Return to the index of "Other Women's Voices."
Updated 07-22-08
Gertrud of Helfta
/Gertrude the Great (c.1256-1302)
=========================================================================
"I HAVE NEVER FOUND A HUMAN FRIEND TO WHOM I WOULD DARE
TELL ALL I KNOW; THE HUMAN HEART IS TOO SMALL TO BEAR IT."
=========================================================================
Nothing is known about Gertrud's family nor where she was born; the fact that there is no reference to her family in the monastic archives is unusual. When she was about 5 years old, she became a student at the Benedictine monastery at Helfta, near Eisleben (southwest of Magdeburg, Germany). Helfta has been called a Cistercian monastery; it was never officially affiliated with that order, but it followed Cistercian customs, and its spirituality was formed in large part by the writings of Bernard of Clairvaux.
When she was a teen, Gertrud became a nun, but continued her liberal studies in Latin and rhetoric. In 1281, in her mid-20s, she had a spiritual experience that made her move from secular studies to the study of the Bible and other religious works. For the nuns at Helfta (and perhaps for students there), she wrote simplified versions of difficult scriptural passages and compiled books of the sayings of the saints. In addition, although she never held office, she acted as a spiritual counselor to her fellow nuns and, through her correspondence, with people outside the monastery. She wrote both in German and in Latin, although all that remains of her writing are two Latin works: Legatus divinae pietatis (Herald of divine love) and Exercitia spiritualia (Spiritual exercises).
Legatus divinae pietatis consists of five books: only Book 2 was written directly by Gertrud. Books 3-5 contain many passages dictated by her in her later years when she was ill; these books appear to have been put together under her supervision. Book 1 was written after Gertrud's death, by another Helfta nun; its purpose is to present evidence of the truth of Gertrud's relationship with God.
Exercitia spiritualia is made up of seven collections of instructions, meditations, and prayers: four that focus on the liturgical rites of the church, three on the Office (a set of psalms and readings) sung daily by religious. The Exercitia uses prose, rhythmic prose and verse; it has been consistently popular in monastic houses throughout the centuries.
Both of Gertrud's extant works are unusual among the writings of nuns in the 1200s and 1300s in that there is no suggestion of a male influence --- confessor, editor, etc. The voices we hear, even in those parts of Legatus divinae pietatis that were not written by Gertrud herself, are solely women's voices.
On this page you'll find:
Links to helpful sites online.
Excerpts from translations in print:
Legatus divinae pietatis
Exercitia spiritualia
Information about secondary sources.
=========================================================================
1. Book 2 of The Life and Revelations of Saint Gertrude, and at the bottom, links to Books 3-5, from an 1865 translation of Legatus divinae pietatis by Frances Clare Cusack. There are omissions, including whole chapters of Book 5 and "several passages, which could hardly be rendered in English with propriety," but this appears to be the most complete translation available online. The link to "Book 1" will take you to a biography which contains several errors (e.g., Gertrud is conflated with Helfta's abbess, Gertrud of Hackeborn), but which does include passages from the actual Book 1. Linking to "Advertisement" will take you to an introduction by Cusack; "Introduction" will give you a summary of the views of Lanspergius, the 1536 editor of Legatus. (For samples of Cusack's translation, see below, under "In print.")
2. From other translations of Legatus divinae pietatis:
(a) The opening and the closing of the first chapter of Book 2, on Gertrud's conversion, translated by Margaret Winkworth (the feast of the Purification honors the day when the infant Jesus is first taken to the temple to be blessed with his mother) .
(b) Click on "Texts" for more on Gertrud's conversion experience, a passage from the middle of Book 2, Ch.1, translated by Francisco Rafael de Pascual. The texts are preceded by a 2002 essay on Cistercian women of the period.
(c) Use your browser's search function to go to "Gertrud" for part of the opening of Book 2, Ch.3, on her use of a garden for meditation, translated by Winkworth.
(d) Winkworth's version of two passages from Book 2, Chs. 7 and 8, on the soul, like wax, receiving the imprint of God's seal.
