A pivotal figure in our theology of the Sacred Heart of Jesus is Saint Gertrude the Great (1256-1302). She was a nun of the Abbey of Helfta. Saint Gertrude is the only woman on the liturgical calendar to hold the title "the Great."
Gertrude was an extraordinary student, she learned
everything that can be learned of the sciences of the trivium and quadrivium,
the education of that time; she was fascinated by knowledge and threw herself
into profane studies with zeal and tenacity, achieving scholastic successes
beyond every expectation. If we know nothing of her origins, she herself tells
us about her youthful passions: literature, music and song and the art of
miniature painting captivated her. She had a strong, determined, ready and
impulsive temperament. She often says that she was negligent; she recognizes
her shortcomings and humbly asks forgiveness for them. She also humbly asks for
advice and prayers for her conversion. Some features of her temperament and
faults were to accompany her to the end of her life, so as to amaze certain
people who wondered why the Lord had favoured her with such a special love.
Gertrude
was an extraordinary student, she learned everything that can be learned of the
sciences of the trivium and quadrivium, the education of that time; she was
fascinated by knowledge and threw herself into profane studies with zeal and
tenacity, achieving scholastic successes beyond every expectation. If we know
nothing of her origins, she herself tells us about her youthful passions:
literature, music and song and the art of miniature painting captivated her.
She had a strong, determined, ready and impulsive temperament. She often says
that she was negligent; she recognizes her shortcomings and humbly asks
forgiveness for them. She also humbly asks for advice and prayers for her
conversion. Some features of her temperament and faults were to accompany her
to the end of her life, so as to amaze certain people who wondered why the Lord
had favoured her with such a special love.
She had a vision of a young man who,
in order to guide her through the tangle of thorns that surrounded her soul,
took her by the hand. In that hand Gertrude recognized "the precious
traces of the wounds that abrogated all the acts of accusation of our
enemies" (ibid., II, 1, p. 89), and thus recognized the One who saved us
with his Blood on the Cross: Jesus.
From that moment her life of intimate
communion with the Lord was intensified, especially in the most important
liturgical seasons Advent-Christmas, Lent-Easter, the feasts of Our Lady even
when illness prevented her from going to the choir. This was the same
liturgical humus as that of Matilda, her teacher; but Gertrude describes it
with simpler, more linear images, symbols and terms that are more realistic and
her references to the Bible, to the Fathers and to the Benedictine world are
more direct.
Read the whole of the Pope;s October 6, 2010 address on saint Gertrude the Great.
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