St. Gertrude of Nivelles

Gertrude grew up in the household of Pepin of Landen and was the younger sister of St. Begga. She chose religious life rather than the marriage proposed for her. After her father’s death, her mother Itta established a monastery at Nivelles with the guidance of St. Amand.

Still young, Gertrude became its abbess, while Itta lived within the community under her daughter’s direction. Butler remembers the prudence of her government, her personal poverty, her generosity to the poor and her devotion to prayer and sacred study. Responsibility for a community did not turn her attention away from those in need.

When her strength declined, she entrusted the abbey to her niece Wulfetrude and devoted her remaining time more fully to prayer. She died on March 17. This seventh-century abbess of Nivelles is distinct from St. Gertrude the Great, the later German mystic; their writings, dates and devotional associations should not be exchanged.