CatholicaMGH, Scriptores rerum Merovingicarum II (1888), pp. 447–474 — the Life of St Gertrude of Nivelles, with the posthumous Virtutes and the Carolingian continuation. Contains the Irish pilgrims at Nivelles and Fosses (Foillan, Ultan) and St Patrick’s reception of her soul. Latin text; translated into modern British English.
Editor’s Preface #
In publishing this precious monument of Carolingian history I am carried away with the greatest joy that, following Friedrich, I have been able to recognise in the noble women Itta, Gertrude and Begga — hitherto ascribed by men little versed in these matters to fabulous history — the wife and daughters of Pippin the Elder, the maior-domo.
Gertrude, born in 626 to Pippin her father and Itta her mother, after she had refused the son of a duke of the Austrasians offered her in marriage by King Dagobert, lost her father when she was a girl of fourteen (in 640). Then her mother, on the advice of Bishop Amandus, had the monastery of Nivelles built for herself and her daughter, over which she set Gertrude — tonsured and clothed in the sacred veil — as abbess. There she gave herself wholly to ecclesiastical studies, summoning from Rome and from the lands across the sea (that is, Britain) men learned in the divine law, together with holy books. Her mother died in the twelfth year after Pippin’s death (652), at the age of sixty, and was buried in the monastery of Nivelles in the basilica of St Peter the apostle. Then Gertrude, overburdened with the care of government, committed domestic affairs to the nuns and public affairs to the monks; while she herself so devoted herself day and night to ecclesiastical discipline that she committed almost the whole library of the divine law to memory and plainly expounded the obscure mysteries of allegory to her hearers. Besides this she built churches and other edifices and relieved the necessity of the poor with the greatest liberality. When she perceived that her death was at hand, renouncing all honour, she consulted the monks and nuns and in December 658 appointed as abbess her niece Wulfetrude — the daughter, that is, of the maior-domo Grimoald — whom she herself had instructed in sacred letters according to the rule’s standard. After three months, which she passed in prayer, affliction and abstinence, she sent a monk to the monastery of Fosses to consult a certain pilgrim as to the day she would die. He answered: “Today is the seventeenth before the Kalends of April; tomorrow, between the solemnities of the masses, that handmaid of God and virgin of Christ, Gertrude, is to depart from the body. And tell her not to fear nor tremble at her death, but to go joyfully — since blessed Patrick the bishop, with God’s chosen angels, is prepared to receive her with great glory.” And in truth the next day, the sixteenth before the Kalends of April, which was a Sunday, about the sixth hour, in the thirty-third year of her age, she breathed forth her spirit. Mabillon, following the Fulda codex which read “the fifteenth before the Kalends of April,” believed her to have died on Sunday 18 March 658; less rightly — for the preceding day is handed down by the A manuscripts, and it is confirmed by the fact that Patrick is said to have been prepared to receive Gertrude, his memory being celebrated on 17 March. The same day is given in the Bedan martyrology: “On the sixteenth before the Kalends of April, in Ireland [Scotia], of St Patrick the confessor; on the same day the death of St Gertrude the virgin” — and even in the sincere Usuard. To this it is added that the girl, her father dying in 640 when she was fourteen, passed her thirty-third year in 659 — and that year 17 March was a Sunday. Wulfetrude, who succeeded her in her twentieth year, died in the eleventh year after she took up the government of the abbey — that is, in 669, on 23 November — and was buried in the basilica of St Peter the apostle. The abbess Dominica succeeded her.
While she administered the monastery of Nivelles the Life of Gertrude was composed by a contemporary monk: “According to what we have seen or heard through trustworthy witnesses, with Christ’s help, and at the request of the holy maid Abbess Dominica and the holy congregation of the monastery of Nivelles over which the holy virgin seemed to preside, I shall endeavour in writing to make known to your charity.” The writer often presents himself as an eyewitness. The miracle which he relates in chapter 4 the handmaid of God herself narrated to him. Concerning that which he sent to Britain for the monastery’s benefit — when the ship, the sea swelling and a whale appearing, was in danger — “one of our number who is still alive” thrice invoked Gertrude’s aid: “Certainly what I heard and saw I testify to you; as he repeated the word the third time, the whale sought the abyss” (ch. 5). Lastly, Gertrude being dead, the Life’s writer was summoned together with the brother Rinchinus to console the sisters (ch. 7). What he recorded in chapter 1 about the marriage which the saint refused, he learned “through a just and truthful man who was present.” And so the Life of Gertrude was composed hardly before the year 670 — yet not long after. That it is most ancient is understood even from its language: the Greek-derived word gignarus for gnarus (“learned”), which the writer uses in chapter 2, was hardly understood by anyone after the middle of the eighth century.