(e) Two brief passages: first, the lines following those just above, and then lines from Book 2, Ch.10, on being able to write after a dry period; the translation is by Esther Cameron.
(f) Most of Book 2, Ch. 23 (although there are unnoted omissions), in which, at the end of her work, Gertrud sums up her life.
(g) Excerpts on liturgical prayer: from Book 2, most of Chs.1 and 6 (translated by Winkworth); and two passages from Book 4 (translated by Luke Dysinger). For each excerpt, the Latin is also given.
(h) From Book 3, Ch. 42, on a crooked crucifix. (Book 3, like all those except Book 2, was recorded by Gertrud's fellow nuns.)
(i) There was much debate in the 1200s on how often communion should be received. At this site go to the second use of "Gertrud" for seven brief passages from Book 3 in which Jesus speaks to her on the sacrament and its frequent use.
(j) About two-thirds of the way down the page, a passage from Book 4, Ch.4, on a conversation with John, "the disciple whom Jesus loved."
(k) Go to "Gertrud" for a passage from one of the later books that describes her occasional weariness with those laypeople who "came to her... for help and consolation"; the translation is by Francis Izard.
3. And from Exercitia spiritualia:
(a) Go to "Helfta" for two brief prayers from Exercise 1, on tasting and thirsting for God.
(b) Go to "Helfta" for a prayer from Exercise 3, listing the gifts needed from God; the translation is by Gertrud Jaron Lewis and Jack Lewis.
(e) Go to "Helfta" for the conclusion of Exercise 4, a request for God's presence.
(d) Links to three passages, from Exercises 7 and 2, translated by Lewis and Lewis.
(e) After a biography of Gertrud, a translation by Ruth Fox of the verse-prayer which begins Exercise 7, "O God of love and gentleness."
4. Books 1 & 2 of Legatus divinae pietatis, in the original Latin; a link at the end of Book 1 will take you to Book 2. At another site, a hypertext version of the first two books; you can link to individual chapters where clicking on any highlighted word will show you all its uses in the text.
5. A timeline of Gertrud's life.
6. Essays, etc.:
(a) "The Heart of Christ in the Legatus divinae pietatis of St. Gertrude of Helfta," a 2006 thesis by Ambrose Bennett, discusses the influence of Bernard of Clairvaux on Gertrud's thought and her use of Christ's heart as a predominant image in Legatus; quoted passages are given in Winkworth's translation.
(b) Links to six 2003 conferences on Legatus by Olivier Quenardel. All are of interest, but for the general reader two are perhaps of most value: the second, "The Style of the Herald..."; and the third, "The 'Star' of the Herald," on the person revealed in the work.
(c) "St. Gertrude's Synecdoche: The Problem of Writing the Heart" (1997), by Eve B. Jenkins, discusses Gertrud's use of the image of the heart of Jesus; Jenkins gives substantial quotations from Winkworth's translation of Legatus (for more from Winkworth, see below, under "In print").
(d) "God and the Human Being in the Writings of Gertrud of Helfta" (1991), by Gertrud Jaron Lewis, discusses Gertrud's descriptions of God, of humanity, and of her own priestly role. Lewis gives her translations of passages from Legatus and Exercitia spiritualia, including parts of Legatus' seldom-discussed Books 4 and 5.
(e) At Lina Eckenstein's book, Woman Under Monasticism (1896), link to the chapter, "The Convent of Helfta and its Literary Nuns." The treatment of Gertrud begins about halfway down the page (at p.346); you'll find Eckenstein's translations of passages from Legatus and Exercitia.
(f) "'At leisure for love': Amorous Rhetoric in the Helfta Mystics," (2002) by Rebecca Stephens, discusses Gertrud and Mechthild of Magdeburg, and quotes passages from Exercitia spiritualia, as translated by Lewis and Lewis (for more from Lewis and Lewis, see below, under "In print").
