Gertrud the Great of Helfta

<p><span style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(51 51 51 1)>Gertrud the Great (1256-1302) entered the monastery of Helfta in eastern Germany as a child oblate. At the age of twenty-five she underwent a conversion that led to a series of visionary experiences. These centered on the divine loving-kindness which she perceived as expressed through and symbolized by Christ's divine Heart. Some of these experiences she recorded in Latin with her own hand in what became book 2 of </span><em style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(51 51 51 1)>The Herald of God's Loving-Kindness.</em></p><p><span style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(51 51 51 1)>Books 1 3 4 and 5 were written down by another nun a close confidant of the saint now often known as Sister N. Book 4 records Gertrud's many vivid spiritual experiences which took place on various liturgical feasts when she was too sick to take part in the community's worship. Foregrounding visions of the court of heaven and dialogues with Christ the Virgin Mary and other saints they further develop devotional themes already present in the earlier books. Often profoundly indebted to the liturgy of Mass and office they have been carefully arranged according to the ecclesiastical year by the medieval compiler.</span></p><p><span style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(51 51 51 1)>Book 2 describes Gertrud's personality and in her own words her spiritual experiences.</span></p><p><br></p>