In all the A manuscripts the Life is followed by the Virtutes which were wrought after the departure of the blessed Abbess Gertrude. He who added them testifies in the prologue that he “wrote down [or rather, copied] Gertrude’s life and conversation from her earliest youth” — for the Virtutes were composed many years after the Life. While the Life’s author writes things as an eyewitness, the writer of the Virtutes rested on what was borne to him by report: “In the tenth year after her death,” he says, “they assert that a fire broke out in the monastery of Nivelles… To such a degree, as they say, did the flame burst forth” (ch. 3). Passing over Abbess Wulfetrude, he ascribed to Dominica what had been handed down in the Life about her — namely that she was St Gertrude’s niece, “nurtured at her feet” (Virtutes ch. 4 = Life ch. 6). Believing her to have succeeded Gertrude, he narrated her death in these words: “It came to pass that the aforementioned abbess, the niece of blessed Gertrude, who after her had been the governess of the monastery of Nivelles, departed from this light” (ch. 6). After Dominica, at whose instance the Life was written, the abbess Agnes was elected — who likewise had been nurtured by blessed Gertrude. And since the Virtutes’ writer used the words “whose name was Agnes” [past tense], it follows that Agnes too was no longer among the living in his day. It was she who ordered the basilica of St Gertrude to be built. In the thirty-third year after Gertrude’s death her sister Begga came to Nivelles and asked Agnes for relics, holy books and senior nuns for the building of a monastery (ch. 10); and “in the second year, all things being perfected and well disposed, that matron [Begga] departed to the Lord” (ibid.). “Not many days afterwards a certain religious woman named Adula came to the same monastery” and called Gertrude’s miracles into question. When she asked on what day Gertrude’s memory was kept, a certain handmaid of Nivelles answered: “The fifth week in Lent, on the sixth feria” (ch. 11). As to which year is in question, it is already disputed. Since the Sunday letter must have been A, we must choose between the years 691 and 696 — in both of which, by Victurius’s canon, 26 March was Easter and the fifth week of Lent began on 12 March. But neither agrees with Gertrude’s true year of death. Since she died on 17 March 659, the year 693 is required; it is therefore manifest that the writer was mistaken — whether he believed the saint to have died in 657 or postponed her death to 662. And since even the author of the miracles that follow placed Gertrude’s death before 659, the year 691 seems to me to be preferred. The miracle which befell Adula in that year — she refusing to relax her fast when St Gertrude’s solemnity recurred — the Virtutes’ author himself saw: “I call God to witness,” he says, “that I saw with my own eyes and learned through trustworthy witnesses this thing which I have written.” For which reason it is likely that he wrote these things about the year 700. On the contrary Bonnell contends that the Life and Virtutes of St Gertrude, preserved in eighth- and ninth-century codices, were not composed before the eleventh century — an inept argument which Friedrich has already demolished. The Virtutes’ writer used the Rule of St Benedict (cf. Virtutes ch. 2, 9).
The continuation of St Gertrude’s Virtutes, which is extant in the A 3 manuscripts, I judge to have been composed about the year 783. There in chapter 1 is treated the healing of the blind Adalperga at the saint’s sepulchre — which miracle was wrought on the Kalends of September in the eighth year after Egeburc, needing God’s mercy, became by God’s providence governess and spiritual mother of the holy congregation of Nivelles. To this is appended a rude hymn on St Gertrude (ch. 3); the last miracle (ch. 4) is of a crippled girl sent by Queen Hildigard to the monastery of Nivelles “after the blessed virgin Gertrude departed from this world to the Lord — the hundred and twenty-seventh year, the fifteenth year of the reign of the lord Charles, most pious and most Christian king of the Franks.” Since Charles’s fifteenth year began on 24 September 782, and in that same year, namely 783, on 30 April, Hildigard died, the writer believed Gertrude to have died in 656. Since he wrote that the crippled girl was healed the next day — Gertrude having appeared to her on the very vigil of the Theophany, that is on 5 January 783 — it may perhaps be gathered from the certain reckoning of times that he committed these things to writing not long after 783, and indeed in the monastery of Nivelles itself.
Since the Life of Gertrude has often been revised and reduced to compendium, I have prepared only two editions besides the ancient A — B and C — the more recent being of no account whatever.
[The preface continues with a description of the manuscripts:]
A 1) the Montpellier codex II no. 55, eighth century, large format, formerly Bouhier’s B 8, perhaps originating from the monastery of St Stephen at Autun; written by several scribes, it contains besides the lives of Vedastus, Remedius, Paternus and Audoenus that of Gertrude with the Virtutes. As it is the best I have followed it as far as possible, even in orthography, correcting only such errors as narando for narrando and the like. What was written by a second hand — being of no greater authority — I have not noted. F. Braunschweig most generously procured the Montpellier codex for my use.
A 2) the Paris codex Latin 11748, tenth century, fol. 141, containing the Life and Virtutes of Gertrude, differing somewhat in orthography from A 1. Molinier procured the codex for us.
To the interpolated manuscripts A 3 is attached the continuation of the Virtutes to the year 783:
A 3a) the St Gall codex no. 566, p. 342, on parchment, ninth–tenth century, written by several scribes — pp. 291–326 contain the Life and Virtutes of Gertrude, followed in a more recent hand by the Passion of St Gereon. A certain lacuna (Virtutes ch. 1) has been supplied from either A 1 or A 2. The book was kindly transmitted to me at Marburg.
A 3b) the Munich codex Latin 4618 (Benedictine no. 118), eleventh century, fol. 222, octavo, fol. 1b–89, containing the Life and Virtutes of Gertrude, preceded by the Life of St Genevieve and followed by that of Radegund; it also contains book V of Chlodoald.
A 3c) the Munich codex Latin 18854 (Tegernsee no. 854), eleventh century, fol. 179, containing after the Life of Radegund the same contents as A 3b, with which it agrees almost word for word.
B lacks the Virtutes: B 1) Paris Latin 5593, ninth century; B 2) the Brussels codex no. 7882, tenth–eleventh century, collated by Arndt at Brussels in 1868.
Lastly C, the edition in three books, is wholly composed from known sources. The author interpolated an A 3 codex, inserting long contemplations and passages drawn from the Gesta regum Francorum and other lives, such as Foillan’s. Devoted to the monastery of Nivelles, he confesses that he narrates in a more polished style “what was handed down to us in a most true and faithful narrative, though in uncultured speech, by him who saw her life and virtues with his own eyes and was present at her sacred obsequies.” He wrote hardly before the eleventh or twelfth century, “when the kingdom of the Franks had long since failed from the Carolingian family and emperors from other families reigned in Germany and kings in Gaul” (Henschen). Book I has hardly anything to do with St Gertrude but with the deeds of others of her family; of it we have published in the Acta Sanctorum what pertains to Bl. Pippin her father (21 February), and shall publish the Life of Bl. Itta or Iduberga her mother (8 May) and the Acts of St Begga her sister (18 December). Geldolphus à Ryckel’s little history (Louvain 1632) being of no use, I have followed Henschen in neglecting it.