(g) Barbara R. Walter's 2002 sociological study, "Women Religious Virtuosae from the Middle Ages: A Case Pattern and Analytic Model of Types," uses Gertrud as one of the author's examples of the variety of religious expression in the period. Go to the second use of "Gertrude" for Walter's evaluation, and Alexandra Barratt's translation of a passage from Book 2 of Legatus.
(h) An abstract of a 2004 dissertation by Laura Marie Grimes, "Theology as Conversation: Gertrud of Helfta and Her Sisters as Readers of Augustine," on the nuns' use of the works of the early Christian writer; you can download the entire dissertation as a PDF file.
7. Reviews (for information on the books' treatment of Gertrud, see "Secondary sources"):
(a) John Howe on the 2006 essay collection, A Place to Believe In: Locating Medieval Landscapes.
(b) Martha G. Newman on Ann W. Astell's 2006 study, Eating Beauty: the Eucharist and the Spiritual Arts of the Middle Ages.
(c) Warren Ginsberg on Bruce W. Holsinger's 2001 study, Music, Body, and Desire in Medieval Culture: Hildegard of Bingen to Chaucer; elsewhere, another review, this by James Grier.
(d) James A. Wiseman on Bernard McGinn's 1998 history, The Flowering of Mysticism: Men and Women in the New Mysticism (1200-1350); and another, by Lawrence S. Cunningham.
(e) Michelle M. Sauer-Bures on the 1997 collection, Medieval Women in Their Communities.
=========================================================================
[This translation by Margaret Winkworth is not complete, but it is the fullest modern version available. It omits Books 4 & 5 and over 20 chapters of Book 3 (for the complete Book 3, see Barratt, 1999, below). The book has a useful introduction by Maximilian Marnau and detailed notes:]
The herald of divine love / Gertrude of Helfta; translated
and edited by Margaret Winkworth; introduced by Maximilian Marnau;
preface by Louis Bouyer (The Classics of Western spirituality).
New York: Paulist Press, c1993. (xii, 259 p.)
LC#: BX4700.G6 A3 1993; ISBN: 080910458X, 0809133326
Includes bibliographical references (p. 255-256) and index
--------------------------------------------------------------------
"Our Lord deigned to give the following testimonial...."
--------------------------------------------------------------------
[From Book 1, not by Gertrud (it was written after her death). Its purpose was to present evidence for Gertrud's sanctity, and what better testimonials than those from God? Perhaps its chief interest is that at Helfta conversations with God were rather common and were treated rather casually: at least 11 separate cases are cited; here are a few:]
[Listening to Gertrud read a lesson] one of her hearers... said to the Lord: "Ah, Lord God, how this soul must love you, when she teaches us to love with such words!"
The Lord replied to her: "From her childhood I carried
her and brought her up in my arms...." [p.59]
------------------
...I should like to cite yet another reliable witness. A person who prayed to the Lord, asking to be entrusted with a message to his chosen one [Gertrud]..., received this answer: "Say to her from me: 'Beautiful and lovely.'"
As this person did not understand, she repeated her question a second and third time, and always received the same answer. Astonished, she said: "Please tell me, most loving Lord, what these words mean!"
"Tell my beloved that she pleases me because she is beautiful
within...." [p.68]
------------------
Our Lord deigned to give the following testimonial to the
virtue of his chosen one: One day, when a certain person was
surprised that she had received no answer after praying to God,
the Lord finally gave her this reply: "I have kept you waiting
for the answer you desire because you do not trust the way in
which my goodness operates quite freely in you. My beloved [Gertrud],
on the contrary, is so firmly rooted and grounded in faith that
she always abandons herself to my goodness...." [p.70]
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"She sometimes wounds even people who are held to be virtuous."
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[Neither she nor her fellow religious thought of Gertrud as perfect, and they felt quite free to complain of her to God:]
One day [Gertrud] reproved one of her companions with some rather harsh words. Another sister, moved by charity, tried to obtain from God the favor of moderating such ardent zeal.
