Sainte Lutgarde
Moniale cistercienne à
Aywiers (+ 1246)
Elle est l'une des plus grandes figures du courant mystique du 13ème s. Favorisée de grâces exceptionnelles, elle témoigne d'une expérience extraordinaire de la révélation du Sacré-Cœur. Native de Tongres dans le Limbourg belge, d'une famille peu fortunée, elle a 12 ans quand elle est placée par ses parents chez les bénédictines de Saint Trond. Mais coquette et enjouée, elle continue de mener une certaine vie sociale et de recevoir des visites, jusqu'au jour où, dit-elle, elle reçoit la visite du Christ qui lui présente ses plaies. Désormais elle l'aime d'un amour exclusif, médite la Passion avec une telle intensité que parfois son propre sang coule. Sa prière intercède pour les pécheurs. Plutôt que de devenir prieure, elle quitte son monastère pour celui d'Aywiers proche de Namur. Elle ne parle que flamand, et devient bientôt aveugle ce qui lui permet de s'enfoncer davantage encore dans le silence et l'humilité pendant les 12 dernières années de sa vie terrestre.
Des internautes nous signalent:
Aywiers se situe sur le territoire de Lasne, en Brabant wallon.
Sainte Lutgarde est vénérée en l'église d'Ittre (Brabant Wallon).
Au monastère des cisterciennes d’Aywières dans le Brabant, en 1246, sainte
Lutgarde, vierge, remarquable par sa dévotion envers le Cœur du Seigneur.
Martyrologe romain
SOURCE : http://nominis.cef.fr/contenus/saint/1334/Sainte-Lutgarde.html
Engelhartszell
( Upper Austria ). Engelszell monastery church ( 1754-64 ) - Altar of the
Guardian angel: Statue of Saint Lutgarde by Johann Georg Üblhör.
Engelhartszell
( Oberösterreich ). Stiftskirche Engelszell ( 1754-64 ) - Schutzengelaltar:
Statue der heiligen Lutgard von Tongern von Johann Georg Üblhör.
Lutgarde
de Saint-Trond (dite d'Aywières)
Née à Tongres, en Brabant, en 1182
Morte à Aywières, en 1246
Sa mère la place, à l'âge de douze ans, dans un monastère de l'Ordre de Saint-Benoît, le couvent Sainte-Catherine de Milen, près de Saint-Trond et de Liège. Mais Lutgarde n'a pas encore choisi d'être religieuse. A l'âge de dix-sept ans, alors qu'elle s'est résolue à se vouer au Seigneur, et qu'elle est poursuivie par les avances d'un gentilhomme qui désire l'épouser, le Christ lui apparaît, et lui découvrant la plaie de son côté teintée de sang, lui dit : "ne recherche plus les flatteries d'un vain amour. Regarde ici et contemple désormais ce que tu dois aimer et pourquoi tu dois l'aimer. C'est ici que je promets de te faire goûter des délices de toute pureté". Cette apparition est considérée comme la première apparition médiévale du Sacré-Cœur qui nous ait été transmise par la Tradition. Lutgarde devient moniale Bénédictine. Elle est favorisée de nombreux dons, comme celui de guérir les malades ou de comprendre les psaumes en latin. Elle vit dans ce couvent l'échange des cœurs avec Notre-Seigneur, qui répond favorablement à sa demande : "« Ce que je veux, dit-elle, c'est votre Cœur » Et le Seigneur : « Bien plutôt, c'est moi qui veut ton cœur ». Elle lui répondit : « Qu'il en soit ainsi, Seigneur, de telle façon cependant que vous accordiez à mon cœur l'amour de votre Cœur et qu'en vous je possède mon cœur, bien à l'abri et pour toujours sous votre garde. » Alors eut lieu l'échange des cœurs" écrira son biographe, le Dominicain Thomas de Cantimpré. Cet échange des cœurs est le premier connu de l'histoire religieuse. Le Seigneur l'attire à Lui à plusieurs reprises, l'invitant une nuit à boire à la blessure de son côté : "… de la croix il détache un bras, il l'enlace, la serre contre son côté droit et applique sa bouche à la blessure. Elle y but une douceur si puissante qu'elle fut depuis lors et jusqu'à la fin toujours plus forte et plus alerte au service de Dieu". En 1206, pour échapper à une nomination au poste d'abbesse en l'abbaye Sainte-Catherine, elle change de couvent pour entrer chez les Cisterciennes d'Aywières, près de Couture-Saint-Germain, en Brabant. Ne comprenant pas la langue romane employée par ses sœurs, elle y vit isolée, et c'est dans ce contexte qu'elle entreprendra à la demande du Seigneur trois jeûnes de sept ans, à des intentions qui lui seront à chaque fois précisées. En 1210, Thomas rapporte qu'alors qu'elle aspire à subir le martyre comme la bienheureuse Agnès, "une veine se rompit à son côté, à hauteur du cœur ; il en sortit tant de sang que ses tuniques et son manteau en étaient abondamment aspergés…". Lutgarde gardera cette cicatrice jusqu'à la mort. Devenue aveugle en 1235, elle commence peu d'années après son troisième jeûne de sept ans, répondant à une invitation divine pour écarter de l'Eglise un ennemi très redoutable. Ce jeûne ne s'achèvera qu'avec sa mort, le 16 juin 1246.
La Vie de Lutgarde, qui a donc été écrite par son confident, le Dominicain Thomas de Cantimpré, se trouve dans les Acta Sanctorum. Comme l'écrit Pierre Debongnie C.SS.R. (La dévotion au Cœur de Jésus, in Le Cœur, Etudes Carmélitaines, Paris, Desclée de Brouwer, 1950), "Près de cinq siècles avant Marguerite-Marie, Lutgarde fut en vérité la confidente du Sacré-Cœur. Ce mystère lui fut révélé, il imprégna toute sa vie, il fut sa vie même. Rien ne lui manque, pas même cette compassion pour les souffrances du Christ, le désir impatient de lui rendre sang pour sang et martyre pour martyre, et l'impétration incessante pour ceux que le Cœur miséricordieux lui confie et qu'il désigne de cette appellation touchante : « mes pécheurs ». Mais elle n'a pas reçu mandat de faire connaître au monde chrétien le mystère du Cœur divin et son souvenir n'y attirerait personne. D'autres recevront cette mission". Sainte Lutgarde a été inscrite au martyrologe romain en 1584.
Notons encore que la Bienheureuse Ida (1243-1300), l'une des sœurs de Lutgarde,
qui vécut au monastère Cistercien de Rossendael près de Malines, fut elle aussi
favorisée de grâces surnaturelles, reçut les sacrés stigmates et pénétra plus
d'une fois dans la plaie du côté du Sauveur.
SOURCE : http://www.spiritualite-chretienne.com/s_coeur/biogra.html#Lutgarde
Plaque
commémorative de Sainte Lutgarde, fixée sur la portail de l'ancienne abbaye
d'Aywiers, en Belgique
Lutgarde d’Aywiers
Cistercienne, Mystique, Sainte
1182-1246
Fille de riches bourgeois
de Tongres, Lutgarde naquit en cette ville, en 1182. Elle fut placée par sa
mère, à l'âge de 12 ans, au monastère bénédictin de Sainte-Catherine à Tongres,
alors que Lutgarde n’avait pas manifesté jusque-là une quelconque vocation
religieuse. C’est pourquoi, adolescente, coquette et enjouée, elle continua de
mener une certaine vie sociale et de recevoir des visites, jusqu'au jour où,
dit-elle, elle reçut la visite du Christ qui lui présenta ses plaies. Cela
arriva quant elle eut dix-sept ans.
Alors qu'elle avait pris
la décision de se vouer au Seigneur, et qu'elle était poursuivie par les
avances d'un gentilhomme qui désirait l'épouser, le Christ lui apparut, et lui
découvrant la plaie de son côté teintée de sang, lui dit : « Ne
recherche plus les flatteries d'un vain amour. Regarde ici et contemple
désormais ce que tu dois aimer et pourquoi tu dois l'aimer. C'est ici que je
promets de te faire goûter des délices de toute pureté ».
