Dear friends,
Around the world today people are wearing green, drinking green beer, and parading through streets of major cities to honor St. Patrick. But he’s not the only saint remembered on this day. At St. Dunstan’s we know that it is also the day for St. Gertrude, the patron saint of cats. St. Gertrude of Nivelles — not to be confused with St. Gertrude the Great — is also considered a protector of travelers and gardeners, and according to legend, saved people from a sea monster.
Here’s a little history I found about this lesser known saint. She was born in 626 in the city of Nivelles—part of Merovingian France located in modern-day Belgium. Not much is known about her childhood, other than she was born into a religious family of some standing and wealth, says Oswin Craton, editor of A Cloistered Light: Saint Gertrude of Nivelles, Patron Saint of Pilgrims & Cats.
She knew she wanted to enter religious life at an early age, but her father had other plans. “As was a common practice of the time, children of notables often would be promised in marriage to the offspring of other people of higher station,” Craton explains. “Having had her hand requested in betrothal to the son of a duke, Gertrude’s father agreed to the arrangement.” But Gertrude, then 10 years old, announced she wouldn’t marry him or any other man and said that Jesus Christ would be her bridegroom.
Three years later, Gertrude’s mother had a double monastery constructed in Nivelles—one for men, one for women—and served as its first abbess. Gertrude became abbess upon her mother’s death. But the demands of her role, combined with her strict ascetic practices, took a toll. Gertrude frequently fasted and deprived herself of sleep as her health steadily deteriorated. By age 32, she was so weakened she resigned as abbess. She died of unknown causes on March 17, 659, at just 33 years old.
What is the feline connection? According to one legend, Gertrude once learned her convent’s grain supply was infested with mice and got rid of them by praying they’d go away. After her death, she was invoked for protection against rats and mice and against the destruction and diseases these rodents could cause. In addition, water from the crypt of a church dedicated to her in Nivelles was said to be effective at ridding your house or fields of mice and rats.
“It was by extension that she became associated with cats, inasmuch as cats were known as one of the principal means of keeping rodents under control,” Craton says.
On top of that, nearly all monasteries during her time kept cats in order to control vermin, so it’s not a stretch for her patronage to extend to felines as well as mice, he explains. “Anyone who can get rid of rats and mice must surely be a cat person,” writes Thomas J. Craughwell in Heaven Help Us: 300 Saints to Call Upon for Any Occasion.
Officially, there’s no record the Vatican has recognized St. Gertrude of Nivelles as the patron saint of cats. Today’s association between her and felines mostly stems from the 1981 catalogue Metropolitan Cats, put out by the Metropolitan Museum of Art: “Saint Gertrude of Nivelles was the patroness of cats.”
From there, word got out about her feline connection, and it’s been widely accepted since.
This is how St. Gertrude was remembered at our nightly compline (during Covid) five years ago today:
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Here is a prayer for this day:
St. Gertrude, kind protector, watch over my kitties this and each day.
Protect them from those who might wish them harm.
Keep them at home, safe from the storm.
Give me the sense to care for them well, and provide me the strength never to yell.
And Gertrude, a last thing I beseech from thee, protect my couch from sharp claws and my carpet from pee.
Amen.
And a prayer for that other guy on today’s church calendar:
Almighty God, in your providence you chose your servant Patrick to be the apostle of the Irish people, to bring those who were wandering in darkness and error to the true light and knowledge of you: Grant us so to walk in that light that we might come at last to the light of everlasting life; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy
Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.
Amen.
With love,
Tricia