She was given this instruction by the Lord: "When I was on earth, I too was moved by ardent affections. I could not bear the slightest injustice; and in this she is like me."
The sister rejoined: "Lord, while you were on earth you spoke harshly only to sinners, while she sometimes wounds even people who are held to be virtuous." [p.76]
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Anyone who still remains incredulous should blush with
shame...."
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[From all this testimony, the author of Book 1 concludes:]
According to what has already been said, that two or three witnesses are enough to establish the truth of any assertion, it would not do to refuse to admit the truth when it is stated by so many true and reliable witnesses.
Anyone who still remains incredulous should blush with shame if, because he has never deserved to receive anything of the kind himself, he refuses to accept the evidence and, careless of the goodness and generosity of God, fails to rejoice in all that he has done for his chosen one and to be glad of it. [p.61]
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"I asked myself what more was needed to complete my happiness."
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[With Book 2 we come to Gertrud's own words; first, on friendship:]
One day between Easter and Ascension I went into the garden before Prime, and sitting down beside the pond, I began to consider what a pleasant place it was. I was charmed by the clear water and flowing streams, the fresh green of the surrounding trees, the birds flying so freely about, especially the doves. But most of all, I loved the quiet, hidden peace of this secluded retreat.
I asked myself what more was needed to complete my happiness
in a place that seemed to me so perfect, and I reflected that
it was the presence of a friend, intimate, affectionate, wise,
and companionable, to share my solitude. [p.97]
------------------
And still the ocean of your boundless love is not exhausted. For you constantly grant my prayers, whether for sinners, for souls, or for other intentions, answering them with incredible benefits. I have never found a human friend to whom I would dare tell all I know; the human heart is too small to bear it. [p.131]
------------------------------------------------------------------
"How seldom have I consented to practice this virtue."
------------------------------------------------------------------
[On her own impatience:]
Thanks to you, lover of mankind, for attracting me so often to the virtue of patience. But alas, a thousand times alas, how seldom have I consented to practice this virtue, or rather, I have never practiced it as I ought. You know, O Lord, how my spirit grieves, confused and downcast, and how my heart desires and longs that you may be compensated in some other way for my defects. [p.114]
----------------------------------------------------------------
"I cannot believe that they were meant for me alone."
----------------------------------------------------------------
[On the purpose of her writing:]
You, my God, know all my secret thoughts; you know that I am compelled by a force which external to me, and indeed is against my will, to commit these things to writing.
I consider that I have profited but little from your gifts, and so I cannot believe that they were meant for me alone, because in your eternal wisdom you cannot be so misled. That is why, Giver of gifts, you who have so freely loaded me with gifts unmerited, I ask you to grant that at least one loving heart reading these pages may be moved to compassion.... May such a one be led to praise and exalt your mercy. [p.103]
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"I had repaid all God's gifts, if not indeed by writing,
then by word of mouth."
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[On writer's block and inspiration:]
I thought it so unseemly to write down all these things that I could not bring myself to listen to the voice of conscience and kept putting it off....
As I was reflecting that I had repaid all God's gifts, if not indeed by writing, then by word of mouth, for the benefit of others, the Lord reproached me...: "I desire to have in your writings incontrovertible proof of my divine love, as I propose through them to do good to many souls in these modern times."
Then, with a heavy heart, I began to consider within myself how difficult, not to say impossible, it would be for me to find the right expressions and words for all the things that were said to me, so as to make them intelligible on a human level, without danger of scandal.
The Lord, as a remedy for such faintheartedness, seemed to send down a shower of drenching rain over my soul. Like a young and tender plant, I felt myself now beaten down to the ground by the violence of the downpour. In my human misery I could take in nothing of what was said, except for some particularly weighty words which I should never have been able to find for myself....
During four days, each morning at the most favorable hour, you inspired me with a part of what I have already written. You imparted this instruction so excellently and so sweetly that, without any effort, I wrote of things which I did not know before, as though it were a lesson long since learned by heart.