Of earlier editions: Surius published a compendium of the Life and Virtutes with altered style, omitting the last chapter and the Carolingian miracles; since he mentions Ultan he evidently used an A 3 manuscript. Geldolphus à Ryckel (Brussels 1637) published an interpolated text such as exists neither in the codices nor in the other editions, omitting the Carolingian miracles. Henschen in the Acta Sanctorum (March II, 1668) published the Life with the Virtutes from a codex of the monastery of Val-de-Luce (Cistercian, diocese of Sens), transmitted by Pierre-François Chifflet — also of the A 3 class, since it names Ultan; on p. 599 he appended the Carolingian miracles from a codex of Queen Christina. Mabillon (Acta Sanctorum ordinis S. Benedicti, saec. II, Paris 1669) published the Life and Virtutes from the March Bollandist codex and a manuscript of the Feuillants — likewise A 3 text — and the same Carolingian miracles contracted and differently told. Bouquet excerpted chapter 1 and part of chapter 2 from Mabillon’s edition. Ghesquière and Smetius repeated Henschen’s edition word for word, Smetius prefixing a chronological disquisition on the day and year of St Gertrude’s death. Joseph Mege translated the Life into French (Paris 1687).
Marburg, September 1887. — Krusch.
The Life of St Gertrude the Virgin #
Prologue #
By the gift of holy and inseparable charity we believe and hold with inviolate and steadfast faith that, for those who desire to keep the way of the heavenly fatherland and utterly to relinquish earthly gains, it avails greatly for the obtaining of eternal rewards if one study truly to admonish others — by writing or by preaching, however briefly — concerning the life and conversation of the saints and of Christ’s holy virgins, for the edification and profit of our neighbours: that the examples of the saints and holy virgins who have gone before may illumine the darkness of our hearts with the flame of charity and the ardour of holy compunction. Therefore, the Holy Spirit, the maker of all, aiding me, at the request of the holy maid Abbess Dominica and of the holy congregation of the monastery of Nivelles — over which the holy virgin seemed to preside — I shall endeavour in writing to make known to your charity the example and conversation of the most blessed virgin Gertrude, mother of Christ’s family, who lived according to God and the rule’s discipline beneath the vault of heaven — according to what we have seen or heard through trustworthy witnesses. But the order in which she drew her genealogy from earthly origin it would be long to insert into this discourse. For who, dwelling in Europe, knows not the loftiness of this lineage, its names and places?
Chapter One #
So while the holy maid of God Gertrude was in her parents’ house, at the feet of her mother Itta of blessed memory, day and night she grew beyond her coevals in word and wisdom — dear to God, beloved of men. The first beginning of her election into Christ’s service was this, as I learned from a just and truthful man who was present. When Pippin her father had invited King Dagobert to a noble banquet at his house, there came there a pestiferous man, a son of a duke of the Austrasians, who asked of the king and the girl’s parents that the girl herself should be promised him in marriage after the manner of the world, for earthly ambition and mutual friendship. It pleased the king, and he persuaded the girl’s father that she should be summoned into his presence together with her mother. And when they, not knowing for what cause the king called the infant — she being questioned among the feasting by the king whether she would have that youth, wrought in gold and clad in silks, for a bridegroom — she, as though filled with fury, rejected him with an oath and said that she would have neither him nor any earthly bridegroom save Christ the Lord: so that the king himself and his nobles wondered greatly at what had been spoken by the little girl at God’s bidding. And that youth departed confounded, full of wrath. The holy maid turned to her mother; and from that day her parents knew by what a King she had been loved.
Chapter Two #
Fourteen years after her father Pippin had departed from this light, she followed her mother in widowhood and served her in obedience and in God’s commandments soberly and chastely. And while the aforementioned matron Itta daily pondered what she should do concerning herself and her orphan daughter, the man of God Bishop Amandus, coming to their house and preaching God’s word, begged by the Lord’s command that she should build a monastery for herself and her daughter Gertrude, God’s handmaid and Christ’s household. As soon as she understood the import of the unknown thing pertaining to the salvation of souls, she received the sacred veil and delivered herself to God and all that she had. But at the instigation of the enemy of the human race — who from the beginning is envious of good works — the hearts of the wicked were hardened in resistance, so that from those who ought to have helped her in doing God’s will she sustained no small temptation. What injuries and ignominies and penuries the aforementioned handmaid of Christ with her daughter suffered for Christ’s name it would be long to write, if told in each particular; but only this — how great devotion and desire of the divine they had in themselves. That the violators of souls might not carry off her daughter by force to the enticements of this world’s pleasures, she seized the shearer’s iron and cut off the holy girl’s hair in the likeness of a crown. And the holy handmaid of Christ Gertrude, giving thanks to God, rejoiced that she had been found worthy in this brief life to receive for Christ a crown on her head — that there she might be worthy to have a perpetual crown in the integrity of body and soul. Then merciful God, the helper in tribulations, recalled those very adversaries to the concord of peace. The strifes ceased; the devil’s part was vanquished. The matron Itta delivered her daughter Gertrude, God’s elect, to the priests of the Lord to receive the sacred veil, and established her — Christ ordaining — to preside with her companions over the holy flock of nuns: for she had outstripped the continence of manners, sobriety of mind and moderation of words of a riper age. She was moreover endowed with charity, fair of face but fairer of mind, whole in chastity, lavish in alms, given to fasting and prayer, provident for the care of the poor and pilgrims, kindly to the sick and aged — and to the young she showed herself a strict discipline. Toward the vessels of ecclesiastical study she kept a most diligent pastoral care; and by her messengers, men of good testimony, she was found worthy — God inspiring — to obtain the patronage of saints and holy books from the city of Rome and learned men (gignaros) from the lands across the sea to teach the songs of the divine law for herself and her own to meditate.
