St. Matilda, Mystic and Teacher of St. Gertrude the Great

St. Matilda entered the monastery at the age of 7 and was soon to become a teacher of mystics.

Newdesk (24/11/2023, Gaudium Press) In November the Church commemorates two great mystics — Saint Gertrude, a patron saint of mystics, as well as her teacher, Saint Matilda.

Matilda of Hackeborn, also known as ‘Mechtilde’,  was born around 1241 in Helfta Castle, the third daughter of that household.

She was still a young girl, only seven years old, when her parents sent her to the convent of the nuns of Rodesdorf. This happened in the year 1248.  How it happened was that the girl went to visit her sister, Gertrude Von Hackeborn, who was already a nun, and there, within those walls, she was enchanted by monastic life.

Blessed Gertrude Von Hackeborn (a different Gertrude from the Great) was one day elected Superior. The Baron of Hackeborn, from one of the most powerful families in Thuringia, had been very generous in giving his two daughters to the Church so in 1258, the monastery was moved to Helfta, where the family was from. Three years after the monastery was moved there, a charming five-year-old girl, also named Gertrudis, arrived. This girl was placed in the care of Saint Matilda who, though still young herself, had become something of a novice mistress.

The disciple composes the teacher’s book

Saint Matilda was 15 years older than the girl Saint Gertrude. She was the convent’s cantor, sang magnificently, and was also a soul with mystical experiences.

One day, Saint Matilda, then 50 years old, realized that her disciple Gertrude had been writing a book. This book was nothing more than Gertrude’s careful notes on the things her teacher Matilda had taught and told her. Saint Matilda was alarmed by this, but in a revelation, the Lord told her that Gertrude was doing His will by writing these lines. This reassured the Saint and even moved her to correct the text herself, which is entitled The Book of Special Grace or Revelations of Saint Matilda.

God tested her by allowing her to suffer long and painful illnesses, which she endured with Christian resignation. She also had periods of spiritual anguish, but she always had the help of divine consolation. It was during one of these spiritual crises that Saint Matilda confided to Saint Gertrude and another nun the remarkable graces she had received from God since childhood, which were faithfully compiled in the The Book of Special Grace.

Matilda had received an excellent education at the convent, and God had also given her special direct training. This flourished in her teaching: “She taught,” it is written, “the doctrine with such abundance as had never been seen in the monastery, and alas, we greatly fear that nothing like it will ever be seen again. The nuns gathered around her to listen to the Word of God as they would around a preacher. She was the refuge and comforter of all, and she had, by a singular gift from God, the grace to freely reveal the secrets of each person’s heart. Many people, not only in the monastery but also strangers, religious and lay people, who came from far away, testified that this holy virgin had freed them from their sorrows and that they had never experienced such comfort as when they were with her. In addition, she composed and taught so many prayers that, if they were compiled, they would exceed the volume of a psalter.“

Devotion of the Three Hail Marys

One day she asked the Virgin Mary to accompany her at the moment of death. Our Lady replied that she should pray three Hail Marys every day, “commemorating, in the first, the power received from the Eternal Father; in the second, the wisdom with which the Son adorned me; and, in the third, the love with which the Holy Spirit filled me“.

On November 19th, 1298, the Saint died: “She offered Him her heart and placed it within His own. Our Lord touched Matilda’s heart with His own and gave her eternal glory, where we hope that through her intercession she will obtain many graces for us“.

Her legacy lives on not only in her works, but also in the memory of her disciple, known throughout the centuries as Saint Gertrude the Great.

Benedict XVI dedicated a meditation to Saint Matilda during a general audience on September 29th, 2010. The Pope said that Saint Matilda “invites us to praise the Son with the Heart of the Mother and to praise Mary with the Heart of the Son: ‘I greet you, O most venerable Virgin, in that sweetest dew which from the Heart of the Most Holy Trinity was poured out upon you; I greet you in the glory and joy with which you now rejoice eternally, you who, preferred among all creatures on Earth and in Heaven, were chosen even before the creation of the world. Amen.“

With information from El Testigo Fiel