And you acted with such moderation that after I had written the daily task it was impossible for me, even with the exertion of every effort, to find any more of those words which next day presented themselves with such fluency and abundance, and without difficulty of any kind. [pp.109-110]
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Just as students attain to logic by means of the alphabet...."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
[Speaking to God about her readers:]
You are the witness... to my sincere desire to praise you... And in this I desire your praise that others reading these pages may rejoice in your sweet love and may be led to experience it in themselves.
Just as students attain to logic by means of the alphabet, so, by means of these painted pictures, as it were, they may be led to taste within themselves that hidden manna, which it is not possible to adulterate by any admixture of material images and of which one must have eaten to hunger for it for ever. [p.135]
----------------------------------------------------------------------
"Lord, it does not seem to me that this man is so perfect."
----------------------------------------------------------------------
[From Book 3, not written by Gertrud but told by her to another nun. Gertrude asked God to help the priest-administrators of the nun's legal affairs. She was persistent in her attempt to persuade God; however, she was not overjoyed when God praised the chief administrator:]
One year when the community was heavily burdened by debt, Gertrude prayed more devoutly and insistently to the Lord that in his kindness he might help the administrators of the monastery to pay what they owed.
Gently and tenderly he replied: "And in what way is it to my advantage to help them in this?"
She said: "That they may henceforth be free to apply themselves with greater fervor and attentiveness to spiritual duties."
He answered: "And how would I benefit from that, since I have no need of your goods and it is all the same to me whether you give yourselves to spiritual exercises or to the toil of exterior labor, so long as your will is freely directed toward me?...."
Nevertheless, she did not give up, but prayed the more earnestly that the Lord would hear her and help the administrators.....
Later... she continued to pray frequently to the Lord that he would reward [the chief administrator] for the trying work he so often had to do in managing the temporal affairs of the community.
The Lord replied: "His body, which becomes so weary for my sake in all these works, is for me like a treasury into which I put as many pieces of silver as he performs bodily actions to obtain what is necessary. And his heart is to me like a coffer, in which I know, with joy, that I have as many pieces of gold as the thoughts he has given to providing with care for those entrusted to him, for my greater glory."
Then she said to the Lord in wonder: "Lord, it does not seem to me that this man is so perfect that everything he does is done purely for your greater glory. Rather, I think very often he is led by other motives, such as temporal gain, and, consequently, his body's comfort. And how can you, O God of unmixed sweetness, find such delight in his heart and his body as you say you do?"
To this the Lord, with the greatest kindness, replied: "It is because his will is so conformed to my divine will that I am always the chief motive of all he does.... Nevertheless, if he were to strive to do all his business with purer and more devout intentions, then that business and all his works would have more value, even as gold is more valuable than silver..." [pp.231-233]
=========================================================================
[Another translation of Books 1 & 2 of Legatus divinae pietatis is by Alexandra Barrett. The introduction is useful; the notes are less so. There is a detailed topical index:]
The herald of God's loving kindness / Gertrud the Great of
Helfta; translated with introduction and notes by Alexandra Barratt
(The Cistercian Fathers series; no. 35). Kalamazoo, Mich.: Cistercian
Publications, c1991. (186 p.)
LC#: BX4700.G6 A3 1991; ISBN: 0879070552, 0879074558
Includes bibliographical references and indexes
=========================================================================
[Barratt has also translated the complete Book 3 of Legatus divinae pietatis, which Winkworth (above) does not. As with Barratt's 1991 translation of Books 1 & 2, the introduction and topical index are helpful, but the notes are skimpy:]
The herald of God's loving kindness. Book three / Gertrud
the Great of Helfta; translated, with an introduction and notes,
by Alexandra Barratt (Cistercian Fathers series; no. 63). Kalamazoo,
Mich.: Cistercian Publications, c1999. (252 p.)
LC#: BX4700.G6 A3 1999; ISBN: 0879074639
Includes bibliographical references and indexes
--------------------------------------------------------
"He... restrains the king's son too harshly...."