Chapter Three #
All these things therefore being disposed according to the divine order, full of days and of a ripe age, leaving an example of good work to posterity — seeing offspring, and grandchildren by them — Itta of blessed memory, in the sixtieth year or thereabouts of her age, in the twelfth year after the death of her most renowned lord Pippin, commending her spirit to God and the angels, departed to the Lord; and in the monastery of Nivelles, beneath the roof of blessed Peter the apostle, she was honourably committed to burial. When therefore the blessed handmaid of God Gertrude, her mother being dead, had taken upon herself alone the whole burden of government, she pondered within herself upon the heavenly contemplation which she had desired to have without the din of seculars. To good and faithful stewards chosen from the brethren without, and within the walls of the monastery to the spiritual sisters, she commended the domestic care — that day and night she might be able to contend in the holy warfare of vigils, prayers, sacred readings and fastings against spiritual wickedness. And the issue of the matter so came to pass that she committed to memory almost the whole library of the divine law, and plainly opened to her hearers the obscure mysteries of allegory, the Holy Spirit revealing them. Likewise she built from their foundations churches of the saints and other principal edifices; and to orphans, widows, captives and pilgrims she ministered daily sustenance with all liberality.
Chapter Four #
Nor must it be passed over, as I think, what God’s handmaid herself, as though stricken with fear, narrated to us. When she stood at the altar of St Sixtus the martyr for prayer’s sake, she saw descending upon her a sphere of flame, shining through, so that the whole basilica was illumined with its brightness — as it were for half an hour — and little by little it withdrew from which it had come; and afterwards it appeared again in the same manner over the other sisters themselves. What did the manifestation of that light declare save the visitation of the true Light, which enlightens every saint praying for himself and for all?
Chapter Five #
On a certain day moreover, we being in peril on the sea, the commemoration of the same Gertrude of blessed memory came opportunely to our aid. For while we were sailing on the deep for the monastery’s benefit in tranquillity, there appeared far away away as it were a ship of wondrous size coming from the side. And when it drew near, a great tempest was raised and the sea swelled with huge billows. And see! a great and terrible beast — as it were a sling-cast — appeared to us from the deep; we saw not the whole but part of its back. And the sailors, trembling and hoping nothing for life, made vows to their idols; we, invoking the Lord’s name, awaited that last hour. And one of our number who still lives cried out and said thrice: “Gertrude, help us, as you did promise!” Truly what I heard and saw I testify to you: as he repeated that word the third time, the whale sought the abyss; and we with joy and tranquillity that same night gained the harbour. Thus through the prayer of His handmaid Christ deigned to free His poor ones from death.
Chapter Six #
Now after some years, by reason of excessive abstinence and the keeping of vigils, her little body began to be grievously wearied with great sickness; and she knew by divine revelation that her passage from this light drew near. By the counsel of God’s servants and handmaids she utterly relinquished for Christ’s love all honour and the name and care of honour which she exercised corporally over the flock — the spiritual things alone excepted; and she appointed her niece, nurtured and instructed at her feet from the cradle in sacred letters under the standard of the holy rule, Wulfetrude by name, to rule God’s flock in her stead and to minister to the poor. Then that same consecrated maid Wulfetrude was in the twentieth year of her age; she too was born of the renowned ancient stock of the Franks. She was moreover serene of countenance, dear to the household, gentle to her subjects, stern to the proud, lavish to the poor, dutiful to her parents, bland of speech; and she remained pure in charity toward God and neighbour and in continence. But it happened, from the hatred against her father, that kings, queens and even priests, through the devil’s envy, wished first by persuasion and afterwards by force to drag her from her place and iniquitously to possess God’s goods over which the blessed maid presided. But protected by the Lord’s mercy and the saints’ prayers, Christ — to whom she had devoted herself as a handmaid — in wondrous wise resisted all her adversaries; and God so conferred His grace upon her that those who before had been spoilers and accusers through greed, afterwards became defenders by their largess and benefits. All things being well disposed and Christ’s churches restored, in the eleventh year after she had undertaken to rule the flock committed to her, for more than fifty days she lay sick of a wasting disease; and in her wonted manner distributing lavish alms through the poor and needy, remitting to all according to the gospel their debts, receiving from all peace and blessing — hoping trustfully in Christ with faith and hope among the spiritual handmaids of God — she yielded up her spirit in the thirtieth year of her age, on the ninth before the Kalends of December [23 November], and in the bosom of the basilica of blessed Peter the apostle is covered with a marble tomb of utmost diligence; there she awaits the day of the resurrection of all the saints.
