  Saint Gertrude the Great Feast Day: November 16 Birth Day: January 6  MY FAVORITE SAINT HER LIFE: BRIEF OVERVIEW SAINT GERTRUDE'S PRAYER TO THE SACRED HEART ST. GERTRUDE ON SILENCE SAINT GERTRUDE'S BOUNDLESS CONFIDENCE HER SPECIAL GRACES PROMISES REGARDING ST. GERTRUDE HERALD OF THE SACRED HEART OUR LADY OF THE SACRED HEART ST. GERTRUDE AND THE HOLY SOULS 1 ST. GERTRUDE AND THE HOLY SOULS 2 SAINT GERTRUDE AND THE VIRTUE OF SILENCE CHAPLET OF SAINT GERTRUDE THE LITANY OF SAINT GERTRUDE VERSION 1 THE LITANY OF ST. GERTRUDE, 1888 VERSION ST. GERTRUDE PRAYERS NOT IN THE PRAYER-BOOK: PRINTABLE PAGE GREETINGS TO THE CHRIST CHILD BY ST. GERTRUDE ACT OF CONTRITION BY ST. GERTRUDE PRINTABLE PRAYER CARD TO PURCHASE THE CARD: JUST SCROLL DOWN A SHORT WAY EFFICACIOUS PRAYER GRAPHIC SALUTATION OF THE WOUNDS OF JESUS PRAYER TO JESUS THE SAINT GERTRUDE MANUAL THE PRAYER-BOOK, THE PRAYERS OF ST. GERTRUDE AND MECHTILDE THE VISION OF A HEAVENLY CROWN: ST. JOSEPH ST. GERTRUDE AND THE EUCHARIST REFERENCE 1 ST. GERTRUDE AND THE EUCHARIST REFERENCE 2 ST. GERTRUDE AND THE EUCHARIST REFERENCE 3 ST. GERTRUDE AND THE EUCHARIST REFERENCE 4 THE REVELATIONS OF SAINT GERTRUDE COMPILED BY THE RELIGIOUS OF HER MONASTERY [EXCERPTS] THREE SPECIAL BOOKS FROM TAN: Precise Page External Link VIEW IMAGES OF CHURCH SIDE ALTARS HONORING THE LIFE OF SAINT GERTRUDE: External Link  My Favorite Saint Our Lady is unique among the Saints because she was not conceived with Original Sin; although churches and institutions named in her honor usually carry the name Saint as part of the title, we generally refer to the Mother of God as Our Lady, Holy Mary, or the Blessed Virgin Mary, and not Saint Mary as such, precisely because she is above all the Angels and Saints. So when I say "my favorite Saint", I am referring to Saints conceived with Original Sin. I have nine favorite Saints, and those who knew my intermediate Catholic past would find the choice of St. Gertrude as my most favorite one of all to be inexplicable. But it wasn't to me because I credit her with being instrumental, along with the late, great Michael Davies and a local diocesan priest, in bringing me back to the fullness of the faith with its rich and imperative treasures and strictures. In fact without my devotion to St. Gertrude, I very much doubt I would be here on the world-wide web or even a believing Catholic. I found her not by coincidence, just it was no coincidence that this priest rescued me and no coincidence that I met Michael Davies, all within a a three-year period which was the sine qua non turning point. There is no such thing as "a coincidence" with God. The same year I discovered St. Gertrude, I met Michael Davies. Before that I had encountered this saving priest. I had to have the counsel of the priest before I was able to get back to any life of devotion. I began with taking up the Rosary once more-----I had never thrown my set of beads away-----then I had to begin to "clean house", that is throw out all my modern books on the Church and devotions as they were mostly heretical and or self-indulgent as only modernistic American works can be. In the process I found one prayer book that still had some traditional prayers, ones I had not really paid much attention to before. I kept that book because it holds my little treasure: the Prayer to the Sacred Heart by St. Gertrude and adopted as his own by St. Alphonsus Liguori, another of my favorite Saints. I might as well name the others since I referred to them already: Ss. Peter, Paul, Joseph, Anthony of Padua, Rita of Cascia, Gerard Majella and Thomas More. I also favor Ven. Pius XII even though he is not officially a Saint per se yet! There are many others, such as Pope St. Pius X, but these remain my favorites. When I found this prayer I began saying it over and over, every day. I then took up the writings of St. Alphonsus because I thought he had written the prayer since his name is associated with it in so many