--------------------------------------------------------
[From one of the chapters from Book 3 omitted in the Winkworth translation. On the debate about the frequent reception of communion, Christ replies to Gertrud's question about a "certain person" who objected to communion being given to the unworthy:]
"...[A]nyone who holds back by words or suggestion someone who is not in mortal sin interferes with or interrupts in some way my delights that I could have had in them.
"He is like an over-severe tutor who restrains the king's
son too harshly or drags him away from the companionship and
games of those of his own age who are rather low-born or poor,
but whose company the king's son enjoys very much, simply because
he thinks it more suitable for the young man to enjoy the honor
due to royalty than to play in the street with a stick or such
like." [Ch.77, pp.218-19]
=========================================================================
[This is a reprint of the 1865 incomplete translation of Books 2-5 of Legatus divinae pietatis available online, by Frances Clare Cusack, a nun of the Convent of Poor Clares in Kenmare, Ireland. The notes, not given online, are useful on Benedictine customs:]
Gertrude, the Great, Saint. The life and revelations of Saint
Gertrude: virgin and abbess, of the Order of St. Benedict. Westminster,
Md.: Christian Classics, 1983. ( xiv, 570 p. illus.[front.] 19
cm)
LC#: BX4700.G6 A3 1983
Includes index
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"No one should esteem spiritual things less... under corporal
images."
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[Book 4 is organized around the liturgical year, describing Gertrud's experiences on the feast days of the church. On the feast of the Annunciation, after Gertrud had seen Jesus pay homage to his mother, she wondered about the reason for her experiences. In answer, Jesus defends bodily visions: if they were good enough for the prophets, they're good enough for moderns:]
As Gertrude began to reflect why our Lord had instructed her now and on many other occasions by corporal visions, he... said to her: "As I have explained the manner and order of My Incarnation, Passion, and Resurrection to the prophets by mystical figures and similitudes of things, so I use sensible things to make men comprehend what surpasses the apprehension of their senses.
For this reason, no one should esteem spiritual things less because they are represented under corporal images; but rather should endeavour to render themselves capable of tasting the sweetness contained therein." [pp.369-370]
-----------------------------------------------------
"Can I not gain a victory without fighting?"
-----------------------------------------------------
[Book 5 describes the deaths of various nuns and lay brothers of the monastery (and Gertrud's own preparations for death). When one of the nuns was dying, she apparently had hallucinations, and this made some of the nuns question her holiness. Gertrud was concerned about this:]
After this Gertrude besought our Lord to grant the grace of working miracles to Sister M. after her death... to silence the incredulous. Our Lord replied, holding a book in His hands: "Can I not gain a victory without fighting?" He added: "When it is necessary I subdue kings and nations by signs and wonders; but now the experience of those who have tasted something of these celestial communications is sufficient to obtain credit for them. For the present, I bear with those who contradict them; but I will at last silence their calumnies." [p.508]
=========================================================================
[The most recent translation of Exercitia spiritualia is by Gertrud Jaron Lewis and Jack Lewis. The introduction is helpful on the contemporary liturgies, and there is an valuable word index with the original Latin terms indicated:]
Spiritual exercises / Gertrud the Great of Helfta; translation,
introduction, notes, and indexes by Gertrud Jaron Lewis and Jack
Lewis (Cistercian Fathers series; no. 49). Kalamazoo: Cistercian
Publications, 1989. (viii, 165 p.)
LC#: BX2349 .G42513 1989; ISBN: 0879070498,
0879074493
Includes bibliographical references and index
------------------------------------------------------------
"As often as you want to be at leisure for love...."
------------------------------------------------------------
[From Exercise 5, meant for all the nuns of Helfta; Gertrud assumes that all should seek at least some level of union with God:]
As often as you want to be at leisure for love, withdraw your heart from all inordinate affection, hindrances, and phantasms, choosing the day and an opportune time for this purpose... making amends for never having cherished your Lord God with all your heart, all your soul and with all your virtue.
