Blog - Saint Gertrude the Great and Lent

The Catholic Church’s devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus flows from a wellspring of revelations given to a known-yet-unknown saint named St. Gertrude of Helfta or St. Gertrude the Great. We do not have a lot of biographical information about Gertrude’s pre-Benedictine Abbey years. Some speculate that her parents offered her to the convent as a pious sacrifice and others note that Gertrude mentions her parents died when she was very young. She might have been an orphaned child who was taken in by the nuns of the abbey in Helfta along with her sister Mechtilda. Life was very different in the late 1200’s, no doubt, and so this would have been a way for the Church to care for and educate the young.  
 
Gertrude grew up in the Abbey of Helfta and entered a life of scholarship with great rigor along with a life immersed in Catholic prayer and devotion. She loved to read the Sacred Scriptures and the early Church Fathers. These works shaped her theology and her spirituality. She was, to put it bluntly, a genius. And that genius found itself in a predicament in her mid-20's.  
 
For a short interval of time Gertrude found herself questioning her desires, pursuits, and calling to the Benedictine convent. Did she wonder about the world “out there” and if she’d missed out on life? Was this a vocational crisis for one who would eventually be made Abbess? We can only speculate from what we relate, but we know a darkness brewed around her mind and heart. Formed by prayer and learning, she turned to Jesus Christ seeking an answer. It was in that time that Jesus first started to appear to Gertrude and speak to her heart more clearly. Through those revelations she grew confident in the love Jesus had particularly for her. That mercy of Jesus – a divine mercy that flowed forth from his Sacred Heart – shaped the rest of Gertrude’s days. She shifted away from whatever worldly studies captured her heart and sought the will of God alone, in literally every aspect of her day.  
 
We can thank St. Gertrude, St. Mechtilda, and the abbey in Helfta for the Church’s devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. This devotion to Jesus’ mercy would, likewise, inspire other saints we know and love who devoted themselves to the Heart of Jesus, like Saint Fraustina. Each of these saints drew from the same source, Jesus. But, when it comes to laying the foundation for piety and devotion to the Sacred Heart, we can praise God in a particular way for His ministry in, with, and through Gertrude the Great.  
 
Saint Gertrude is known for her devotional prayer for souls in purgatory. It is a beautiful prayer wherein one can see a link to the revelation Jesus gave to Fraustina for the Divine Mercy Chaplet’s prayer to God the Father. When it comes to our entrance into these last days of Lent, I hope that the intercession of Saint Gertrude will help us keep the eyes of our hearts on Jesus’ own Sacred Heart. Gertrude placed a radical confidence in his mercy that inspires us to this day. She immersed every mistake, sin, and victory within the fires of Jesus’ heart with boldness. No matter how our Lent seems to have gone, it wouldn’t be the worst idea to commend it into the Sacred Heart of Jesus and ask St. Gertrude the Great to help teach us how to do that.