Cette apparition est
considérée comme la première apparition médiévale du Sacré-Cœur qui nous ait
été transmise par la Tradition. Lutgarde devient moniale Bénédictine. Lutgarde
eut de nombreuses autres expériences mystiques, visions, lévitation, apparitions
du Christ, extases, stigmates. Elle est en outre favorisée de nombreux dons,
comme celui de guérir les malades ou de comprendre les psaumes en latin.
Elle y priait pour les
pécheurs, les malades, les malheureux, et y méditait longuement la Passion du
Christ ; ses sœurs observaient que son propre sang coulait après une
profonde extase.
Elle vécut dans ce
couvent l'échange des cœurs avec Notre-Seigneur, qui répondit favorablement à
sa demande : « “Ce que je veux, dit-elle, c'est votre Cœur” Et
le Seigneur : “Bien plutôt, c'est moi qui veut ton cœur”. Elle lui
répondit : “Qu'il en soit ainsi, Seigneur, de telle façon cependant que
vous accordiez à mon cœur l'amour de votre Cœur et qu'en vous je possède mon
cœur, bien à l'abri et pour toujours sous votre garde”. Alors eut lieu
l'échange des cœurs » — écrira son biographe, le dominicain
Thomas de Cantimpré.
Cet échange des cœurs est
le premier connu de l'histoire religieuse. Le Seigneur l'attira à Lui à
plusieurs reprises, l'invitant une nuit à boire à la blessure de son
côté : « … de la croix il détache un bras, il l'enlace, la serre
contre son côté droit et applique sa bouche à la blessure. Elle y but une douceur
si puissante qu'elle fut depuis lors et jusqu'à la fin toujours plus forte et
plus alerte au service de Dieu ».
En 1206 — elle
n’avait même pas 25 ans —, elle fut élue prieure du monastère
Sainte-Catherine, mais elle s’y refusa énergiquement. Et, pour échapper à
l’harcèlement dont elle faisait l’objet de la part de ses sœurs, elle changea
de couvent et entra chez les Cisterciennes d'Aywières, près de
Couture-Saint-Germain, en Brabant. Ne comprenant pas la langue romane employée
par ses sœurs, elle y vit isolée, et c'est dans ce contexte qu'elle entreprit,
à la demande du Seigneur, trois jeûnes de sept ans, à des intentions qui lui
seront à chaque fois précisées. En 1210, Thomas rapporte qu'alors qu'elle
aspire à subir le martyre comme la bienheureuse Agnès, « une veine se
rompit à son côté, à hauteur du cœur ; il en sortit tant de sang que ses
tuniques et son manteau en étaient abondamment aspergés… ». Lutgarde
gardera cette cicatrice jusqu'à la mort.
Devenue aveugle en 1235,
elle commença peu d'années après son troisième jeûne de sept ans, répondant à
une invitation divine pour écarter de l'Église un ennemi très redoutable. Ce
jeûne ne s'achèvera qu'avec sa mort, le 16 juin 1246.
Avec Sainte Gertrude et
Sainte Mechtilde, elle est l'une des premières propagatrices de la dévotion au
Sacré Cœur.
Sainte Lutgarde fut l'une
des plus grandes figures du courant mystique du XIIIe siècle. Cinq
siècles avant Marguerite-Marie Alacoque, elle fut la première à pratiquer la
dévotion au Cœur de Jésus.
SOURCE : http://nouvl.evangelisation.free.fr/lutgarde_daywiers.htm
Statue of Saint Luitgard on Charles Bridge
Sousoší Sen sv. Luitgardy na Karlově mostě
Also
known as
Lutgardis of the Sacred
Heart
Lutgardis of Aywieres
Lutgardis of Tongeren
Lutgardis of Tongres
Ludgard…
Ludgardis…
Luitgard…
Lutgard…
Lutgarde…
Lutgart…
Luthgard…
Lutgarda…
Profile
A pretty girl with
a fondness for clothes and no apparent religious vocation, Lutgardis was sent
to the Black Benedictine convent near
Saint Trond at age 12 because her dowry had
been lost in a failed business venture,
and there was thus little chance for a life as a normal, married lay
woman. In her late teens Lutgardis received a vision of
Christ showing her His wounds, and in 1194 at
age 20 she became a Benedictine nun with
a true vocation. She had visions of
Christ while in prayer,
experienced ecstacies, levitated,
and dripped blood from forehead and hair when enraptured by the Passion. Chosen
as prioress of
her community in 1205, she
repeatedly refused to be abbess.
The Benedictine order
was not strict enough for Lutgardis, and on the advice of her friend Saint Christina
the Astonishing, in 1208 she
joined the Cistercians at
Aywieres (near Brussels in
modern Belgium)
where she lived for her remaining 30 years. She displayed the gifts of healing,
prophecy, spiritual wisdom, and was an inspired teacher on
the Gospels. Blind for
the last eleven years of her life, she treated the affliction as a gift – it
reduced the distraction of the outside world. In one of her last visions,
Christ told her when she was to die;
she spent the time remaining in prayer for
the conversion of
sinners.
Born
1182 at
Tongres, Limburg, Belgium
16 June 1246 at
Aywieres (modern Awirs), Belgium of
natural causes, just as night office began on the Saturday night following
Feast of the Holy Trinity
relics transferred
to Ittre, Belgium on 4 December 1796 to
avoid destruction in the French
Revolution
in Belgium
woman with
Christ showing her His wounded side
Cistercian nun being blinded by
the Heart of Jesus
Cistercian to
whom Christ extends his hand from the cross
woman in
attendance when Christ shows his Heart to the Father
Additional
Information
Book
of Saints, by the Monks of
Ramsgate
Heavenly
Court of the Holy Cistercian Nun, Saint Lutgarde of Brabant
Saints
of the Day, by Katherine Rabenstein
books
Our Sunday Visitor’s Encyclopedia of Saints
Saints
and Their Attributes, by Helen Roeder
other
sites in english
images
video
sitios
en español
Martirologio Romano, 2001 edición
fonti
in italiano
MLA
Citation
‘Saint Lutgardis‘. CatholicSaints.Info.
6 April 2024. Web. 20 April 2026.
<https://catholicsaints.info/saint-lutgardis/>
SOURCE : https://catholicsaints.info/saint-lutgardis/
Krzeszów,
kościół, ob. par. p.w. Wniebowzięcia NMP, 1728-1735 Figura św. Ludgardy -
XIII-wieczna mistyczka(cysterka)
Article
(Saint)
Virgin (June
16) (13th
century) Born at Tongres (Brabant) A.D. 1182, and professed as a nun at the
age of twenty. After some years the Sisters insisted on her being made
Prioress, whereupon she retired to a little convent at Aywieres. Here, for
thirty years, through her prayers, miracle followed upon miracle — the most
wonderful of all being the holiness of her own life. She died A.D. 1246, and
her name was inserted in the Roman Martyrologv.
MLA
Citation
Monks of Ramsgate.
“Lutgarde”. Book of Saints, 1921. CatholicSaints.Info.
10 November 2014. Web. 20 April 2026.
<https://catholicsaints.info/book-of-saints-lutgarde/>
SOURCE : https://catholicsaints.info/book-of-saints-lutgarde/
Pfarrkirche
Mariä Himmelfahrt, ehem. Zisterzienserstiftskirche, Stift Baumgartenberg,
Oberösterreich - Relief hl. Luitgard von Tongern an der Kanzel
St. Lutgardis
Feastday: June 16
Birth: 1182
Death: 1246
Lutgardis was born in
1182 at Tangares in the Netherlands. At the age of twelve she was placed in the
Benedictine convent of
St. Catherine near Saint-Trond. Originally she felt no inclination whatsoever
toward the religious life, but one day she had a vision of Christ that changed her
outlook. At the age of twenty, Lutgardis entered the Benedictines. For more
than a decade she experienced ecstacies during which she had visions of
our Lord and
our Blessed Mother. Lutgardis later went to a Cistercian convent at
Aywieres, where she spent the final thirty years of her life and
became reknowned as a mystic with the gifts of healing
and prophesy. She died on June 16, 1246, having suffered blindness the last
eleven years of her life. Although not all are called to the degree of mystical
union that St.
Lutgardis experienced, nonetheless, God's invitation to intimate union
is universal. Our openness to God working
in our lives, no matter who
we are, is the first step down the road of perfect union with Him.
