| BLESSED GERTRUDE OF ALDENBERG |
| Michael Ott
|
| Abbess
of the Premonstratensian convent of Aldenberg, near Wetzlar, in the Diocese of
Trier; born about 1227, died 13 August, 1297. She was the youngest of three
sisters of Louis VI, margrave of Thuringia, and his wife St. Elizabeth of
Hungary. Gertrude's father died on his way to the Holy Land shortly before she
was born. She was scarcely two years old, when St. Elizabeth brought her to the
convent of Aldenberg, where she afterwards became a nun. In 1248, being then
only twenty-one years of old, she was elected Abbess of Aldenberg, over which
she ruled forty-nine years. With the inheritance which she received from her
uncle, the Margrave of Meissen, she erected a church and a poorhouse. She took
personal charge of the inmates of the poorhouse and a led a life of extreme
mortification. When Urban VI published a crusade against the Saracens, Gertrude
and her nuns took the cross and obliged themselves to contribute their share to
the success of the crusade by prayer and acts of mortification. In 1270 she
began to observe the feast of Corpus Christi in her convent, thus becoming one
of the first to introduce it into Germany. Clement VI permitted the
ecclesiastical celebration of her feast to the convent of Aldenberg and granted
some indulgences to those who visit her relics at that convent.
Transcribed by Joseph P. Thomas In memory of Mrs. Joseph Nobile |
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Provided Courtesy of:
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