04 Works, Today, March 17th, is St. Gertrude of Nivelles' Day, With Footnotes - #75

Flemish painter

Saint Gertrude of Nivelles, circa 1530

Oil on canvas

Fondazione Palazzo Coronini Cronberg, Gorizia

Gertrude of Nivelles, Virgin, and Abbess of the Benedictine monastery of Nivelles; born in 626; died 17 March, 659. She was born into a well-connected noble family. But she didn’t stick to the script that most noble women were made to follow in her era. One day, when she was about ten years of old, her father invited King Dagobert and some noblemen to a banquet. When on this occasion she was asked to marry the son of the Duke of Austrasia she indignantly replied that she would marry neither him nor any other man, but that Christ alone would be her bridegroom. 

After the death of her father in 639, her mother Itta, following the advice of St. Amandus, Bishop of Maestricht, erected a double monastery, one for men, the other for women, at Nivelles (south of present-day Brussels), where she became an abbess. She became known for her devotion to scholarly and charitable works, and for taking care of orphans, widows, and pilgrims. She was also visited by spiritual visions and said to know most of the Bible by heart. 

Kruisheren church

Detail of a 15th-century wall painting with scenes from the life and legend of Saint Gertrude of Nivelles in a chapel of the south aisle in Kruisherenkerk, Maastricht, the Netherlands. This fragment depicts Saint Getrude quenching a fire. 

Because of her reputation for hospitality, Gertrude was originally the patron saint of travelers and the recently dead, as well as gardeners and the mentally ill. 

There is a legend that one day she sent some of her subjects to a distant country, promising that no misfortune would befall them on the journey. When they were on the ocean, a large sea-monster threatened to capsize their ship, but disappeared upon the invocation of St. Gertrude. 

Saint Gertrude of Nivelles

Street lamp console at Oudegracht 321, Utrecht, NL.

Gertrude was also known to pray for the souls of those in purgatory, and medieval artists often portrayed those souls as mice. Gertrude’s iconography always included mice or rats at her feet, climbing up her robes, or climbing the crozier that symbolized her role as an abbess.

Saint Gertrude of Nivelles

In the past few decades, faithful Catholics (and cat lovers) have made the leap from associating Gertrude with warding of mice to associating her with cats. The Vatican can make a saint’s patronage official, it has never done so with Saint Gertrude and cats. 

Her ascetic lifestyle, which included long periods without food or sleep, took a toll on her health, and she resigned as abbess in 656 at the age of 30. She died three years later, and St. Patrick himself is said to have watched over her on her deathbed. More on Gertrude of Nivelles

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