says her biographer (Herald I.1.2). God guided her to a love for spiritual things and for contemplative prayer.  She says to Jesus, “you imprinted on my heart the brilliant necklace of your most saving wounds” (Herald II.23.7).  Also she says that Jesus in “[his] priceless friendship” offered her his “deified Heart,” even “exchanging it for mine” (Herald II.23.8].  Her intimate and personal love for Jesus led her to consider herself his bride, and thus she joins those called to the way of bridal or nuptial mysticism.

Gertrud the Great could be called the Teresa of Germany, because of many similarities between the two saints.  Like Teresa of Avila, Gertrud combined a strong intellect and a passionately loving heart.  Both had spiritual conversions and were visionaries, mystics.  Both wrote engaging and readable books that reveal them as captivated by love of Jesus.  Both built a dwelling place for God in their hearts (John 14:23).  There are also numerous differences between them, but the similarities are notable.

Gertrud was acquainted with physical suffering in the form of frequent illnesses.  She was just forty-six at her death in 1302. To the best of her exceptional ability, she applied her natural talents to the monastic search for God and service of God’s people.  Her books, written in Latin, Herald of God’s Loving-Kindness (Book Two only), and Spiritual Exercises, were the fruit of reflection on the liturgy and on the visions she received, beginning with her spiritual rebirth in 1281.

She usually situates her visions at a specific place and day, sometimes even noting the hour.  These vivid, concrete, sensory details were engraved in her memory.  They help persuade the reader to believe her entire account, because we can imagine the vision happening, for instance, as she was “sitting beside the fishpond absorbed by the pleasantness of the place” (Herald, II.3.1).

We might think that the Adversary, Satan, could never lead into sin someone so gifted with special graces.  Yet Gertrud frequently accuses herself of faults.  For example, she admits to having been angry at someone or something “for one evening.”  The next morning at prayer, she becomes impatient, even angry, with herself for having been angry, and tells Jesus to “take your departure” and not come back until her soul is more presentable (Herald II.12.1).  Jesus, however, prefers to remain with her, amid her faults, until she comes round to repentance and humility, which she promptly does.  Gertrud’s humility in writing about this and other failings teaches us about her own greatness and the “breathtaking goodness” of God (Herald II.1.1).

I found it rewarding to look up the Scripture references in the assigned chapters, if I was not immediately familiar with them.  Gertrud draws heavily on Scripture as well as on the Divine Office and Mass.  These were the primary sources that nourished her relationship with God after she turned away from secular literature and studies.  Occasionally she alludes to the Confessions of St. Augustine, the Rule of St. Benedict, or St. Bernard.  We today have access to the same life-giving sources, but do we let them feed our heart?

  Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI said in a Wednesday General Audience on the subject of St. Gertrud: “[Her] friendship [with the Lord Jesus] is learned in love for Sacred Scripture, in love for the Liturgy, in profound faith, in love for Mary, so as to be ever more truly acquainted with God himself and hence with true happiness, which is the goal of our life” (https://www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/audiences/2010/documents/hf_ben-xvi_aud_20101006_en.html).