SOURCE : https://www.catholic.org/saints/saint.php?saint_id=197
Michael Willmann (1630–1706), The Vision
of St. Lutgardis, circa 1696, National Museum in Wrocław originally
in Cistercian monastic church Lubiąż Abbey - altarpiece before the choir).
Michael
Willman Wizja św. Ludgardy (1675) z Muzeum Narodowego we Wrocławiu (pierwotnie
w kościele klasztornym Cystersów w Lubiążu - ołtarz przed chórem zakonnym
St. Luthgard
Feastday: June 16
Patron: of birth; blind people; blindness; childbirth; disabled people; handicapped people; physically challenged people; Flanders; Flemish National Movement
Birth: 1182
Death: 1246
One of the outstanding
mystics of the Middle Ages, a Cistercian nun, sometimes called Lutgardis. She
was born inTongres, Brabant, Belgium. When she was twelve she was placed in St.
Catherine’s Benedictine Convent at
Saint-Trond because her dowry for marriage had been lost by her family. A
vision of Christ compelled
Lutgard to become a Benedictine. She had many mystical experiences, levitated,
and had a form of
the stigmata. In order to avoid being made an abbess, Lutgard joined the Cistercians at
Aywieres. She lived a mystical life there
for three decades and was famed for her spiritual wisdom and
miracles. During the last eleven years of her life she
was blind. She died on June 16 and is still revered as a leading mystic of the
thirteenth century.
SOURCE : https://www.catholic.org/saints/saint.php?saint_id=4370
Gaspar de Crayer (1584–1669), Christ appearing to Saint Lutgarde, circa 1653, 250 x 170, Klooster van de Zwartzusters-Augustinessen, Antwerp
New Catholic
Dictionary – Saint Lutgard
Article
Virgin, mystic; born in
Tongres, Belgium in 1182; died 1246.
She took the Benedictine habit,
1194, and was elected prioress of
her community in 1205. In 1208 she was transferred to the Cistercian Order
at Aywieres, near Brussels. Throughout her life, she was favored with
apparitions of Christ, the Blessed Virgin Mary, and the saints. Represented
with Our Lord, who is showing her His bleeding heart. Feast, 16
June.
MLA
Citation
“Saint Lutgard”. New Catholic Dictionary. CatholicSaints.Info.
11 August 2018. Web. 20 April 2026.
<https://catholicsaints.info/new-catholic-dictionary-saint-lutgard/>
SOURCE : https://catholicsaints.info/new-catholic-dictionary-saint-lutgard/
Église
du Val-Dieu, Hochaltar, Relief St. Lutgardis von Tongeren
Église
du Val-Dieu, maître-autel, relief de Sainte-Lutgarde de Tongres
Lutgardis of Aywières,
OSB Cist. V (RM)
Born at Tongres, Brabant,
the Netherlands, in 1182; died at Aywières, June 16, 1246.
Lutgardis is a very
sympathetic and lovable figure among women mystics of the 12th and 13th
centuries. She was sent to the Black Benedictine convent of Saint Catherine
near Saint Trond when she was 12 years old, presumably because her dowry had
been lost in a business venture. She had no particular vocation to the
religious life, but with no dowry there was little hope of finding a suitable
husband. One day, however, the pretty girl who was fond of fine clothes and
innocent amusements, experienced a vision of Christ that changed her outlook on
life.
He appeared while she was
entertaining a friend, showed her His wounds, and asked her to love only Him.
Instantly she accepted Jesus as her Bridegroom and, at the age of 20, she
became a Benedictine nun. Many of her sisters were skeptical that her sudden
fervor would last, but it only increased over time.
So vivid did God's
presence become to her that, when engaged in prayer, she saw Jesus as she would
with her bodily eyes. She would speak with Him familiarly. If summoned away to
perform some task she was say, quite simply, "Wait here, Lord Jesus, and I
will come back as soon as I have finished this duty." During the next 12
years, she experienced numerous ecstasies, during which she had visions of our
Lord, our Lady, and several of the saints. She levitated and dripped blood from
her forehead and hair when she shared in the Passion of Christ.
Though the nuns of Saint
Catherine's wanted to make her abbess, in 1208, she left in quest of a stricter
rule and became a Cistercian at their convent in Aywières near Brussels.
Although she would have preferred a German-speaking house, she selected
Aywières on the advice of her confessor and her friend, Saint Christine the
Astonishing, who was living at Saint Catherine's that time. Later, her
inability to speak French in a French-speaking house gave her a good excuse to
refuse the office of abbess.
She lived there the 30
remaining years of her life, famed for her spiritual wisdom. God endowed her
with the gifts of healing and prophecy, as well as an infused knowledge of the
meaning of Holy Scriptures. Despite her imperfect French, she had great success
at imparting spiritual consolation. She was blind the last 11 years of her life
and accepted the affliction as a joyful gift from God to assist her in
detaching herself from the visible world.
Jesus appeared to
Lutgardis and told her when and how she was to prepare for death. She was to
praise God for what she had received; pray unremittingly for the conversion of
sinners; and rely on God alone for all things while awaiting the time she would
possess Him forever. Saint Lutgardis died as predicted: On the Saturday night
after the feast of the Holy Trinity, just as the night office for Sunday was
beginning.
Lutgardis is considered
one of the leading mystics of the 13th century. Many visions and mystical
experiences are recorded of her, but her almost contemporary biographer was
somewhat credulous (Attwater, Benedictines, Delaney, Encyclopedia, Merton,
Walsh).
In art, Christ shows
Saint Lutgardis His wounded Heart to blind the Cistercian nun. At times, she
may be shown (1) as Christ shows His wounds to the Father; (2) as Christ shows
her His wounded side; (3) as Christ extends His hand to her from the crucifix;
(4) as a blind Cistercian abbess (she was not an abbess, but is sometimes
represented as such) (Roeder). She is venerated in Tongres, Brabant, and is
invoked in childbirth (Roeder).
SOURCE : http://www.saintpatrickdc.org/ss/0616.shtml
Cornelis Galle the Elder (1576–1650), Lutgardis van Tongeren, 1624, 22.7 x 13.8, Thijs Collection (University of Antwerp)
Miniature
Lives of the Saints – Saint Lutgarde, Virgin
Article
There was little in
Lutgarde’s education to make her a Saint. Her parents first betrothed her to a
merchant; and when, through the loss of her fortune, her marriage became
impossible, they urged her to take the veil. After some resistance she entered,
as pensioner, the Benedictine convent at Tongres in Brabant, but lived in a
discontented state, secretly sighing for a worldly life. One day when she had
gone to gossip, as was her wont, in the parlours, our Lord Himself stood before
her. Pointing to His still bleeding Heart, He bade her seek in Him alone the
joys of Divine love. From that hour Lutgarde renounced the world and its
follies, and began a new life of prayer and penance. During the bloody struggle
with the Albigenses she offered herself a victim for the Church, and suffered
most fearful tortures of mind and body. To conceal the miraculous gifts with
which she was favoured, she exchanged to the Cistercian Order, and prayed
earnestly that she might remain there unknown. Her petition was granted. She
lived for forty years in a community of French nuns, from whom, by her
ignorance of the language, she was completely isolated. Towards the end of her
life, her solitude was further increased by the total loss of sight. At length,
in 1146, her eyes, which had been closed for eleven years, opened to behold a
troop of blessed spirits who came to lead her to heaven.
“Frequently examine thy
heart,” said a great servant of God, “and contrast it with the Heart of Jesus.”
It was thus Saint Lutgarde changed her life; thus too may we change our own.
Let us make three
tabernacles: one in the Feet, one in the Hands, and one in the Sacred Side; and
in this last may I watch and rest, eat, drink, and read, and do my whole work
in life. – Saint Bonaventure
The gift of healing which
Saint Lutgarde possessed brought to the convent numerous visitors, who
interrupted her silence and observance. The Saint therefore prayed for some
other less dangerous grace, and received the power of understanding the secret
things of Sacred Scripture. Still she was dissatisfied, and complained that
such high mysteries were not for one so simple. “What wouldst thou, then?”
asked Christ of her. “Not Thy Word, but Thy Heart, O Lord, for me!” she
replied. In that moment and from that time the Sacred Heart of Jesus was
present in the heart of the holy maiden, purifying her and encouraging her to
suffer; thenceforth she never knew another wayward desire or evil thought, but
lived in and for her Lord.
