Gertrude was born on 6 January 1256; nothing is known of her family. At the age of four or five she was given to the monastery of Helfta, near Eisleben in Saxony, a house of learned nuns under the abbess Gertrude of Hackeborn, whose sister Mechtild of Hackeborn was among her teachers. She grew into a gifted Latin scholar, devoted, as she later confessed, more to her studies than to God.
On 27 January 1281, at twenty-five, she saw Christ in the form of a young man, who said to her, “Thy salvation is at hand.” From then on she turned from secular learning to Scripture and the Fathers, and lived a hidden life of prayer, illness and service in her community. She wrote in Latin: prayers, the Spiritual Exercises and the second book of The Herald of Divine Love; a fellow nun compiled the other books from her accounts.
Gertrude the Great in the library (1 work)
- The Life and Revelations of St Gertrude the Great — 13th century; translation c. 1875
The German Benedictine's account of Christ's love for her — a private revelation, valued for its devotion to the Heart of Christ.