Lutgard (Luitgard, Liutgard), Saint (LUTGARDA (LUITGARDA, LIUTGARDA), SANTA)

Machine translation of the 1948–1954 Italian original. The original text is authoritative.

LUTGARDA (LUITGARDA, LIUTGARDA), Saint. — Born at Tongres in the last decades of the 12th century (1182?),

Article illustration — (photo by Jan Štěp)

LUTGARDA, Saint — The Saint at the foot of the Crucifix. Work by M. B. Braun (1710), group already on the Charles Bridge — Prague.

Died at Aywières, near Couture-St-Germain, on 16 June 1246.

Of noble family, she had been destined by her father for marriage, but her mother’s advice prevailed and at barely twelve years of age (1194?) she entered the monastery of the Benedictine nuns of St Catherine near St-Trond. She resisted and overcame various attempts against her chastity, such as an attempted abduction. She was endowed with supernatural gifts, visions, and miracles. On the advice of Christina Mirabilis (q.v.), in 1206 she passed to the Cistercian nuns of Aywières.

One of her characteristic traits was devotion to the souls in Purgatory. She had close relations with the Friars Preachers and with Cardinal Jacques de Vitry, who in 1217 wrote her a letter (cf. Anal. Boll., 65 [1947], p. 312).

BIBL.: The Life was written by the contemporary Thomas of Cantimpré, a canon regular and later Dominican, who was also the Saint’s confidant, and was published in Acta SS. Iunii, IV, Paris 1867, pp. 187-210; Martyr. Romanum, p. 241; BHL, 4950.

Alberto Ghinato