And if Christ be in you,
the body indeed is dead because of sin; but the spirit liveth because of
justification. – Romans 8:10
MLA
Citation
Henry Sebastian Bowden.
“Saint Lutgarde, Virgin”. Miniature Lives of the
Saints for Every Day of the Year, 1877. CatholicSaints.Info.
8 March 2015. Web. 20 April 2026.
<https://catholicsaints.info/miniature-lives-of-the-saints-saint-lutgarde-virgin/>
SOURCE : https://catholicsaints.info/miniature-lives-of-the-saints-saint-lutgarde-virgin/
Metten
( Lower Bavaria ). Abbey church: Fresco ( 1722/24 ) by Wolfgang Andreas Heindl
- Saint Lutgard and her emblem.
Metten
( Niederbayern ). Klosterkirche : Fresko ( 1722/24 ) von Wolfgang Andreas
Heindl - Heilige Luitgard von Tongern mit Emblem.
Saint Lutgardis
Jul 21, 2020 /
Written by: America
Needs Fatima
Feast June 16
Virgin and Patron Saint
of the Blind and Physically Disabled
Born in the Netherlands
in 1182, Lutgardis was sent to a Benedictine convent at the age of twelve
because her merchant father had lost the money meant for her dowry, and
marriage without it seemed unlikely.
She was fond of worldly
things, and had no inclination toward a religious life. However, one afternoon
she had a vision of Our Lord, Who showed her His sacred wounds and asked her to
love Him and Him alone.
Lutgardis immediately
renounced all worldly pleasures and became a religious. She often saw Christ
while engaged in prayer, and was allowed to share in His sufferings: her
forehead and hair were often made wet with drops of blood when she meditated on
The Passion.
Desiring to live under a
stricter rule, Lutgardis later joined a Cistercian convent at Aywieres. There
she spent the final thirty years of her life, becoming known as a mystic with
the gifts of healing and prophecy.
During the last eleven
years prior to her death she was totally blind, an affliction which she treated
as an extraordinary gift from God because it reduced the distractions of the
outside world.
Before she died, Our Lord
appeared to her to warn her of her approaching death, and asked her to prepare
for this event in three ways.
She was to give praise to
God for what she had received, pray constantly for the conversion of sinners
and rely in all things on God alone. She died soon after the vision on June 16,
1246.
SOURCE : https://americaneedsfatima.org/articles/saint-lutgardis
Kalender für katholische Christen auf das Jahr 1858
Lutgard or Lutgardis of Saint Trond
Lutgard or Lutgardis of
Saint Trond, or of Aywieres, was born in 1182 in Tongeren - therefore
also Lutgard of Tongeren. She was send to the black Benedictine community near
St. Trond (St. Truiden) when she was twelve, because her dowry had been lost in
a failed business venture. In her late teens she received a vision of Christ
showing her his wounds, and at age 20 she became a Benedictine nun with a true
vocation. According to her Vitae, she had visions of Christ while in
prayer, experienced ecstasies, levitated, and dripped blood from forehead and
hair when enraptured in the Passion. The Benedictine order was not strict
enough for Lutgardis, and at age 24 she joined the Cistercians at Aywieres
where she lived for her remaining 30 years. She displayed the gifts of healing,
prophecy, spiritual wisdom, and was an inspired teacher on the Gospels. Blind
for the last 11 years of her life, she treated the affliction as a gift, as
reducing the distraction of the outside world. In one of her last visions,
Christ told her (correctly, of course) when she was to die; she spent the time
that remained praying for the conversion of sinners. She died in 1264 at
Aywieres.
Lutgard is the patron of women in childbirth and disabled people, especially the blind. Her memorial day is 16 June. She is mostly represented as a Cistercian nun being blinded by the Heart of Jesus; in attendance when Christ shows his Heart to the Father; as Christ shows her His wounded side; Cistercian to whom Christ extends his hand from the cross; and as a blind Cistercian abbess.
(source: Patron Saints Index http://www.catholic-forum.com/saints/saintl10.htm).
Lutgard's biography,
the Vita Piae Lutgardi was written by the Dominican Thomas of
Cantimpre, who also wrote the Vitae of Christina the Astonishing and
of Margaret of Ypres, and added to Jacques of Vitry's Vita of Marie
d'Oignies. Thomas's Vita Lutgardis was most famously translated into
the Brabantian dialect by the Benedictine William of Affligem. Click on the
thumbnail above to see three pages from Affligem's Vita. On the first page
he is depicted, not in the usual pose of writing, but as speaking. On the
second page you see Lutgard on her deathbed, surrounded by fellow Cistercian
nuns. On the third page, a Benedictine (possibly William of Affligem), is
praying to Lutgard, who from the window of heaven places a crown on his head,
as two angels hold open the shutters. (all from Hs. Copenhague, Kongelige
Bibliotek, Ny kongelige samling, left to right, 168, quarto, f. 1v., quarto,
f.168v., quarto, f.255r.; source: Hogenelst and Van Oostrom, p.75)
Cf. also McGinn on Thomas
and Lutgard in The Flowering of Mysticism, 165-66.
SOURCE : http://www.cns.bu.edu/~satra/kaatvds/lutgard.htm
.jpg)
Mosteiro
de São Martinho de Tibães, Mire de Tibães, Portugal. Retábulo da capela lateral
do Crucificado: pormenor. Talha dos séculos 17-18. Autor: Robert Chester Smith
(1912-1975). Data de produção da fotografia original: 1962-1964.
Saint Lutgarde
chapel in Church of Tibães
The
Heavenly Court of the Holy Cistercian Nun, Saint Lutgarde of Brabant
Saint Lutgarde is
prepared by many ecstasies for her high calling
Many were the secrets
shown by God during her ecstasies to the holy and enlightened virgin, Lutgarde,
called the Sister of Penance, a religious of the Third Order of Saint Francis,
and foundress of the Convent of Saint Clare at Wittichen.
He wished her to be, as
it were a channel, a trench, along which the stream of the Divine graces might
flow into the hearts of men. But Lutgarde, in her humility, held herself far
too unworthy to be thus used as an instrument.
Often and often did God
show to her the dangerous state of the sinful world, and the punishments with
which He ceaselessly visits sin, seeking to lead men to mend their ways in
time, and thus turn the Divine anger into mercy and compassion.
In truth, the Saint was
given the self-same mission as was entrusted to Bridget, that holy widow, to
the most enlightened Tauler, to the Blessed Father Amandus Suso, and to many
others, by whose mouths God likewise told the sinful world of impending
chastisements and calamities.
Painful indeed to the
saintly Mother were such visions of miseries to come, and in every possible way
she strove with all her faculties to avert the Divine anger, and to prevent the
threatened punishments from falling on the heads of men with so great
promptitude and violence.
And thus it fell out that
on a day when Saint Lutgarde was speaking with a sister in religion on heavenly
and spiritual matters, and searching for fresh means to appease the wrath of
God, they were both overcome with so intense a longing for the salvation and
rescue of sinners, that for very pity their hearts did faint away, and they
were consumed with hot and fiery love for God and their fellow-men.
Even as they spoke
together quickly and eagerly, they were both overpowered by ecstasy, and in
that state lay as dead during four whole days. But while their bodies lay thus,
they themselves were led in spirit into the clear light of eternal joy, and
they saw the whole heavenly host, and the Most Holy, Undivided Trinity, and
heard four voices sound forth into the world, three of which issued from the
Mouth of the Three Divine Persons, but the fourth from the mouth of the Blessed
Virgin.
Of the Four-fold Voice in
praise of the Prayer of the Heavenly Court which Saint Lutgarde heard in
ecstasy
During the four long unbroken
days when the holy servant of God and her spiritual sister lay on the ground as
though dead, they heard first of all a Voice from the Divine Mouth of the
Heavenly Father, and these were the words spoken: “I will send a Prayer into
Christendom, a Prayer which shall be uttered in My honour, and of which I
Myself will be the Reward.”
From God the Son, our
Redeemer and all our Blessedness, came likewise a Voice, and these were the
words spoken: “I will specially guard the bodies and souls of all who seek to
honour Me by this Prayer, and will shield them from every transgression and all
shameful sins, and fill them to overflowing with My grace and comfort. With the
streams of grace that flow from My innocent and bitter passion and death, and
which avail for the forgiveness of every kind of sin, I will wash them clean
from all their past misdeeds, and adorn and enrich their souls with the beauty
of goodness.”
