GERTRUDE OF NIVELLES, Saint. - B. ca. 626 at Nivelles (Belgium), d. there on 17 May 659 at the age of 33.

Daughter of Pepin the Elder, mayor of the palace of the king of Austrasia, and of Itta or Iduberga, she was given a holy upbringing by her mother and as a very young girl refused an offer of marriage to a dignitary of the court. On her father's death, on the advice of St. Amand, Iduberga and G. founded a monastery at Nivelles, overcoming hostility at court. In 652 Iduberga died, and G., already abbess before that, governed the monastery until a few months before her death, when, in order to devote herself better to contemplation and to the mystical gifts with which she was favored, she resigned her office. Her cult spread widely, and various popular legends became attached to her name.

Bibliography5 works

BIBL.: For the Lives, cf. BHL, 3490-3504, of which the first, not long after her death, is edited in Acta SS. Martii, II, Paris 1865, pp. 592-97; J. Gessler, La légende du chevalier voué au démon et sauvé par ste G., in Le folklore brabançon, 4 (1923), pp. 203-85; A. F. Stocq, Vie critique de ste G. de N., Nivelles 1931 (good for the iconography); E. de Moreau, La Vita Amandi et les fondations de st Amand, in Anal. Boll., 67 (1949), pp. 460-61; Martyr, Romanum, p. 101.

Alberto Ghinato

@incollection{ec6_gertrude_di_nivelles_santa, author = {Ghinato, Alberto}, title = {Gertrude di Nivelles, santa}, booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica}, volume = {VI}, pages = {194--195}, note = {Cited by column}, publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico}, address = {Città del Vaticano}, year = {1951}, url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/gertrude-di-nivelles-santa} }

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Gertrude of Nivelles, Saint

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