Chapter Seven #
But from which we have digressed, let us return to it. The blessed handmaid of God Gertrude, then, after she had released the bond of office from her conscience, for about three months’ space ceased not to pray unceasingly, to exhort herself and her own, and to preach the word of the Lord: rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation, devoted in mind, serene of countenance, longing for the last day of her passage to be at hand. From the prison to the kingdom, from darkness to light, from death she hastened to life; and though she was here in body only, daily in mind she passed to things eternal by the virtue of continual prayer, of affliction and singular abstinence. She even put on secretly a harsh garment of haircloth upon her little body, lest she should have any sweetness of refreshment in this life — save where the saints shall shine as the sun in their Father’s kingdom. And when the last day came, she decreed that into the place of her burial they should put no covering of wool or linen upon her, save one very mean veil which a certain pilgrim nun had many days before sent her for a blessing, to cover her head — and that same haircloth: in the sepulchre where she rests in peace she would be covered with no other veil except those two — the haircloth wherewith she had been clothed and the old cloth wherewith the haircloth itself was covered. She said moreover that superfluous things could avail nothing to the dying or the living — which the wise testify to be true. Then when the day of her soul’s assumption drew near, she called one of the brethren and commanded him, saying: “Go in haste to that pilgrim — who is named Ultan — who dwells apart in the monastery which is called Fosses, and say to him: ‘The virgin of Christ Gertrude has sent me to you, to ask you on what day she is to depart from this light — for she says she greatly fears, and likewise rejoices.’ And he will tell you what you must report back. Go, and doubt not.” The command being fulfilled and what had been enjoined him reported, that servant of God without delay gave answer to the messenger himself and said: “Today is the seventeenth before the Kalends of April; tomorrow, between the solemnities of the masses, that handmaid of God and virgin of Christ, Gertrude, is to depart from the body. And tell her not to fear nor tremble at her death, but to go joyfully — since blessed Patrick the bishop, with God’s chosen angels and with great glory, is prepared to receive her. And go you also quickly.” And the brother who had been sent asked him whether he had seen this by divine revelation, that he might declare it to him in order. He answered: “Go you also, brother, and hasten. you shall know this — tomorrow. Why do you question me further?” He, returning, announced to Christ’s handmaid what had been said to him. And she, as though waking from sleep, showed a countenance glad with joy, giving thanks to God that He had deigned to console His handmaid through His servant. And so she remained joyful in the promise, and passed the whole night with the sisters in psalms and hymns and prayers. And the next day, the Lord’s day, about the sixth hour — according to the man of God’s word — she received the most sacred viaticum of Christ’s body and blood. And when the priest had ended the Lord’s secret prayer, in the thirty-third year of her age, on the sixteenth before the Kalends of April, giving thanks to her Creator who had deigned to call her without corruption to His kingdom — having said these things she yielded up her spirit longed for by God. While I and another brother, Rinchinus by name, were there summoned for the sisters’ consolation, that servant of God Rinchinus called me by name and said: “do you perceive anything?” And I answered: “Nothing — save that I see the sisters in great grief.” When I had said this there came a most sweet odour, as it were a mingled fragrance of unguents, and that little cell where the holy body lay was made fragrant. And we going from there still perceived in our nostrils the sweetness of that wondrous odour. And when all things that are done about a most blessed body had been performed and the offices completed, in her own tomb which she had long prepared for herself, with divine praises, by the priests and handmaids of God the body of the most blessed virgin of Christ Gertrude is honourably committed to burial — where daily the benefits of prayers are bestowed.
Here ends the Life.
Of the Miracles Wrought after the Departure of the Blessed Abbess Gertrude #
Chapter One #
When we see many men in this world leading the angelic life — from where can this be, save that although living here corporally among men, so long as they subsist in the body, yet their mind and conscience is established in eternity and their heart unceasingly occupied in the contemplation of the Godhead? So also this handmaid of Christ Gertrude, whose life and conversation from her earliest youth we have written down — although she was here corporally conversant among mortals and was the governess of the servants and handmaids of Christ who lived under her sway — yet never surrendered to oblivion the interior and perpetual life, nor lost her state of rectitude nor the gravity of her manners nor the rigour of her discipline. For which reason it is manifest that she merited before the almighty Lord that after her death no small miracles should be wrought through her — that all who knew her life and bodily abstinence might now also know how much she avails with God in prayers: since we would recall and bring to mind some of the miracles which the Lord, where the faith of petitioners requires, has deigned to show at her sepulchre.
Chapter Two — Of the abbess Modesta #
There was a certain abbess in the monastery of Trier whose name was Modesta; and she likewise had been consecrated to God from her infancy and seemed bound to St Gertrude in divine friendship. Although they were set far off and far disjoined from one another corporally, with many miles and tracts of land lying between, so that they could not see each other with their eyes — yet in mind and in the heart’s love they were ever present one to another, since they bore an equal warfare of service and served the Lord equally in sincerity of heart without guile. Now after a long space of time it befell — what I would recall to your memory by narrating — that on a certain day, when the aforementioned handmaid of God Modesta, being in her monastery, had entered her church for prayer’s sake and prostrated herself before the altar of blessed Mary ever virgin: when she had risen from her finished prayer and looked about her on every side, suddenly she saw and saw at the right side of the altar St Gertrude standing in the same habit and in the same form in which she herself had been fashioned. And she said to her: “Sister Modesta, hold this vision certain, and know without any doubting that today at this same hour I am released from the dwelling of this flesh. I am Gertrude, whom you did much love.” And with these words she was taken away from the eyes of her who saw. Then she pondered silently within herself what so great a vision should mean; and on that same day she told the vision to no one in any word. But when the next day came, the bishop of the city of Metz, Chlodulf by name, came to the monastery of the aforementioned handmaid of God Modesta. Then she among other converse asked the bishop concerning St Gertrude — in what habit or order or form she had been. And he at once described in order the stature of her body and the beauty of her form. Then blessed Modesta understood from the signs which she had heard from the bishop that what she had before seen was true, and said to him: “This I now confess to you, which before I hid — that it was revealed to me yesterday about the sixth hour, that she departed this light on that same day and at that same hour.” And afterwards she disclosed the whole matter in order to the bishop. And the aforementioned Bishop Chlodulf, recording that same day and hour, found that the order of the matter had so come to pass as the aforementioned abbess had first declared.
Chapter Three — Of the fire at Nivelles #
Now in the tenth year after the saint’s death they assert that a fire broke out in the monastery of Nivelles, over which St Gertrude had presided while yet living in the body. The flame, they say, burst forth so vehemently that none of the monks or virgins or of the men who ran together there had any hope of saving the monastery from the burning. And the handmaids of God who were there gathered fled outside the monastery wall to neighbouring places. Then a certain man to whom the care of governing the monastery had been committed, suddenly lifting up his eyes, saw St Gertrude standing on the summit of the refectory in that same form and habit in which she had been — and with the very veil wherewith she was covered she kept beating back the flame from the house. And that man, not terrified by so great a vision but filled with great joy, exhorted his companions to act with constancy. And he himself, ascending above with swift course to see the issue of the matter — then wondrously, all of a sudden, they saw the monastery freed from the burning in that same hour.
Chapter Four — Of her little bed #
At another time also certain of the sisters were admonished by a vision that the little bed in which St Gertrude after the labour of vigils and prayers used to rest her wearied limbs awhile, no man should henceforth dare to lie in. Then the aforementioned handmaid of God, the abbess Dominica — St Gertrude’s niece, who had been nurtured at her feet — was filled with joy that the Lord had deigned to manifest her by so great miracles of signs. And the whole congregation being convoked, they took up that little bed and bore it with great honour and God’s praises and laid it in the basilica of St Paul the apostle — where the Lord has now deigned to show many signs and miracles.