Similarly, fiery words
came from the Divine Mouth of the Holy Spirit, and the words were these: “I
will kindle the fire of My Divine love in all who say this Prayer which I now
send into the world, and in all for whom it is said.”
Last of all, Lutgarde and
the Sister saw a clear light shine out from the Queen of Heaven, the glorious
Mother of God, and her lips opened, and they heard these words: “All those who
use this Devotion and teach others to use it, will I plunge by means of my
intercession into the unfathomable ocean of mercy of my most dear Son.”
Moreover, as to David
long ago (Psalm 83), to both was given a slight foretaste of the sweet joy of.
Heaven, with an intimation that the high degree of happiness prepared for all
who should use this new Prayer, surpassed the utmost comprehension of angels
and of men.
Of the further things
which Lutgarde and the Sister saw in the Heavenly Court
The two devout Sisters
saw how the Heavenly Court was so exquisitely adorned and ordered with such
beauty and regularity that their hearts were not able to grasp it nor their
lips to express it.
They saw how the Most
Holy Trinity lit up the whole of Heaven with an unutterably clear light; and
how the noble Queen Mary, as Mother of the. Eternal Wisdom, shone with a
radiance incomparably more beautiful than does the hottest mid-day sun.
And this all high and
holy Court resounded with the most entrancing music, and with the songs of the
dear Angels.
There the holy patriarchs
and prophets, who had foretold the coming of the Redeemer and longed after it
with so great a longing, lifted up their voices in right merry gladness.
There the holy Apostles
sit as Judges, because they forsook all on earth to follow Christ, their Lord
and Master; and beside them sit the Evangelists, who did so faithfully transmit
to us the teaching, life, and miracles of Christ, leaving behind them a record
for all future generations of men.
There the glorious
martyrs reign in triumph – they who yielded up their bodies to a thousand kinds
of pain and martyrdom for love of Christ, and by the shedding of their blood
deserved to win a heavenly crown.
There stand all glad and
joyous the holy priests and confessors who witnessed to the Name of God openly
and boldly; and by their side are all the holy virgins, who led down here a
life austere and upright, chaste and mortified, silent and hidden.
And all these together
encircle the vast hall of Heaven like a garland of beautiful red roses and
glorious white lilies, filling it with the sweetest perfume the while they sing
to the Most High God their ceaseless hymn of praise.
Last of all, Saint
Lutgarde and the Sister saw a great company that no man could number, who by
the earnest pursuit of good works had laid hold of salvation, and through the
conquest of self, the world, and Satan, had deserved to enter the Heavenly
Court, and to enjoy its endless happiness in the company of the blessed.
Now it was revealed to
our Saints that in one particular quarter of the Holy City reigned the greatest
joy of all the Heavenly Court. Here existed, as it were, a very overflow of
happiness, for here the all-sweet odour of Divine love and of every conceivable
goodness and virtue, was united to the most soul-entrancing music of the great
Song of Praise.
The least little gleam
from this spot surpasses all the gleam of a hundred thousand earthly suns. So
far indeed does it surpass them, that it were quite useless to try to describe
it.
The Privileges and
Liberties of the Heavenly Court
In Heaven many privileges
and liberties are enjoyed, to wit:
1. Love without
Suffering.
2. Eternal Life without
Death.
3. Eternal Youth without
Age.
4. Riches without
Poverty.
5. Unfailing Health
without Sickness.
6. Unspeakable Joy
without Grief.
7. Everlasting Peace, and
the Perpetual Grace of God.
The Holy Mother Lutgarde
in her ecstasy sees the Blessed in Heaven under the image of a spiritual Court
Thereafter Lutgarde and
the Sister saw how a Court was held in Heaven in honour of the Most Holy
Trinity, the Eternal God and King.
For the Heavenly Father
was shown to them surrounded by all the heavenly Spirits; but His only-begotten
Son, Jesus Christ, was in the midst of a company of His dear Saints, who by
their valiant lives had deserved to be chosen for His courtiers, and some even
to be His faithful counsellors.
The Holy Ghost appeared
to the Sisters surrounded by those souls who on earth had burned with zeal for
the Glory of God, and had been consumed with longing to extend His Kingdom.
Furthermore, they saw the
Mother of God as Queen of Heaven reigning over all pure and virgin souls.
And the four-and twenty
Ancients sat there as clerks of the Court, the four Evangelists as chancellors
and keepers of the archives, the holy Apostles as judges and privy councillors,
and all the holy Angels as attendants and noble stewards.
The holy Mother Lutgarde
sees how Mary, the Queen of Heaven, founds a Heavenly Court also on Earth
Then (continues Father
Musaus) the two devout Sisters saw how the Queen of Heaven held a Court, after
the fashion of the great on earth. And they understood that the Court was held
in praise of God, the Eternal King, and in honour of the Most Holy Trinity.
And at the same time they
were shown what manner of men are wont to he admitted to the Holy Court of the
glorious Queen of Heaven.
These men are indeed
divers:
Firstly, those who give
themselves up to contemplating, imitating, and tenderly pitying the all holy
life and sufferings and death of our Saviour Jesus Christ, and who have a
heartfelt and compassionate devotion to the sorrowful Mother of God, Mary of
Many Sorrows.
Secondly, those who lead
an exemplary and edifying life, detached from all the passing things of earth,
whose whole desire and longing, will and Heart, are fixed upon Eternity alone.
Thirdly, those who are
patient in adversity, and place all their trust and confidence and hope in God.
Fourthly, those who are
peaceable, loving, humble of heart, despisers of their own selves.
Such as these are
qualified to enter the Heavenly Court. These are they who in the world beyond
the grave will merrily come to the Heavenly Court and there be crowned by God
with a crown of honour.
And on Saint Lutgarde the
task fell (as once on Saint John the Baptist) to serve her Lord by preparing a
path. “It is not enough,” said He to her, “that men should learn through thee
the excellence of the rewards of Heaven; thou must also point out the road which
leads to their eternal possession.”
Saint Lutgarde, before
she founds the Heavenly Court, must herself tread the Fourfold Way pointed out
to her by God
As, according to the
design of God, Saint Lutgarde might not teach her fellow-men the four great qualifications
for entrance to the Heavenly Court before she had herself obtained a complete
mastery and understanding of them, it is no hard matter to divine the Ways
along which God led her.
Great must have been His
care to give her a most exact and thorough knowledge of these four Ways, and
this He did partly by direct illumination and partly by means of His holy
Saints, whom often and often He sent down to her poor cell.
With the first Way,
indeed, Lutgarde was already so familiar that she lived in unbroken spiritual
union with her Divine Redeemer and His most holy life and passion.
In truth, her heartfelt
devotion to the life and sufferings of Christ must have quickly prepared her
and spurred her on to enter the Second Way. With regard to this, her Heavenly
Bridegroom taught her as follows: “Leave all that perishes, and gather that
which is eternal. Renounce all thou canst see, and strive after the things thou
canst not see. Grieve hot over the things of Time that pass away. I can make
whom I will rich or poor. Place all thy hope in me, then, O my bride!”
Upon a certain Easter
Sunday, Saint John the Baptist appeared to Lutgarde, and taught her the third
Way, the Way of Patience. “Sister,” began the holy Forerunner of Christ, “may
the Lord be with thee and grant thee a happy Easter! Thou are now in grief and
anxiety, but know that on this account a great reward awaits thee. Refresh
thyself with this thought, that by tribulation thou shalt gain more merit than
if thou wert to win the treasures of the whole world.”
The instruction on the
fourth Way began thus. The Saint was made to understand that she should
endeavor to accept with humility, gratitude, and holy simplicity, all the
graces with which God was pleased to clothe her.
Said our Lord to her; “A
man is on his way to Me and coming to me when he speaks thus: I have nothing
good in me; I can do nothing good without God; I am not deserving of any
grace.’ When these are a man’s convictions, they bear him along so far on his
way to Me, that with all haste I go forth to meet him.”
