Saint Who?
Saints Who Taught about Prayer
Saint Gertrude the Great
Religious († 1302) Feast: November 16
Gertrude was placed in a Benedictine school in Helfta, Germany, when she was little girl, perhaps because her parents had died. An intelligent girl, she received an excellent education from the nuns at her monastery. She had already been professed as a nun when, aged twenty-six, she first received a vision of our Lord.
After that startling mystical experience, she gave herself wholeheartedly to the pursuit of holiness. She consciously set aside the secular literature she had previously been studying and devoted herself to the study of the Bible and the Fathers of the Church instead. Outwardly, she seemed to be living an ordinary life as a Benedictine nun, but her visions continued. She recorded the revelations she received, and they were carefully examined and eventually approved by theologians.
When our Lord appeared to Gertrude, his Sacred Heart was often visible. Gertrude explained in her writings that Jesus’ Heart was a symbol of the boundless love for us that led to his sacrifice on the cross. Although she was a humble woman who shrank from sharing her mystical experiences with others, her writings inspired widespread devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus.
Lord Jesus, through our devotion to your Sacred Heart, may we too become heralds of divine love.
