Every year during the annual March St. Patrick’s Day celebrations, cat lovers try to remind people there’s another Saint to honor. That is Gertrude of Nivelles. And it is she that later became the patron saint of the City of Nivelles and the Order of the Holy Cross. However, history doesn’t associate her to cats until around 1981-82! So what exactly is the story of the mysterious Gertrude? Grab the nearest kitty, a cup of tea and do not worry; there will NOT be a test later.
Clark, Carolee on Etsy. Saint Gertrude of Nivelles, Patron of Cats and Gardeners. Acrylic Painting.
What history we do know of Gertrude of Nivelles
She was born in 628 A.D. to father Pippin and mother Itta, however her early history isn’t well known. Most of it published by an unknown biographer in the Vita Sanctae Geretrudis (The Life of St Geretrud). Her family though, were very instrumental in the political and ruling classes in what is now Belgium. The consensus on her in the history books begins at the early age of ten. Sidenote – it seems extremely fitting to this female writer that we now honor her during Women’s History Month too. Synchronicity much?
Gertrude’s biography begins with her father hosting a banquet when Gertrude was ten years old.[8] That the king accepted Pippin’s invitation to the dinner at all shows Pippin’s standing as well as that of his family.[9] At this feast, the King asked Gertrude if she would like to marry the “son of a duke of the Austrasians…. for the sake of his worldly ambition and mutual alliance.”[4] Gertrude declined and “lost her temper and flatly rejected him with an oath, saying that she would have neither him nor any earthly spouse but Christ the Lord.”[10]
Photo Wikipedia: David Castor Sankta_Gertrud_i_Tyska_kyrkan_i_Stockholm
All agree that the girl’s personal feeling mattered little. One scholar speculated that if Pippin I had lived longer, he would likely have forced Gertrude to marry the son of the Austrasian duke.
At such a young age, it’s obvious that Gertrude had formed a strong will. Clearly her mother had instilled a strength and fortitude in her soul. One that we perhaps recognize from deep within still to this day. Because when faced with the unknown in a world of absolute female suppression, these females refused to submit.
The mention of Gertrude’s decided rejection of her Austrasian suitor is unique for the era. At least one scholar considers it to have been deliberately included by the chronicler as expressing her character.
A brilliant solution to a common hindrance of the era.
When Gertrude’s father, Pepin of Landen passed away around 640 A.D., the matriarch of the family had to make a decision. His death is noted as “giving Gertrude the freedom to take the veil and enter the monastic life.” And it was at this time her mother, Itta of Metz implemented a brilliant plan.
Photo Wikipedia: By GFreihalter – Tongeren_Liebfrauenbasilika_Fenster_Andreas_736
Itta, in order to prevent “violent abductors from tearing her daughter away by force,” shaved her daughter’s hair, leaving only a crown shape.[16] This action, known as tonsuring, marked Gertrude for a life of religious service. There were constant requests by “violators of souls” who wished to gain wealth and power by marrying Gertrude. As detailed in the Vita, only Itta’s foundation of the Abbey of Nivelles stopped the constant flow of suitors interested in marrying Gertrude in order to ally with her wealthy family.[17]
The biographer of Gertrude mentions that after the death of Pippin the Elder in 640, his widow Itta pondered daily on what was to become of her and her daughter. Upon the advice of Amand, she ordered the construction of a monastery to which she and Gertrude could retire.[20]
Itta founded Nivelles, a double monastery, one for men, the other for women.
Photo Wikipedia: Nivelles (Belgium), the romanesque St. Getrude colegiate church (XI/XIIIth centuries). Photo by By Jean-Pol GRANDMONT
The creation of the Abbey of Nivelles
So now Gertrude was able to focus on her own life, free from the ties of a political marriage. She spent her time helping others, truly sainthood actions. You can still visit the Abbey today where numerous artifacts are stored.
The Vita states that in Gertrude, “temperance of character, the sobriety of her heart and the moderation of her words she anticipated maturity.” She was “an intelligent young woman, scholarly and charitable, devoting herself to the sick, elderly, and poor,” and as knowing much of the scripture by memory. Gertrude also memorized passages and books on divine law, and she “openly disclosed the hidden mysteries of allegory to her listeners.” Her Vita describes Gertrude as building churches, and taking care of orphans, widows, captives, and pilgrims.
Photo Wikipedia: Saint Gertrude saving a house on fire, detail of a mural in the Crosier Monastery, Maastricht– Wikipedia SAMSUNG CSC –
There ARE miracles associated to her, including “miraculous vision” and “salvation of the sailors. But still, no mention of felines anywhere in history!
The death of St. Gertrude
Sadly, Gertrude lived a very short life. What is noted of her death is also somewhat mysterious.