Chapter Five — Of the blind girl healed #
There was a certain girl in that same region whom a most grave sickness had depressed, and no physician could heal her through many years; and at the last she lost the light of her eyes and was made blind. Then the girl’s parents took her and brought her with them to the monastery of Nivelles, that at least there they might find some physicians who could cure her. Then in that same night St Gertrude appeared to her in a vision and said to her: “Maid, doubt not, but believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and go to the bed which is set in the church of blessed Paul the apostle, where Gertrude used to rest. There you shall receive healing of all the tribulation you suffer in your body.” Now the girl, because of the grievousness of her infirmity, could not arrive there before the third day. And when the whole congregation was standing at the third hour for the divine work — and the work of God being completed, the girl who had been infirm coming upon them — the sisters took her and led her to the little bed where she had been bidden to go. And when she had prostrated herself to the Lord in prayer and bent over the little bed, at once her eyes were opened and her whole body, which had before been wounded, was so suddenly healed as if it had never had any wound. And she gave thanks to the Lord and, filled with great joy and exultation, returned to her parents.
Chapter Six — Of Abbess Agnes and the lamps #
These things being so done, it happened that the aforementioned abbess, the niece of blessed Gertrude, who after her had been governess of the monastery of Nivelles, departed from this light. Then the whole household with one accord elected for themselves one girl, born of a noble stock, to be abbess — whose name was Agnes, who likewise had been nurtured by blessed Gertrude. She afterwards built the church in honour of the virgin of Christ, St Gertrude. And on the same day that the church had been built and the bed had been borne there with honour, on that same night all the sisters kept vigils in that same church with the reverence of solemnity. And the morning office and work of God being finished and the lamps extinguished which used always to burn in that oratory — when morning had come and those same sisters had entered that church for prayer, they saw all the lamps burning which they had left extinguished. From where it happened that this miracle was divulged through all that region; and the fame of her virtues went forth, so that all who were far or near, coming there to the blessed virgin’s sepulchre, sought the remedy of souls and bodies together — and with God’s help all who there sought aid for the love of the Godhead returned from there whole and unharmed.
Chapter Seven — Of the woman healed by the lamp #
There was moreover a certain man in these neighbouring parts whose wife was made blind; and her husband took her and brought her where the holy virgin rested, to the aforementioned monastery of Nivelles. And when they had entered the church and she had stood beneath a certain lamp, suddenly that lamp poured forth its oil — under which she stood — and it was poured upon the cloak wherewith she was clad. And all who were present and saw this miracle took of that dripping and anointed her eyes; and at once the eyes of the woman who had before been blind were enlightened. And the next day, strengthened in faith and hope and in the virtues of the holy virgin Gertrude, she returned whole to her own house. For it would be long enough to run through in order all that God wrought through her for all who fled to her and asked the cause of salvation from her — since with the Lord’s help all returned from there unharmed: invoking her name with faith, from whatever tribulation they had been oppressed, at once an angel of the Lord was present to them as a helper.
Chapter Eight — Of the captive boy #
At another time also, when robbers seized a certain boy and bound him — and when he had been long held in bonds, wishing to sell him into captivity outside the country — then suddenly the boy, remembering with trust the name of St Gertrude, besought her to grant him aid; and at once the bonds wherewith he had been bound fell from his hands, and he began to run to free himself. And those men who had held him bound began likewise to run after him to seize him — and could not. And so the boy was freed from the hand of the robbers and of his enemies.
Chapter Nine — Of the prisoner freed #
Again moreover at another time afterwards, when a certain man was found guilty of great crimes so that his lord bade him be held and bound in fetters — then that unhappy man, set in anguish and stricken with exceeding terror because all who stood by hoped nothing of his life’s continuance — he himself who was bound was comforted in hope and besought himself to the saint, that she would aid his misery. And at once in that very time the irons wherewith he was bound were broken; and he himself carried them with him to the monastery of Nivelles and found all the gates and doors of the churches open, and came even to that holy bed — and there he was freed through the holy virgin’s power.
Chapter Ten — Of Begga and the foundation of Andenne #
Now in the thirty-third year after the death of blessed Gertrude, the Lord inspiring, it came into the heart of her own sister named Begga that she wished herself to build a monastery. And afterwards she came in such devotion to the aforementioned monastery of Nivelles, asking the aforementioned abbess Agnes and likewise the whole congregation that they would give her some help for the spiritual cause — from which she had the greatest need for the beginning of her devotion. And all that congregation received with the most loving mind the petition which she had asked, and gave her relics and books of the holy scriptures. Likewise they gave her senior spiritual sisters in the holy habit who could teach that monastery the discipline of the regular life and the beginning of the religious standard. And of that bed they gave her part — in which St Gertrude, her own sister, departed to Christ. Then the most Christian matron, having received all these things which pertained to religion’s reverence, with honour and reverence bore all these with her to her monastery, filled with joy and great exultation. And when they drew near to the monastery where they were bound, they raised the crosses with canticles and sang praises to the Lord; they bore the relics and the holy bed which they had brought with them, and set it beside the altar of St Genevieve the virgin. And who of men could declare in words how many there daily were cleansed from the demon, how many sick healed and freed from whatever tribulation? And in the second year, all things being perfected and well disposed, that matron departed to the Lord.