The relation of the
Heavenly Court to the most holy life and sufferings of Jesus
One of the principal aims
of the spiritual society of the Heavenly Court, as instituted by God, was to
revive and deepen the devotion of the life and sufferings of Jesus.
And therefore no one was
to be received info the society unless he were resolved to contemplate with
love and reverence the mysteries of this most holy life and passion.
Jesus Christ is the
Beginning, the Middle, and the End of all things. Writ plain on countless
faces, Saint Lutgarde had seen the bliss that comes to the dwellers in the Heavenly
City from perpetually contemplating and reverencing the mysteries of Jesus
Christ. She perceived that for the inhabitants of the Heavenly Court, Eternity
itself is too short to glorify their Redeemer for all that is glorious in
Himself and His mysteries. Lutgarde saw the whole of the Heavenly Jerusalem
lighted up by the beauty of Jesus and of His mysteries.
It is not difficult to
understand that after this she could not any longer view with indifference the
contemptuous treatment meted out to these same mysteries on earth. Rather was
the wish of the Saint quite natural, that on earth too should some be found to
imitate the dwellers in the Heavenly Court – some who, by banding themselves
together for the more zealous honouring of the mysteries of Jesus Christ,
should achieve here below a faithful copy of the Heavenly Court above.
Moreover, Lutgarde
realized the deep import to those who would lead a good life, of a greater
devotion to the mysteries of their Lord, and in this she found herself at one
with all those of her day who had the true welfare of mankind at heart. For all
with one accord teach: “There is no knowledge half so momentous as the
knowledge of Jesus Christ and of His mysteries, nothing which is of more
immediate and lasting practical use to men; nor is there anything that can so
deeply interest them (in so far as they retain any interest at all in spiritual
things) as a devotion to the most holy life and passion of Jesus.”
The complaints which the
Saint heard, and that repeatedly, from the lips of her Heavenly Bridegroom on
this subject, leave no doubt as to the sad truth. From these, and from many
another testimony left us by history as to the circumstances of the time, we
can conclude to what an extent the mysteries of Jesus Christ had vanished from
the memories and hearts of a great part of Christendom. Numbers were living as
though there had never been a Redeemer, or as though they would fain push Him
quietly to one side.
Lutgarde’s courage, then,
was confronted by a hard condition of things, so hard that it had been
well-nigh desperate, but for the grace of God. The hardness consisted in that
ignorance of which the Blessed Balthasar Alvarez used to say: “Of all the
different kinds of ignorance which reign in the world the most fatal is that
which neither knows the Person of Jesus Christ, nor the treasures which we
possess in Him.”
Against this ignorance,
Saint Lutgarde was ordered to wage a lifelong fight, by the side of Saint
Francis, Saint Dominic, and many another; and marvellous it is with what
unresting energy the Saint fulfilled her task, and with what skill she
succeeded in bringing back into the lives of men a devotion to the most holy
mysteries of Jesus. One of her principal means was the foundation (inspired, as
aforesaid, by God) of the Heavenly Court. Was there ever indeed, an earthly
object of importance that did not call into existence some society or
association? Why, then, should not the mysteries of the life and passion of
Jesus do the same? To this end Saint Lutgarde founded her society; and the more
its members make a heartfelt, interior devotion to the mysteries of Jesus
Christ the main purpose of their lives, so much the more perfectly do they
enter into the aims and ideas of the Saint.
The Prayer of the
Heavenly Court
One day, as Saint
Lutgarde earnestly besought God that He would show her the Way of Prayer that
pleased Him best of all, a very beautiful Prayer was infused into her, which
comprised in itself the whole of the life and sufferings of Christ. And
forthwith her memory retained it so accurately that she repeated It every day
with the greatest devotion. The Blessed Virgin told Lutgarde that she herself
had begged the grace of this Prayer for her.
The Prayer, as recorded
by Father Musaus, runs thus:
O, all-holy and
all-merciful Redeemer, Source of all graces, and our most kind Jesus! Out of
incomprehensible love for us poor children of Eve, hast Thou left Thy seat on
the right hand of Thy Heavenly Father, and willed to clothe Thyself with our
helplessness and poverty.
Nay the more surely to wn
us to love Thee in return, Thou hast made Thyself helpless and poor beyond us
all. No possible trouble, no possible toil hast Thou spared Thyself, in order
to save us from the Wicked Enemy, and make us the children of Thy Father in
Heaven.
Bitterly do I grieve that
up till now, I, a valueless and wretched worm of earth, have so little
understood the excess of Thy love, and have given Thee such poor thanks for all
the hardships, pains and martyrdom Thou hast borne for me.
And therefore do I how
offer up to Thee this my unworthy prayer, in honour of Thy most holy life and
sufferings and death, and of every year and day and hour Thou didst spend on
earth for the salvation of lost and sinful men.
And I offer Thee too,
from the inmost depths of my heart, all the myriad acts of praise and love and
gratitude of the nine Choirs of holy Angels, and indeed of all creatures from
the first moment of their creation until now, and all the acts made by the Most
Blessed Virgin Mary with the greatest possible love and devotion since her
immaculate conception to this very day, together with those she will not cease
to make through all the instants of Eternity.
And I offer Thee these
acts that I may thank Thee perfectly for all Thou hast done for me:
1. For Thy choice from
all Eternity of the Most Blessed Virgin Mary to be the Mother of God;
2. For her immaculate
conception, and her preservation from every spot of original sin, in which all
other mortals are conceived and born;
3. For the most pure nativity
of Thy Immaculate Mother, which shed a light over the whole world and caused
joy in Heaven;
4. For Thine own
wonderful Conception by the power of the Holy Ghost in the virgin womb of Thy
chosen Mother, the which was announced by the Archangel Gabriel;
5. For the first journey
Thou didst take, hidden in the most pure womb of Thy Holy Mother, a journey
over the hills to Thy cousin Elizabeth and her child John – John who, even as
Thou didst, then lay hidden;
6. For Thy holy Nativity,
when Thou didst come into the world in the greatest poverty and wast born in a
stable amid senseless beasts, without even a pillow on which to lay Thy Sacred
Head, or clothes wherewith to warm and protect Thy tender limbs;
7. For the great honour
Thou didst vouchsafe to receive from the Adoration of the Three Wise Men and
from their costly symbolic gifts – gold and frankincense, and myrrh;
8. For Thy first
blood-shedding at the Circumcision, which Thou didst suffer for our sakes and
out of humble obedience to the Law of Moses;
9. For Thy most holy
Presentation in the Temple at Jerusalem by Thy Blessed Mother, in accordance
with the Law of Moses;
10. For the bitter
persecution which began even with Thy tenderest years, and which drove Thee
into the godless land of Egypt and kept Thee there for a long space of time;
11. For Thy most dear
Mother’s anxious search for Thee, and then her joyful finding of Thee amid the
doctors in the Temple, after she had sought Thee for three days with bitter
grief and pain;
12. For the submission
Thou didst show to Thy dear parents until Thy thirtieth year, rendering them
all manner of humble, filial services;
13. For all Thy teaching
and preaching, for Thy hard and dangerous journeys, and especially for all the
fatigue and toil Thou didst undergo for our salvation;
14. For Thy most holy
fast of forty days, and Thy constant, fervent prayers in the desert;
15. For thy great and
glorious miracles, worked to convince the stubborn Jews;
16. For Thine agonized
prayer and bloody sweat in the Garden of Olives, when shuddering and sorrowful
unto death, Thou wert yet perfectly resigned to Thy Father’s Will;
17. For the false kiss
with which the faithless Judas betrayed Thee and delivered Thee into the hands
of wicked men;
18. For the painful bands
and cruel cords of Thine infamous captors, and for their grievous dragging and
pulling of Thee over stones and through water and briars;
19. For the many false
accusations devised and brought against Thy most holy Person before Annas and
Caiaphas, Pilate and Herod;
20. For the most painful
treatment meted out to Thee when Thou wast ignominiously drawn from one unjust
Judge to another;
21. For the hard and
worse than blasphemous blow Thou didst receive on Thy most Holy Face from a
servant of the High Priest;
22. For the copious and
most painful blood-shedding when every part of Thy most holy Body was torn by
the rods and scourges of the executioners;
23. For Thy nakedness,
and the bitter shame Thou didst experience when Thy garments were torn from
