St. Gertrude, also known as St. Gertrude the Great, was a 13th-century German nun of the Benedictine order who belonged to the famous Monastery of Helfsta.
Few details of Gertrude’s early life are known, but we know a tremendous amount about her adult life and her interior life through her writings.
In “The Herald of God’s Loving Kindness,” we learn that Gertrude had either three or four brothers and sisters and pursued a religious vocation, to which she originally was indifferent after her parents chose that path for her.
At 25, she began to experience visions of Jesus, which set her heart ablaze in a new way and led her to become one of the most well-known mystics in Church history.
An introduction to “The Life and Revelations of St. Gertrude,” attributed to an anonymous member of the Convent of Poor Clares, describes Gertrude and her love of Christ in beautiful imagery.
“A loving heart will always be a thankful heart; and so the continual incense of thanksgiving which ascended from the heart of Gertrude before the Eternal Throne, was but the fragrant aroma of the love which burned daily deeper and brighter within her.”
St. Gertrude’s Visions
St. Gertrude’s visions of Jesus ultimately led to her popular prayer, as well as the St. Gertrude Chaplet (“St. Gertrude Rosary”), a faith practice that remains popular even today, nearly 800 years since her death.
One of her visions, recounted in “The Life and Revelations of St. Gertrude,” saw an encounter with Jesus that made clear the power of praying for others. It beautifully visualizes prayer and its connection to the Sacred Heart of Jesus (to which St. Gertrude was an early devotee):.
But my God, wilt Thou not hear my prayer for my friends?” Then our Lord confirmed His words as with an oath, replying: “I will, by My Divine power.” The Saint replied: “Hear, then, my petition for the person so often recommended to my prayers.”
And immediately she beheld a stream, pure as crystal, flowing forth from the Heart of the Lord into the person for whom she prayed.
Gertrude’s visionary encounters with Christ led her to abandon forms of vanity and devote herself more fully to God and in a special way, the study of Scripture.
She “devoted herself to writing and popularizing the truth of faith with clarity and simplicity, with grace and persuasion, serving the Church faithfully and lovingly so as to be helpful to and appreciated by theologians and devout people,” said Pope Benedict XVI.
St. Gertrude developed a special fondness and devotion to praying for souls in purgatory, as detailed in “The Herald of Divine Love”:
As for her, she besought the Lord that all those in heaven and on earth and even in purgatory (for indeed, all would have benefited from the fruits of her works, had she not been negligent) might now have at least some share in those fruits with which she had just been enriched by his divine generosity. As she was praying, each single one of her good works (symbolized by the fruits of the tree) began to distill a beneficent liquid. Part of this liquid spread over the blessed, increasing their bliss; part of it spread out over purgatory, easing the pain of souls; another part of it spread over the earth, increasing the sweetness of grace for the just, and for sinners the bitterness of repentance.
Pope Benedict XVI also tells us that “St Gertrude’s life lives on as a lesson of Christian life, of an upright path, and shows us that the heart of a happy life, of a true life, is friendship with the Lord Jesus.”
Much of that lesson comes in the form of her prayer and devotion to souls in purgatory.
St. Gertrude Prayer
According to 1911 book “Love, Peace, and Joy: A month of the Sacred Heart According to St. Gertrude”, perhaps the simplest prayer associated with St. Gertrude is just three words: “Fiat voluntas tua”, Latin for “May Thy will be done.”
In one of her visions, St. Gertrude received the following prayer, now commonly called the St. Gertrude prayer or the prayer of St. Gertrude, from Jesus:
Eternal Father, I offer thee the Most Precious Blood of Thy Divine Son, Jesus in union with all the Masses said throughout the world today, for all the Holy Souls in Purgatory, for sinners everywhere, for sinners in the universal church, those in my own home and within my own family. Amen.
This prayer for souls in purgatory is prominent in the St. Gertrude Rosary. It also forms the basis for the St. Gertrude novena, where this prayer is repeated each day for nine days.
The St. Gertrude prayer for souls in purgatory is also the main component of the St. Gertrude Chaplet.
How to Pray the St. Gertrude Chaplet
A chaplet is a special personal, devotional prayer. It often uses rosary beads or a single strand (or decade) of beads. Chaplets often involve repeating a particular prayer, as well as introductory and concluding prayers.
The St. Gertrude Chaplet is sometimes called the “St. Gertrude Rosary” because it’s prayed using standard rosary beads.
Because chaplets are personal devotions, feel free to try your own version based on the St. Gertrude prayer. If you’re more comfortable following along a more established version, here’s how to pray a popular version of the St. Gertrude chaplet:
- Make the sign of the cross. Beginning at the crucifix, recite the Apostles Creed
- At the first large bead, Pray the Our Father
- Over the next three small beads, Pray three Hail Marys
- On the next large bead, pray a Glory Be
- On the medallion or medal of the Rosary, pray the Our Father
- Next, on the first decade of the Rosary beads, pray the St. Gertrude prayer
Eternal Father, I offer thee the Most Precious Blood of Thy Divine Son, Jesus in union with all the Masses said throughout the world today, for all the Holy Souls in Purgatory, for sinners everywhere, for sinners in the universal church, those in my own home and within my own family. Amen.
- Repeat this nine times, and then pray two special prayers common in the St. Gertrude chaplet:
Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, open the hearts and minds of sinners to the truth and light of God, the Father.
Immaculate Heart of Mary, pray for the conversion of sinners in the world.
- Pray a Glory Be, then pray an Our Father on the large bead and repeat for the next four decades.
- Repeat this for the next four decades
- Close with the sign of the cross.
Though no official Church teaching suggests this, traditional belief holds that each time the St. Gertrude prayer is prayed, 1,000 souls are released from purgatory. Therefore, each time the St. Gertrude rosary is prayed, 50,000 souls enter heaven from purgatory.