And now, with all affection, all devotion and intention, may
you join yourself to God in prayer, as if you saw the spouse
Jesus himself present, who assuredly is present in your soul.
[p.73]
------------------------------------------------------
"Ah! Let me taste you thus here, my Lord."
------------------------------------------------------
[Some of the prayers Gertrud recommends to the nuns ask
for at least a taste of heavenly bliss right here on earth:]
O most lovable radiance, when will you satisfy me with yourself?
If only I might here perceive the fine rays of your Venus-like
beauty for a little while and at least be permitted to anticipate
your gentleness for a short time and pleasantly beforehand to
taste you, my best share. Ah, Turn around now a little so that
I may fix my look on you, flower of flowers.
[p.75]
Ah! Let me taste you thus here, my Lord, for you are pleasant,
that there I may for eternity happily and thoroughly enjoy
you. [p.90]
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"There are... sublimer souls who despise the coupling of
man and woman."
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[In Exercise 3, Gertrud quotes, with only minor changes, part
of a ceremony for consecration of virgins --- male and female
--- that had been in use since the 900s, interesting for its
view of virginity versus marriage:]
God, you graciously inhabit chaste bodies and uncorrupted souls. God, by your word through whom everything was made, you so heal human substance, tainted by devilish fraud in the first human beings, that you not only recall human nature to the innocence of its first source but also lead it to the experience of certain goods to be obtained in a new age, and thus advance those still bound to the condition of mortals to a resemblance with angels....
For how could the rational soul enclosed in mortal flesh conquer the law of nature, the freedom of license, the force of habit, and the urges of youth unless, through free will, you kindled this love of chastity, fed this yearning in our hearts and poured out the strength....
And while esteem for nuptials is not diminished by any interdiction, and while the original blessing abides with holy wedlock, there are, nevertheless, sublimer souls who despise the coupling of man and woman in marriage. They yearn for the sacrament but cherish only what is prefigured and do not imitate what happens in the nuptials. [pp.48-49]
=========================================================================
[Columba Hart's 1956 translation of Exercitia spiritualia
is based on an older edition, but her commentary on each of the
seven exercises is often more detailed than in Lewis & Lewis
(above). A "List of Liturgical Texts" at the end gives
the original Latin of passages to which Gertrud refers, and describes
how she used and changed them:]
Exercises of Saint Gertrude. Introd., commentary, and translation
by a Benedictine nun of Regina Laudis. Westminster, Md., Newman
Press, 1956. (xxi, 191 p.)
LC#: BV5080 .G433
=========================================================================
[This collection of essays includes Ulrike Wiethaus' "Spatial Metaphors, Textual Production, and Spirituality in the Works of Gertrud of Helfta (1256-1301/2)," which describes the structure of Legatus and then discusses Gertrud's use of metaphor to invite her readers to see the various parts of the Helfta monastery as having spiritual as well as physical reality. (See the book's table of contents online.):]
A place to believe in: locating medieval landscapes / edited
by Clare A. Lees & Gillian R. Overing. University Park, Pa.:
Pennsylvania State University Press, c2006. (viii, 272 p.: ill.,
maps)
LC#: CB353 .P58 2006; ISBN: 0271028599, 0271028602
Includes bibliographical references and index
---------------------
[In Ann W. Astell's study one chapter, "'Hidden Manna': Bernard of Clairvaux, Gertrude of Helfta, and the Monastic Art of Humility," compares the use of visual images by the apparently iconoclastic Bernard with that of Gertrud as given in Legatus. Anstell sees less difference between the two writers than have earlier commentators. (See the book's table of contents online.):]
Astell, Ann W. Eating beauty: the Eucharist and the spiritual
arts of the Middle Ages. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press,
2006. (xiii, 296 p., [8] p. of plates: col. ill.)
LC#: BV823 .A77 2006 ; ISBN: 0801444667
Includes bibliographical references (p. [265]-285) and index.