Thee and Thou wert thus bound to the pillar before all the crowd;
24. For the jeering,
scoffing, and mock genuflections by which godless Jews ridiculed Thee to Thy
holy Face;
25. For the sharp
pressure on Thy sacred Head of the crown of thorns, which caused Thy Precious
Blood to flow down over Thy Face and Cheeks;
26. For Thy piteous
appearance before Pilate, who by his exclamation BEHOLD THE MAN tried to move
the people to compassion;
27. For the sentence
pronounced on Thee by Pilate, for the manner in which Thou wast led forth to
die, and for the heavy weight of the Cross;
28. For Thy dolorous
meeting with Thy sorrow-stricken Mother and the other holy women who had
followed Thee on the path to Calvary and shed tears of pity over Thee;
29. For the painful tearing
off of Thy clothes to the renewal of all Thy wounds, and for the merciless
nailing to the hard wood of the Cross, as also for all the priceless words
spoken on the Cross, and the final surrender of Thy Spirit;
30. For Thy glorious
Resurrection on the third day after Thy sufferings, when Thou didst appear to
Mary Magdalene, Thy Disciples and Apostles, and after that to many others;
31. For Thy wonderful
Ascension into Heaven and glorious return to Thy Heavenly Father, when Thine
earthly pilgrimage was ended and Thou hadst triumphed victoriously over the
world and Satan;
32. For the wonderful
fiery Descent of the Holy Ghost on Thy Disciples and Apostles and Thy most
beloved Mother on the holy Days of Pentecost;
33. For the lordly
triumph Thou didst celebrate when Thou didst assume Thy beloved Mother, body
and soul, into Heaven;
34. For Thy high festival
of joy, in which were associated the Father and the Holy Ghost, at the
exaltation of Thy most glorious Mother over all the Choirs of Angels, and at
her Coronation as the Queen of Heaven;
For all these, and more
especially for every beat of Thy Heart and every act of love, for all Thy
thoughts and longings, for all the silent and the uttered prayers which Thou
didst offer while on earth, and still dost offer in the Most Holy Sacrament of
the Altar – for all these I tender Thee a thousand thanks, and ask Thee most
humbly that Thou wouldst grant to me and to all who have commended themselves
to my prayers, or for whom I ought to pray, perfect contrition for our sins and
a firm determination never again to offend Thy Divine Majesty, together with
the grace of final perseverance. Grant that I and all men may enjoy Thy grace
here, and after this toilsome life is over may be received into the company of
Thine elect, and be united with them to the Source of Eternal Joy – which is
none other but Thou Thyself O dearest Lord. And may we be permitted to gaze at
last on Thy most holy Face, Who with the Father and the Holy Ghost livest and
reignest God, for ever and ever, Amen.
Of the manner of praying
the Prayer of the Heavenly Court
Saint Lutgarde used to
exhort those whom she instructed as to the aforesaid God-revealed Prayer, to
say a thousand Paters and as many Ave Marias, and perhaps Glorias,
in honour of each of the thirty-four mysteries, and this too she doubtless had
from God. But because the Prayer thus said might easily degenerate into an
empty, mechanical repetition, the Saint advised that with every thousand Paters, Aves and Glorias,
a short meditation be made on one of the thirty-four mysteries into which she
had divided the whole of the life and sufferings of our Lord; and she wished
these mysteries to be contemplated in the self-same order in which she had
arranged them. (While your lips pronounce the words of the prayers, let your
mind picture the Mystery.)
This contemplation of the
mysteries of Jesus was repeatedly enjoined on the Saint in her intercourse with
Heaven as being the very soul of the Prayer of the Heavenly Court. “If a man
would take the direct path to my treasure-room,” said the Lord to her one, “let
him exercise himself in meditating on My life and My love, and give up his own
will. If a man would but consider what I have done for him and all I have given
him, never again would he so rouse My anger.”
The Blessed Virgin
revealed to our Saint that what she desired before all else in this Devotion
was that men should contemplate therein the mysteries of her Son, And with
these words did she begin her discourse: “Daughter, put on thy clothes, and
fasten on thy collar – that is, the passion of my Son.”
“Do thou fasten it on for
me,” begged Lutgarde.
“That will I do,” replied
the Mother of God; “and I will tell thee of the sufferings wherewith my Son was
clothed.”
And forthwith Mary began
to relate to the Saint all the mysteries of the life and passion of her Son in
the very same order which Lutgarde, remembering her words, afterwards adopted,
and at the end of each she added: “Contemplate this mystery, O my daughter, and
keep it ever before thine eyes.” The Saint was also shown a soul who by
meditating on the mysteries of Jesus Christ had been fired with a little spark
of the Divine love, and had thereby attained to eternal happiness.
It followed as a matter
of course that Lutgarde should before all things demand an inner, spiritual
activity, before the Prayer revealed to her in honour of the mysteries of
Christ could find favour with Cod. This spiritual activity on the part of those
who said it, was to find its outlet in considerations and loving contemplation.
And in this way the outward form and construction of the Prayer could by no
means be called superfluous or insignificant. Often and often had the Saint
heard various oral prayers offered aloud and in common by members of the
Society of the Heavenly Court, such as the Te Deum, Pange Lingua, Gloria
in Excelsis, and more particularly, the Glory be to the Father with
many another; she could not possibly, therefore, have attributed a purely
subordinate importance to the oral prayers or outward form of the Devotion
revealed to her.
Moreover, the Saint permitted
an alteration to those who used the Devotion more frequently. Instead of the
continued repetition of each thousand Our Fathers, they might either
assist at a Holy Mass, or give an alms, or follow the Way of the Cross, or say
the Psalter or make a Novena; and in this wise, thirty-four Holy Masses, gifts
of alms, days of fasting, Ways of the Cross, Psalters, Novenas, and so forth,
made with heartfelt devotion, would serve to merit the favours attached to the
Prayer of the Heavenly Court,
Some wonders narrated by
Saint Lutgarde and others of the Prayer of the Heavenly Court
Once the holy Mother
Lutgarde saw our dear Lord Jesus Christ in a vision after the following manner:
He hung on the Cross, and fresh Blood was streaming from all His Sacred Wounds.
And men were turning towards this stream of the Precious Blood, in such fashion
that some received That Which flowed from the Heart, and others again That
Which flowed from the Feet of the Saviour. By means of this picture Cod taught
the Saint that through the Prayer of the Heavenly Court many men should be
saved and brought to eternal blessedness:
But a number of men
despised these rivers of grace and turned away from them, and these the holy
Mother saw hurled with ignominy into a deep abyss.
A nun of the Order
founded by Saint Francis, presumably attached to the Convent of Wittichen, had
grave doubts of the Prayer of the Heavenly Court and of its efficacy, and she
besought God to enlighten her on the matter and to remove the temptation. And
in truth her doubts were soon solved by a secret and Divine communication,
which she did indeed keep hidden, but which had the result, that she after¬
wards took every opportunity of seeking out persons who would follow in common
with her the Devotion of the Heavenly Court. She even made an occasion of
speaking of this Prayer, so rich in graces, to the Abbess of a neighboring
Convent, who, however, gave but little credence to her words. “In good sooth,”
(so ran her answer), “we have a number of more beautiful and more spiritual
prayers in our Convent, and my daughters can make use of these at choice; nor
have we any time to devote to so long and troublesome a Prayer.”
But during the ensuing
night, the Holy Mother of God appeared to the Abbess, reproved her for those
words, and herself instructed her as to the great power of this Prayer. The
result was that not only did the Abbess and all her daughters make use of the
Prayer from that day forth, but they did all that in them lay to induce others
to do the same.
The Prayer of the
Heavenly Court has extraordinary power and efficacy
Quite remarkable are the
words in which our Lord revealed to His servant Lutgarde the merit and power of
the Devotion of the Heavenly Court, and the exceeding great pleasure which He
Himself took in it.
“Whosoever,” said He to
her, “shall piously and devoutly recite this Prayer, to him will I in My great
mercy give thirty-four human souls; that is to say, for his sake I will rescue
from everlasting death, thirty-four human souls who had otherwise died in sin.
“For his sake too I will
release thirty-four souls from Purgatory. But as for the man himself who has
made this Prayer, his reward shall be multiplied as the grass of the field,
whose blades no one can number.
