LUTGARDE OF WITTICHEN, FOUNDRESS AND MYSTIC - 16 OCTOBER

ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN OCTOBER

Saints celebrated on the 16th of October

Prayer to the Angels and the Saints

Heavenly Father, in praising Your Angels and Saints we praise Your glory, for by honouring them we honour You, their Creator. Their splendour shows us Your greatness, which infinitely surpasses that of all creation.

In Your loving providence, You saw fit to send Your Angels to watch over us. Grant that we may always be under their protection and one day enjoy their company in heaven.

Heavenly Father, You are glorified in Your Saints, for their glory is the crowning of Your gifts. You provide an example for us by their lives on earth, You give us their friendship by our communion with them, You grant us strength and protection through their prayer for the Church, and You spur us on to victory over evil and the prize of eternal glory by this great company of witnesses.

Grant that we who aspire to take part in their joy may be filled with the Spirit that blessed their lives, so that, after sharing their faith on earth, we may also experience their peace in heaven. Amen.

LUTGARDE OF WITTICHEN, FOUNDRESS AND MYSTIC

Lutgarde (Luitgard, Lutgardis) of Wittichen was born to peasants in 1291 in Schenkenzell in the Black Forest.

As the result of a vision of Christ she was called to found a convent. She went on trips to the Tyrol and Switzerland to raise funds for the founding of the convent. She was treated unjustly by the dukes of Teck at the nearby castle of Schiltach, while the lords of Geroldseck at the Schenkenburg were devoted to her. In 1324 Lutgarde moved to the Wittichen valley and founded a hermitage (Klause) for herself and 33 other women, which later became the tertiary convent of Wittichen. She was the abbess of the convent until her death.

A "PEOPLE'S SAINT"

Lutgarde cared for victims of the plague, before she herself succumbed to the epidemic. She is venerated in central Baden, Germany, as a "people's saint" (Volksheilige) even though she was never ordained or raised to the sainthood. On the second Sunday in October, the Lutgarde Festival takes place in Wittichen. She died on October 16, 1348 at Wittichen Abbey near Schenkenzell.

(Source: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luitgard_of_Wittichen

- 📷High relief figure (20th century) in the parish church of St Arbogast in Haslach im Kinzigtal, Andreas Praefcke • CC BY 4.0)

THE PRAYER OF THE HEAVENLY COURT BY ST LUTGARDE:

O, all-holy and all-merciful Redeemer, Source of all graces, and our most kind Jesus! Out of incomprehensible love for us poor children of Eve, hast thou left thy seat on the right hand of thy Heavenly Father, and willed to clothe thyself with our helplessness and poverty.

Nay, the more surely to win us to love thee in return, thou hast made thyself helpless and poor beyond us all. No possible trouble, no possible toil, hast thou spared thyself in order to save us from the wicked enemy, and make us the children of thy Father in Heaven.

Bitterly do I grieve that up till now, I, a valueless and wretched worm of earth, have so little understood the excess of thy Love, and have given thee such poor thanks for all the hardships, pains and martyrdom thou hast bourne for me.

And therefore do I now offer up to thee this my unworthy prayer, in honour of thy most life and sufferings and death, and of every year and day and hour thou didst spend on earth for the salvation of lost and sinful men.

And I offer thee too, from the inmost depths of my heart, all the myriad acts of praise and love and gratitude of the nine Choirs of holy Angels, and indeed of all creatures from the first moment of their creation until now, and all the acts made by the Most Blessed Virgin Mary with the greatest possible love and devotion since her Immaculate Conception to this very day, together with those she will not cease to make through all the instants of Eternity. ➡️ continue reading