Just before her death in 659, Gertrude instructed the nuns at Nivelles to bury her in an old veil left behind by a traveling pilgrim and Gertrude’s own hair shirt. She died in poverty, 17 March 659, at the age of thirty-three years.
Gertrude is described as “exhausted by a life of charity, fasting and prayer” at the end of her short life.[31] The Cambridge Medieval History says that “because of too much abstinence and keeping of vigils… her body was sorrily exhausted with serious illness.”[9]
Photo Wikipedia: Nivelle Abbey; Wikipedia Cloître_du_monastère_Sainte-Gertrude
What is more interesting to me, is a conversation supposedly held the day before her mortal transition.
According to her biographer, Gertrude felt the time of her death approaching and asked a pilgrim from the Fosses monastery when she would die. This pilgrim is commonly believed to be Ultan, Foillan’s brother. Ultan prophesied that Gertrude would die on 17 March, the very next day, and also the feast day of Saint Patrick. Furthermore, Ultan prophesied that “she may pass joyously because blessed Bishop Patrick with the chosen angels of God… are prepared to receive her.” True to the prophecy, Gertrude died the next day after praying all night and taking communion. Shortly after her death, the monk Rinchinus as well as the author of the Vita noticed a pleasant odor in cell with her body.[4]
St. Gertrude, the patron saint of cats…?
So while Gertrude was an amazing woman, there’s no proof that she had anything specifically to do with felines. The first mention of her and felines seems to go back to only the early 1980’s! However, there are numerous Etsy pages and merchandise picturing St. Gertrude as the patron saint of cats. So it seems that cats have done what they do…THEY CHOOSE YOU! (wink wink)
The assignment of Gertrude as patron of cats and the designation of the cat as one of her attributes seems to date from the 1980s. It is not mentioned at all in Madou’s extensive historical survey from 1975. A more superficial association of Gertrude with the cat as a mouse hunter goes further back. Her veneration as protector against rats and mice dates from the early 15th century during the Black Plague and spread from southwestern Germany to the Netherlands and Catalonia. Some 20th-century folklore studies research conflated her with the Germanic goddess Frigg, who may have been depicted riding a cat.[41] The authoritative Handwörterbuch des deutschen Aberglaubens (published in multiple volumes, 1927–1942) does not verify the connection to cats. The first major English-language publication presenting her as patron of cats is a 1981 catalogue of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.[42]
Interestingly enough, on the USCatholic.org site, one author has a theory. And we think they are definitely on to something.
Photo Wikipedia: Console Oudegracht 321
A likelier reason is Gertrude’s association with rats and mice. Representations of Gertrude going back to the Middle Ages portray her with a rodent or two scurrying around her feet or running up the staff of her crozier. Gertrude’s intercession to ward off disease-carrying rodents would have made her an important saint to call upon when much of Europe was decimated by bubonic plague. Since cats are the animal most people think of as the natural predator of rats and mice, it doesn’t take much imagination to extend Gertrude’s patronage to protecting cats.
Perhaps the reason this association is fairly new is because of Christianity’s longstanding love-hate relationship with cats. Venerated as sacred animals in ancient Egypt, Egyptians domesticated cats as house pets. Phoenician traders introduced cats to Europe by the 5th century B.C.E. Although house cats were less common among the early Greeks and Romans, they were valued for keeping the vermin population down. Early Christians afforded cats the same respect and tolerance. But by the Middle Ages, cats were the frequent victims of superstition and abuse, associated with witchcraft and the “pagan beliefs” of pre-Christian religions.
Cats were ideal and valued companions for monks and nuns in the Middle Ages, and it would come as no surprise if Gertrude and her religious sisters, or her Belgian and Irish religious brothers, kept cats in their communities.
Photo Wikipedia: By Photoartvienna
Considering the church’s checkered history of its treatment of cats, cats have long deserved and needed a patron saint of their own. And considering what we know about St. Gertrude of Nivelles, she’s a good choice to serve the role. The young girl who defied a king, refused marriage, left the busy administration of her monastery in the hands of others so she could go off by herself and pray, and took to wearing a hair shirt in her final days is a fitting human counterpart to the domestic cat, a creature known for being resolutely independent, constantly contrary, frequently lonerish, and prone to mysterious habits that never make sense to its human owner, who loves and accepts cats as they are anyway.
Photo: St. Gertrude de Nivelles, from the Hours of Cardinal Albrecht of Brandenburg by Simon Bening
So…what do you think?
There’s much more to St. Gertrude than you probably ever realized. And while it may not necessarily be related directly to felines, a strong-willed, defiant soul seems pretty similar to our beloved cats. Have a blessed day no matter who or what you celebrate on March 17th!
Gertrude of Nivelles, Patron Saint of Cats and Gardeners – 8 x 10 Print of Original Acrylic Painting by Carolee Clark on Etsy