---------------------
[Alexandra Barratt's essay in this collection, "'The Woman Who Shares the King's Bed': The Innocent Eroticism of Gertrud the Great of Helfta," analyzes passages from Legatus (chiefly from Book 3) to illustrate the work's use of erotic imagery, imagery that has worried critics over the centuries. Barratt suggests that the erotic language may reveal the desire for physical and emotional intimacy of the woman who had lived in a monastery from early childhood. Quoted excerpts are given in Barratt's translation. (See the book's table of contents online.):]
Intersections of sexuality and the divine in medieval culture:
the word made flesh / edited by Susannah Mary Chewning. Aldershot,
Hants, U.K.; Burlington, Vt.: Ashgate, 2005. (xii, 213 p.)
LC#: PR275.R4 I58 2005; ISBN: 0754640655
Includes bibliographical references (p. 197-210) and index
----------------------
[Volume 3 of Bernard McGinn's history of western Christian mysticism includes a thorough discussion of Gertrud, treating both Book 2 of Legatus and the Exercitia (pp.267-282). McGinn's notes give full bibliographic information on translations and studies; they also give the original of all translated passages. (See the book's table of contents online.):]
McGinn, Bernard. The flowering of mysticism: men and women
in the new mysticism (1200-1350) (The presence of God; vol. 3).New
York: Crossroad, c1998. (xiv, 526 p.)
LC#: BV5075 .M37 vol. 3; ISBN: 0824517423, 0824517431
Includes bibliographical references (p. [465]-505) and indexes
---------------------
[In this article, Sharon Elkins analyzes Gertrud's relationship
to Mary; Elkins sees it as that of a bride with her mother-in-law,
with all the uneasiness which that relationship can imply:]
Elkins, Sharon. Gertrude the Great and the Virgin Mary. Church
History: Studies in Christianity and Culture, 66 (1997),
720-734.
LC#: BR140 .A45; ISSN: 0009-6407
---------------------
[One section of Bruce Holsinger's study (pp.240-53) discusses the use of liturgy (the Mass and the Office) by Gertrud and Mechthild of Hackeborn to unite their human suffering with that of Jesus. (See the book's table of contents online.):]
Holsinger, Bruce W. Music, body, and desire in medieval culture:
Hildegard of Bingen to Chaucer (Figurae). Stanford, Calif.: Stanford
University Press, 2001. (xviii, 472 p.: ill.)
LC#: ML3845 .H64 2001; ISBN: 0804732019, 0804740585
Includes bibliographical references (p. [411]-450) and index
---------------------
[This collection contains an essay by Rosalynn Voaden, "All Girls Together: Community, Gender and Vision at Helfta," which discusses the relationship between the community life available at Helfta and the visionary experiences of Gertrud, Mechthild of Magdeburg, and Mechthild of Hackeborn. (See the book's table of contents online.):]
Medieval women in their communities / edited by Diane Watt.
Toronto; Buffalo: University of Toronto Press, 1997 (xii, 250
p.: ill.)
LC#: HQ1147 .E85 M435 1997; ISBN: 0802042899,
0802081223
Includes bibliographical references and index
---------------------
[This study by Caroline Walker Bynum contains a section, "Women Mystics in the Thirteenth Century: The Case of the Nuns of Helfta," which provides a analysis of the thought of Gertrud (and of the two Mechthilds). (See the book's table of contents online.):]
Bynum, Caroline Walker. Jesus as mother: studies in the spirituality
of the High Middle Ages. Berkeley: University of California Press,
c1982. (xiv, 279 p.)
LC#:: BV4490 .B96 1982; ISBN: 0520041941
Includes bibliographical references and indexes
----------------------
[Mary Jeremy Finnegan's book gives general background information on Helfta and on the period:]
Finnegan, Mary Jeremy. The women of Helfta: scholars and mystics.
Athens: University of Georgia Press, c1991. (xii, 171 p.)
LC#: BX4667 .F55 1991; ISBN: 0820312916
Rev. ed. of: Scholars and mystics, 1962. Includes bibliographical
references (p. 161-168) and index
=========================================================================
Updated 07-22-08