Infancy and education in the writings of Gertrud the Great of Helfta

Abstract

The German Benedictine nun Gertrud the Great of Heifta c.1256-1302 was one of the most highly educated of medieval women mystics. Unlike most religious women of the Middle Ages, she not only read Latin but also wrote it fluently and prolifically. Latin is the language of almost all her surviving writings: The Herald of God's Loving-Kindness, The Spiritual Exercises and (probably also written by her) The Book of Special Grace. The Herald consists of five books, although only Book 2 comes, quite literally, from the pen of Gertrud herself. The opening describes how she snatched up the writing tablet at her side and wrote the first section under divine inspiration (II, Prologue).