prayer books. But I later learned that it was originally attributed to St. Gertrude the Great. I had heard of her, but knew absolutely nothing about her, nothing! Now I just had to know all I could. I also wanted to know what she looked like. This is still the same year, I had just met Michael Davies and had begun correspondence with him, when a good friend took me as a guest to a Catholic conference. There were vendors from all over selling their Catholic items. I asked each one if they had a picture of St. Gertrude. Only one of them did, but that was the only one that was needed. She had it stored in her basement in California, in a frame and it was available for sale. But she said, "You won't like it." When I asked her why she replied: "It is an old sepia and she has a big nose!" But I was so happy to find an image of this by now tantalizing Saint, I did not care about anything else, only that she had a picture. I purchased it sight unseen and two weeks later I had my other treasure, the sepia image of Saint Gertrude. It could not find her "big nose" all I could find was beauty, the beauty of tradition, in her habit, her demeanor, her eyes. This sepia print in an old frame adorns one of the walls of the room where our son, an FSSP priest, says Holy Mass when he is home for a visit. I would not change a thing about this faded, slightly discolored print for anything, although I sharpened the color, etc., for the purpose of the web because images look different with the light of the monitor than they do in other forms of light. In its original frame it is lovely as is---perfectly fitting as a representation of this great Great Saint, Lily of the Sacred Heart and "daughter" of St. Benedict! Fitting because of its serenity and trustworthiness, its simplicity, like an old friend growing old but more beautiful. Since then I have found other images [probably more useful for the web] but this is my favorite one and I have been saving it for her directory. The old sepia print can be viewed on her biography page attached to this index; there is another bio-skecth, attached to the ST. GERTRUDE MANUAL directory, because that book features it. By this time I had learned about TAN Books and found two indispensable works on St. Gertrude, THE LIFE AND REVELATIONS OF ST. GERTRUDE and SAINT GERTRUDE THE GREAT, HERALD OF DIVINE LOVE, and a few years later, a third, LOVE, PEACE AND JOY: DEVOTION TO THE SACRED HEART OF JESUS ACCORDING TO ST. GERTRUDE. All three are available from TAN, see link above. In the year 2009, a most extraordinary gentleman from Connecticut contacted me about two books by St. Gertrude he had acquired; they are out-of-print and priceless; he hopes to find a willing publisher to bring them back to a world sorely in need of such efficacious works. He graciously leant them to me so that I could publish excerpts for the web. Inside the books were several old holy cards of the Saint, in various condition. I can never thank him enough! Please pray for this wonderful benefactor! His name is Matthew. Until I could talk to St. Gertrude I could not really dare to even look at an image of the Sacred Heart. Now, though I am unworthy [and thus unable], I cannot thank Him enough for this wondrous Saint who "gave me back" the Sacred Heart of Jesus. So like no other Saint she has won my heart because hers is so irretrievably bonded to His, much like Our Lady's although never as sublime nor as perfect, but as close as close can get. Now I have images of Jesus' Sacred Heart all over the house and of course, all over this web site. There is one more aspect and very important: As a child I had often reflected on Purgatory and it was through St. Gertrude, that now I always remember to pray for these Holy Souls in so much need of our charity. Forward for a Brief Overview of the Life of St. Gertrude the Great.  E-MAIL HOME---------------PRAYERS AND DEVOTIONS www.catholictradition.org/Gertrude/saint-gertrude.htm |
