Life and Revelations

The Life and Revelations of St Gertrude the Great, Virgin and Abbess of the Order of St Benedict, written and compiled by the religious of her monastery, 565 pages

St Gertrude was entrusted to the nuns of the monastery at Helfta at the age of five and remained there until her death at the age of forty-six.  From her mid-twenties she received frequent visions of Jesus, His Virgin Mother, and a number of saints, and increasingly became regarded as a holy woman and sought out as a spiritual advisor.  Only one of the five books included in The Life and Revelations was authored by St Gertrude herself, the others were written by anonymous members of her community, no doubt largely after the saint's death.  Her memory was neglected in the waning of the middle ages, but was rediscovered during the Catholic Reformation, serving as an inspiration to saints including Teresa of Avila, Philip Neri, and Francis de Sales.

The Life and Revelations is not a compendium of divine revelations as a form of divination, but rather a vast treasury of devotions.  St Gertrude's questions and concerns are not about the future of the world or her community, but the spiritual health of herself and her sisters.  Throughout, the emphasis is on both the person of Christ and the communion of saints - Gertrude receives divine grace through the ministry of others, and the grace given her is intended as a light for others.  This fits perfectly with both the origin of this work as a communal project and the intended use of this book as a guide to the spiritual life.  St Gertrude's devotions are deeply embedded in the traditional liturgical life of the monastery even as they presage later devotions to the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Divine Mercy.