Chapter Eleven — Of Adula and the drowned boy #
Not many days afterwards there came to the same monastery a certain religious woman, born of a noble stock, whose name was Adula — truly a handmaid of Christ in all things: chaste in habit, religious in humility, in charity unfeigned, in alms lavish to the aged and the poor, hospitable to the needy and to pilgrims. Yet she had a doubt whether the Lord deigned to show so great signs and miracles through the merit of blessed Gertrude or not. From where it happened that a contention arose therefrom — as it were in jest — between the aforementioned matron and one handmaid of God there in the monastery. And on a certain day the matron asked her, saying: “On what day is this feast of St Gertrude?” And she answering said: “The fifth week in Lent, on the sixth feria.” And she said: “Far be it from me that on this solemnity I should wish to add anything beyond the wonted task of our service in the refection.” And the girl answering said: “But if she can obtain anything with God, let her bring it about that on that same day, willing or unwilling, you shall make the feast.” And when that day drew near, then all who had come together there for that solemnity — men and women, monks and virgins of Christ — celebrated that day with honour and reverence. And after the solemnity of the masses was completed, they took food and drink with thanksgiving, rejoicing in all the foods which it was lawful to eat in the Lenten season; but the matron alone ate not that day. Now she had a little son whom she dearly loved. And the child, coming in, asked of her that he might be allowed to play. And she said to him: “Do what you will.” And the child played and ran here and there. It befell by sudden chance that he fell into the spring which was there; and there he lay so long until the sisters rose from table filled with joy, glad and well refreshed. And one of the sisters came in and said: “Know you that this matron’s son is dead.” They asked her who had slain him. And she answering: “He fell into the spring and there was drowned.” Then that nun who had before contended with the matron concerning St Gertrude’s virtues cried out with a loud voice and said: “Holy Gertrude, you have done this — since this child’s mother would not believe the virtues which the Lord has wrought through you.” And again she said: “I beseech your holiness, holy Gertrude, virgin of Christ, and I adjure you by our Lord Jesus Christ, that as you can obtain with the Lord, so you would deign to raise up this boy.” And she began to go in haste to seek the child. And as she went, his mother met her and said: “What do you, sister?” And she answering, a third time with an oath, said: “What I do, do you likewise. In truth believe — for in this same hour St Gertrude will restore your son to you alive.” And she took the child and laid him beside blessed Gertrude’s bed. And immediately — wondrous to tell — the child who had before been dead suddenly rose up before their eyes. And from that day the aforementioned matron began to believe St Gertrude’s virtues. And in that same hour, convoking all her household, she afterwards fulfilled what she had before denied concerning the feast; and the next day she celebrated mass in honour of the virgin of Christ Gertrude and had refection with all the sisters. And the child ministered to them without any hurt and with his own hands offered drink to each in turn. And so the aforementioned matron most beautifully adorned that holy bed, surrounding it on every side with gold and precious gems. And lest this should perchance seem incredible to any, I call God to witness that I saw with my own eyes and learned through trustworthy witnesses this thing which I have written. Now let this be enough said of her virtues and miracles — yet we could not recount in order all that the Lord daily deigns to work in her name. Therefore now let us beseech the Lord that through her prayers He may deign to help us — whose is the honour, the power, the dominion and the glory for ever and ever. Amen.
Continuation of the Miracles of St Gertrude #
Chapter One — Of Adalperga the blind #
As we also know, Christ has deigned to enlighten many spiritual lamps in this world for the instruction of those who believe what the Holy Spirit foretold through the mouth of David, saying: Wonderful is God in His saints; the God of Israel Himself shall give virtue and strength to His people: blessed be God — since for worthy works a reward without end remains with Christ. Therefore for the increase of your good faith we endeavour to write for your charity what almighty God deigned to show through the merits of His virgin Gertrude upon a woman named Adalperga of the district of Vimeu, in those maritime parts where St Walaric rests in the body: there that girl was born blind. In the twenty-second year of her age there appeared to that same girl a certain holy nun of God, a virgin clad in a white cloak, who admonished her through three hours, saying: “Hasten to the sepulchre of St Gertrude the virgin of Christ, and she will help you.” After this vision the blind woman, rising, told these things in order to her mother. But her mother denied it, saying: “I do not believe you are of such merit that the virgin of God Gertrude should have spoken to you in a vision.” And she, the blind one, returned sorrowful and came to a certain priest and told him all the vision. And he answering said to her: “Doubt not, daughter, but hasten into the district of Brabant to the monastery of Nivelles; there blessed Gertrude rests in the body.” And she, the blind one, encouraged by his words, journeyed one month until she came to the monastery. And in that same night the same consecrated virgin of God appeared to her and said to her: “Blind girl, hasten — delay not to come to the sepulchre of the virgin of Christ Gertrude.” And she arose, hastening as much as she could, and sped to the monastery of Nivelles where blessed Gertrude rests, honourably buried beneath the roof of St Peter the apostle. And there prostrating herself at St Gertrude’s sepulchre, seething with great labour so that with her own hands she tore the hair of her head, showing a great groaning in her heart — many of blessed Gertrude’s congregation standing by there, who were witnesses of this matter — at the first cock-crow that blind woman was enlightened; and the holy nuns who stood there saw it with their own eyes. And as tears are accustomed to burst from the eyes, so blood first issued, and afterwards she began to see clearer and clearer. Thus almighty God deigned to show His loving-kindness through His handmaid’s merits. This was done on the Kalends of September [1 September] in the eighth year after Egeburc — needing God’s mercy — became by God’s providence governess and spiritual mother of the holy congregation of Nivelles.
Chapter Two — Of the oil and the candles #
It would be long to write how daily many, coming there and loosed from their bonds to the praise of Christ’s name, return free and joyful. Therefore from every side the poor and pilgrims run together in troops, praying for healing with devout mind. Nor is there delay: wondrously Christ the maker shows there many miracles of His majesty. From the very marble wherewith the sacred body is covered, through Christ’s grace — to declare His virgin’s merits — most limpid oil runs abundantly; by the anointing of this liquor many blind and infirm receive healing; and moreover heavenly candles are continually seen to be lighted round about the sepulchre where the holy body rests. But this is no wonder — that Christ adorned her with such a token, since she lived watchfully in Christ’s offices.
