St Gertrude the Great

The life of St Gertrude which is here given to the public is proof, were proof needed, of this commonplace of spiritual writers. That a nun vowed to the humility of the cloistered life should have been chosen by our Lord as the instrument whereby He would reveal to the world the mystery, till then hidden, of the love of His Sacred Heart for men, is but one of many such mysterious events of which the lives of so many of the Saints are full. Her own sweet unworldly character, her simplicity, her quiet uneventful life, so uneventful, that is to say, in stirring incident or dramatic interest, but so fun of wonders in its hidden beauty, would appeaJ perhaps to but few, though, told as her history is here told, it will be felt to possess a charm and character all its own; and. like all the saints whom the Church proposes to us for veneration and imitation. St Gertrude's life must surely claim and merit our deepest study. But there is another reason why our Saint deserves to be better known, loved more fervently, honoured more abundantly, and that is because of the high privilege which was hers, of being to the Church the mouthpiece of the abundant mercies of the Sacred Heart of Jesus to us poor sinners. To Saint Gertrude belongs this glory; this is her claim to the love and devotion of the Church. There had been, of course, from the beginning of Christian history, an unceasing study of the love of Christ (or men, and God's servants in every age had studied, lived, and died for this, that they "might be able to comprehend with all the saints, what is the breadth and length and height and depth, to know also the charity of Christ which surpasseth all knowledge." But of specific devotion to our Lord's Divine Heart, as the seat and symbol of His love and compassion, there are not many traces before the days of St Gertrude. One, St Paulinus of Nola, may be taken as a witness from early days. In a letter to Sulpicius Severus,t he writes as follows: "Everyone humble of heart proceeds from the very Heart of Christ."