(A.D. 664.)
[Roman Martyrology, and those of Bede, Usuardus, and Ado. German,
Gallican, and Belgian Martyrologies commemorate the elevation of her
relics on Feb. 10th; and the translation on May 30th and April 10th.
Authorities:--A Life, by an eye-witness of her acts, apparently a
canon or chaplain of the monastery. He says, "I have endeavoured in
writing to narrate what I have seen myself or heard from trustworthy
witnesses." Another Life, written in polished style from the testimony
of Rinchin, an acquaintance of S. Gertrude.]
S. Gertrude was the daughter of the B. Pepin of Landen (Feb. 21st) and
S. Itta or Iduberga (May 8th). Her brother, Grimoald, succeeded her
father. Her sister, S. Begga (Dec. 17th), who married duke Ansigis, and
became the mother of Pepin, the father of Charles Martel. S. Aldegund
(Jan. 30th), and S. Waltrudis (April 9th), the wife of S. Vincent (July
14th), were also relatives of hers.
[Illustration: S. GERTRUDE OF NIVELLES. After Cahier.
March 17.]
Dagobert, king of the Franks, who had made Pepin of Landen mayor of
the palace, asked him to allow him to give Gertrude in marriage to a
young Frank nobleman. The father hesitated, knowing that his daughter
desired to lead the religious life, and the king seeing his reluctance
to force his daughter to a match for which she was not inclined,
sent for Gertrude herself, then aged about ten, and endeavoured to
persuade her to accept the hand offered her. But Gertrude resolutely
refused, declaring that she would have no other bridegroom but Jesus
Christ. The king dismissed the child, and she returned to her mother,
who educated her in the love and fear of God. On the death of
Pepin, in 646, Iduberga, following the advice of S. Amandus, bishop of
Maestricht, built the celebrated convent of Nivelles, and retired into
it with her daughter, then aged fourteen. They were soon followed by
a numerous company of maidens, and a community was formed, to which
the blessed Iduberga gave rules. The sisters were called canonesses,
and Iduberga appointed her daughter abbess. Thus the mother obeyed the
child. The holy woman spent twelve years in this peaceful retreat, and
died in the odour of sanctity. After her mother's death, Gertrude made
some alterations in the community. She instituted canons, who should
attend to the temporal affairs of the house, whilst she devoted herself
to the internal government of the sisterhood, and their spiritual
training. For this latter purpose Gertrude devoted herself especially
to the study of Holy Scripture, and nearly learnt the whole by heart.
She also built hospitals for the reception of pilgrims, widows, and
orphans, and entrusted the discipline of them to the canons and
canonesses of her community.
After having spent many years in the practice of every virtue, feeling
a great langour come over her, so that she was unable to discharge
her duties with that activity which had been so conspicuous in her
government of the house, she resigned the office of superior, and
created her niece, S. Wilfetrudis, abbess in her place. Wilfetrudis
was aged twenty; she had been brought up by S. Gertrude, who had made
of her a mirror of perfection. Gertrude now redoubled her austerities,
wore a rough horsehair shirt, and adopted an old veil which a nun who
had lodged in the convent, on her way elsewhere, had left behind her,
deeming it too poor to be worth preserving. Gertrude cast it over her,
and bade the sisters bury her in it when she was dead. When she felt
that her hour was approaching, she sent one of her canons to the
monastery of Fosse, in the diocese of Liége, to ask S. Ultan, brother
of SS. Fursey and Forillan, when she must die. The saint replied to
the messenger, "To-morrow, during the celebration of the holy Mass,
Gertrude, the spouse of Jesus Christ, will depart this life, to
enjoy that which is eternal. Tell her not to fear, for S. Patrick,
accompanied by blessed angels, will receive her soul into glory." And
it was so, that after she had received extreme unction, and the priest
was reciting the prayers before the preface in the holy Sacrifice, on
the morrow, the second Sunday in Lent, she breathed forth her pure soul.
Her relics are preserved to this day at Nivelles, together with
a goblet (Patera Nivigellensis), in which the custom to drink to
the honour of S. Gertrude (Sinte Geerts-Minne). From the saint
having established large hospices for the reception of pilgrims and
travellers, whom she entertained with great liberality, arose the
custom of travellers drinking a stirrup cup to her honour before
starting on their journey. She became the patroness of travellers.
Then, by a curious popular superstition, she was supposed to harbour
souls on their way to paradise. It was said that this was a three
days' journey. The first night they lodged with S. Gertrude, the
second with S. Gabriel, and the third was in Paradise. She, therefore,
became the patroness and protector of departed souls. Next, because
popular Teutonic superstition regarded mice and rats as symbols of
souls, the rat and mouse became characteristics of S. Gertrude, and
she is represented in art accompanied by one of these animals. Then,
by a strange transition, when the significance of the symbol was lost,
she was supposed to be a protectress against rats and mice, and the
water of her well in the crypt at Nivelles was distributed for the
purpose of driving away these vermin. In the chapel of S. Gertrude,
which anciently stood in the enclosure of the castle of Moha, near
Huy, little cakes were distributed, which were supposed to banish
mice. For long the right to distribute these cakes belonged to the
Jesuits; after the suppression of that order, the Augustinians of Huy
usurped the right, but it was resisted by the curé of Moha, who claimed
the privilege as belonging to the parochial clergy. The chapel was
destroyed at the French Revolution, and with it the custom disappeared.
In order to explain the significance of the mouse in pictures of S.
Gertrude, when both of these meanings were abandoned, it was related
that she was wont to become so absorbed in prayer that a mouse would
play about her, and run up her pastoral staff, without attracting her
attention.