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SAINT FEAST DAY 17 MARCH: ST GERTRUDE OF NIVELLES, VIRGIN AND ABBESS

 

ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN MARCH

Saints celebrated on the 17th of March

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SAINT GERTRUDE OF NIVELLES, VIRGIN AND ABBESS

[Saint Gertrude's intercession is invoked against rats and mice since at least the 15th century, and, more recently, her prayers are asked in her function of patron saint called upon for cats.]

Saint Gertrude was daughter of Pepin of Landen, mayor of the palace to the French Kings of Austrasia, and younger sister to Saint Begga. She was born in 626. 

SHE HAD MADE UP HER MIND

Her father’s virtuous palace was the sanctuary of her innocence, and the school of her tender piety. Being pressed to marry, she declared in presence of King Dagobert: "I have chosen for my spouse him, from whose eternal beauty all creatures derive their glory, whose riches are immense, and whom the angels adore." The king admired her gravity and wisdom in so tender an age, and would not suffer her to be any more disturbed on that account. 

Her mother, the blessed Itta, employed Saint Amand to direct the building of a great nunnery at Nivelle, in Brabant, for Gertrude. The virgin was appointed abbess, when only twenty years of age. Her mother, the blessed Itta, lived five years under her conduct, and died in the twelfth year of her widowhood, in 652. 

PRUDENCE AND ZEAL

Gertrude governed her monastery with a prudence, zeal, and virtue that astonished the most advanced in years and experience. She loved extreme holy poverty in her person and house; but enriched the poor. By assiduous prayer and holy meditation she obtained wonderful lights from heaven. She resigned her abbey to her niece Wilfetrude, and spent the three years which she survived, in preparing her soul for her passage to eternity, which happened on March 17, 659. Her festival is a holyday at Louvain, and throughout the duchy of Brabant. It is mentioned in the true Martyrology of Bede, etc.

Source: Fr Butler's Lives of the Saints

PRAYER:

Grant, we beseech you, almighty God, that the venerable feast of Saint Gertrude may increase our devotion and promote our salvation. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever. Amen.








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