Chapter Three — A hymn on her death #
Her soul closed its last day; by God’s gift she sought heaven’s brightness with glory, and about to enjoy the rewards of eternal light, she beholds Christ joyfully face to face. A prudent mother, in her life she happily bore rule. Having care of the wretched, in all things she followed the way of truth. The Lord of all loved her. She was made a teacher of God’s discipline, and the Lord became a lover of her beauty. She shone with fair countenance, chaste and sober in all her body. Learned in the words of the divine law, she shone bright with signal merits; with peace she presided over the holy congregation of Nivelles. Leaving earthly things she passed to the heavenly; joined to the company of the saints, now she rejoices with Christ in the heavenly hall — about to enjoy the lot of all good things, blessed, bright among the rest, burning with God’s grace, the holy virgin of God, Gertrude. She was a venerable and chaste mother; mighty in virginity, knowing no evil, she lived well joined among Christ’s white sheep. She received from Christ the eternal crown and reigns sublime with the loving Father in the citadel. Soon she sought the heavenly things, compassed with the angelic company, consort in the bridal chambers where she enjoys the hundredfold of the eternals in the citadel of light — perpetual life, she who followed the commands of the evangelical word. In the heights of heaven to dwell for ever on Your treasures — she sold all she had and scattered it to the poor. Now joyful she beholds Christ, for whom she left all — a virgin steadfast in mind, joyful in countenance and tongue, born of an illustrious father, renowned of royal lineage. The bridegroom Christ was present; she rendered up her soul joyful, inviolate and chaste. Leaving glory on earth she receives glad gifts in the heavens — whom none separates from the Lamb’s company. On the high throne we believe she sees the heavenly King’s Mother with joy. About to please the bridegroom Christ, joined in triumph with the number of the saints, she is borne in angelic arms. Desiring to be dissolved from the body and to live with God, contemplating the heavenly things, not courting the earthly — the rejoicing soul is led through to Christ, leaving good examples to the flock of the heavenly teachings. At the bridegroom’s coming she prepared her splendid lamp. Without end she adores the King of heaven on His throne. Gertrude lives happy, blessed for ever. Amen.
Chapter Four — Of the crippled girl sent by Queen Hildigard #
But neither is this to be wrapped in silence — what was done to the praise of Christ’s name. After the blessed virgin Gertrude departed from this world to the Lord — in the hundred and twenty-seventh year, in the fifteenth year of the reign of the lord Charles, most pious and most Christian king of the Franks [783] — there was a certain little girl in the land of Riguennes crippled and contracted in the knees. From her earliest age she could not walk nor receive the medicine of health. And it happened that the little one was brought before Queen Hildigard to receive alms; and after the alms was received the queen commanded her to be brought into the palace and there sufficiently comforted from her own almsgiving. And after some time it came into the lady queen’s thought to send that little one to the monastery of Nivelles in honour of St Gertrude the virgin — that by her alms and blessed Gertrude’s mercy she should live with those handmaids of God who seemed to stand in the order and conversation of Christ’s service. And on a certain night, on the very vigil of the Theophany, that crippled little girl lay on her bed while the sisters at the canonical hour rendered the office in the church of blessed Mary the virgin. And blessed Gertrude came into that same chamber where the crippled girl lay, holding a white and shining candle in her hand. And blessed Gertrude said to her: “Why do you not sleep, girl?” Who answering said: “Lady, I cannot.” And the blessed virgin, smiling, said to her: “Speak to the sisters and tell them how you have spoken with me. And if they will not believe you — tomorrow before the third hour I shall show you such a sign that the sisters may truly believe, daughter, that you have spoken with me; and do you hold this vision certain. I am Gertrude; you have spoken with me.” And saying this she departed from her with great brightness by the same way she had come. And the next day that girl arose and was carried into the dwelling of the house where the virgin of Christ Gertrude — nurtured spiritually at the feet of blessed Iduberga or Itta her mother — grew up, living happily in holy example in her youth. And when they had washed that little girl and clothed her with garments, the innocent little one suddenly looked back and saw St Gertrude standing before her holding a white candle in her hand; and at once the bonds upon her crippled and contracted knees were loosed. And when that crippled girl suddenly raised herself up, blessed Gertrude withdrew beneath that same roof of blessed Mary ever virgin into the portico which is dedicated in honour of the virgin St Agatha, Christ’s martyr. In that same holy house she passed from this world among the choirs of angels to the heavenly kingdoms. And at once, after the converse of St Gertrude and the sight of her form, that crippled girl’s legs began to be made firmer and firmer. And standing erect in that place, smiling she said: “I see you, lady; I see you.” There was in that congregation a certain pilgrim who had been appointed by the sisters to minister to that girl and to teach her letters; who, stricken with great terror, said: “Daughter, what did you see?” And she said: “My lady Gertrude standing before me and holding a white candle in her hand.” And that pilgrim, hearing this and greatly afeared, taking her by the hand led her into the church of blessed Mary the virgin and set her before the seat where holy Gertrude used to sit when the sisters rendered the office to God at the canonical hour. Then for the third time that little girl saw St Gertrude; and at once this was made known in all the congregation of the handmaids of God serving and abiding there. And they made a great assembly in the church of the blessed mother of God Mary and found that girl standing upon her feet and erect — she who before, prostrate upon her knees, dragged herself upon the ground. Then that congregation, prostrate on the earth, praised the Lord’s name for joy — for tears abundantly burst from their eyes. And they took up that little girl and led her with reverence into the church of blessed Peter the apostle to the sepulchre of blessed Gertrude the virgin of Christ. They praised together and glorified the Lord, who deigned through His handmaid Gertrude to give that poor little girl the heavenly medicine. Then all the household — priests with the clergy, and the housefolk of the neighbouring places who had heard this — ran together with joy before the monastery gates. And they made a memorial there with great festivity in the priestly ministry; and glorifying with every spiritual office in the holy virgin’s miracle, they praised and glorified the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit — whose is the glory and the power and the dominion, the praise and the jubilation without end, for ever and ever. Amen.
Here ends the Life of St Gertrude the Virgin.