Federationofstgertrude.org
Title
Federation of St. Gertrude
Contact
- Federation of St. Gertrude
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- Ferdinand IN
- United States 47532
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- +1.8123671411
Description
Submitted by Evangela Bossert, OSB, author of Gertrude of Helfta: Companion for the Millennium and member of Monastery of St. Gertrude, Cottonwood, Idaho. Graphic printed with permission of Monastery of St. Gertrude, Cottonwood, Idaho.
Saint Gertrude was born in Germany on the Feast of the Epiphany, January 6, 1256. Beyond this one fact of her birth, we know nothing of the first five years of her life. But in 1261 Abbess Gertrude of Hackeborn, of the Benedictine abbey at Helfta in Saxony, admitted the child as a pupil in their school.
No family name is recorded for Gertrude, and no reason is given for this omission. Some have speculated that she was a child oblate offered to the Church by devout parents. However, in her writings, Gertrude refers to herself as an orphan. She may have been displaced during the political chaos and civil strife of her time. Or she could have been disowned because of some other event or circumstance hidden in the history of the thirteenth century. For whatever reason, Gertrude was placed in the care of Abbess Gertrude. Mechtilde of Hackeborn, younger sister of the abbess, was the teacher when Gertrude joined a small group of children at the abbey school.