“And even should such a
man have always acted in times past against My Will, yet as soon as ever he
begins this Prayer with grief and contrition for his sins, and a- firm purpose
of amendment, I will forgive all his iniquities; nor will I ever remember his
misdeeds in Eternity, but will utterly remit and forget them.
“And if such a man,
during the course of this Prayer, should be called to depart from this
transitory life, then will I come with My Angels to accompany him on his last
journey, and to the sound of celestial music will conduct his soul to the
threshold of Eternity, where I Myself dwell, and where he shall rejoice forever
in the company of My Mother, the constant Advocate of Sinners, and of all My
Saints.”
The Prayer of the
Heavenly Court is revealed to others also
It fell, out that certain
pious persons had handed themselves together for the serving of God with zeal.
They cherished a heartfelt devotion to the Crucified Jesus, strove to follow
His footsteps, and were indeed not only filled with care for their own
salvation, but also with deep concern for the souls of their fellow-men. On
this account, they sought by all manner of good deeds, and by humble and
perseverng prayer, to appease the anger of God aroused by the sins of the
world, and to restore to all poor sinners the grace which they had lost.
Untiringly, they begged
the Queen of Heaven to show them a means by which her beloved Son might be
appeased, and the punishments so well deserved averted from men. And presently
the Mother of Mercy heard their fervent, loving request, and obtained from her
Son that one of that pious company should seem for a time to all appearance
dead, though in reality she was rapt in ecstasy.
When she was come once
more to herself, she sought out her companions and told them as follows: “Great
is the wrath of God against all. misdeeds and transgressions of men, and right
severely does He intend to punish the world. God has shown me the pains and
torments reserved for those who without confession or repentance sin on until
their life’s end and die impenitent. And so great are these pains and torments
that it were little wonder if they caused the hard rock itself to split in
pieces and to sweat blood.
“But it was also given to
me to see the joy of those who depart from this life in true penitence. So
great is their joy that no Angel nor man can possibly understand it. And I have
likewise seen how the Mother of Mercy never ceases to intercede with her Son
for all mankind, and how once again her prayer is even now about to be granted.
“For last of all God spoke
to me: “Thou shall: go back into thy body, out of which I have called thee, and
this shalt thou tell to men: That in My praise, in honour of My all-holy life
and sufferings and death, and in grateful remembrance of all the insults, shame
and scorn I bore from sinners – in honour of all this, they are to say
thirty-four thousand Our Fathers, and as many Hail Marys, and Glory
be to the Fathers. They may, however, instead of each thousand Our Fathers,
say or cause to be said a Holy Mass, or give an alms according to their means,
or fast for a day with contrite devotion.”
How the holy Exercise
already so often revealed is announced to yet another Religious
From the time that God
thus revealed the Devotion to one of the holiest of its members, the Prayer of
the Heavenly Court was generally adopted by the aforesaid devout Society. Now
there chanced to be in its number a certain nun of eighteen years standing, who
served the Lord in all fervour. After she had for a long time known the Prayer
of the Heavenly Court, and had used it with the greatest devotion, she also (as
Saint Lutgarde before her) was favored with a revelation from God and commanded
to teach and explain the Prayer to others.
Accordingly, she
addressed herself to a good friend and faithful, and besought him, since she
herself was now very aged and severed from the world by her vows to take upon
himself the furtherance and propagation of the Prayer of the Heavenly Court. He
promised her to do so, yet forgot, as it seems, to fulfill his undertaking, or
was indeed little minded to trouble himself about the new Devotion, which
seemed to him over difficult.
But one day, when he was
assisting at an early Mass, all his strength suddenly left him, so that those
around deemed him dead. In this state he remained until the hour of Vespers;
but meanwhile, being of a truth in ecstasy and. all astounded, the Prayer of
the Heavenly Court was shown to him by God after this manner. It seemed to him
that he saw an Altar, sparkling as it were with carbuncles, and at the Altar
stood a Priest. A great company of people, some of whom were clad like Kings
and Potentates and victorious Knights, others like Bishops, but very many like
ordinary lay persons drew near to the Priest, who, standing at the Altar, gave
his blessing to each division, and each, as it advanced, was greater than the
preceding one.
The ‘good friend and
faithful’ of the holy nun was astonished beyond measure at this unexpected
sight; but, at the bidding of God, his Angel Guardian thus explained the vision
to him: “The Altar thou didst see is the Most Sacred Heart of our Lord and
Saviour Jesus Christ, Which is ceaselessly filled with deepest longing and
unquenchable thirst for the salvation of souls. From out this Most Pure Heart
sprang the prayer which men call the Prayer of the Heavenly Court.
“The Priest Who stands at
the Altar represents the Eternal and Divine Being Who blesses mankind. And they
who draw near to the Altar signify those who us§ the Prayer. Among those are
some who have gone through the Prayer once, others who have gone through it
twice, others again who have gone through it many times. Therefore did these
last bear themselves as Kings and Princes and the Mighty of the earth; those
who have prayed it once as victorious Knights; while those who wear the guise
of ordinary lay people, signify all who indeed begin the Prayer of the Heavenly
Court, but never reached the end.
“Those clad as Bishops
are such as have applied themselves to spread the Devotion of the Heavenly
Court, and to instruct others therein.”
Now when the person to
whom this befell came out of his ecstasy towards the hour of Vespers, he
related all that he had seen and heard, adding: “The Prayer which the Lord God
deigns to reward in such divers ways is called in God the Father, ‘A Flowery
Paradise’; in God the Son, ‘A Crown of Chivalry’; and in God the Holy Ghost, ‘A
Benign and Ever-Open Place of Refuge and Consolation.'”
And henceforth this same
man, once so full of ill-will and vexation anent the Prayer of the Heavenly
Court, busied himself in explaining to all, as far as lay in his power, the
right manner in which to say it, and the glorious profit to be drawn from its
use.
How by means of this
Prayer a woman frees her mother from Purgatory
Among many others to whom
God disclosed the Prayer of the Heavenly Court, a certain woman who had
undertaken it on behalf of her own mother, did most particularly experience its
holy and wonderful power.
For after she had
finished the Prayer, she saw in spirit her dead mother in the midst of a great
company of people, walking in a fair and spacious meadow wherein grew all
manner of beautiful and fragrant flowers. And when she accosted her mother, she
got this answer: “Speak to her who walks last of all in the company.” The
daughter therefore, let all the happy crowd pass by, until she perceived at the
rear of the procession a marvellously beautiful Queen, who shone with greater
brilliance than the sun.
“O most wonderful and
beautiful Queen!” cried the woman, with deepest humility, “let it not anger
thee, I meekly pray, if I beg thee to tell me what people these may be whose
footsteps cause no hurt at all to flowers or grass.”
And the Queen of Heaven
made answer: “These are they who have been saved by the Prayer of the Heavenly
Court, and I conduct them myself into the Land of Eternal Life where their joy
shall never end.”
“And, along with this
vast company, I will come to the deathbed of every soul who has said this
Prayer, or for whom another has said it. All such souls will I protect from
evil spirits in their last hour, and will lead them to my dearest Son in the
Land of Eternal Bliss, and He Himself, will be their Everlasting Reward.”
To this, the reverend
Father Musaus adds: “O, if only men would prize as they deserve to be prized
the merits of this Prayer and the joys which flow from it! Then, indeed, would
they hold it in right high honour, nor would they so easily let slide many a
time and opportunity for using it.”
SOURCE : https://catholicsaints.info/the-heavenly-court-of-the-holy-cistercian-nun-saint-lutgarde-of-brabant/
Kalvarienberg
in Heiligenkreuz, Niederösterreich
Calvary
in Heiligenkreuz, Lower Austria
St Lutgarde of Aywières –The first known woman stigmatic of the Church, and one of the first promoters of devotion to the Sacred Heart
CHILDHOOD - FIRST MYSTICAL GRACES
Lutgardis (or Lutgarde) was born in 1182 in Tongres, Belgium. When she was twelve she was placed in St. Catherine's Benedictine Convent at Saint Trond because her family did not have the necessary dowry for marriage. During her teenage years, a young man fell in love with her and began paying her frequent visits. Pleased and a little flattered by these attentions, she was content to have them continue. One day, while the simple girl was speaking with her admirer, Jesus suddenly appeared, blazing before her astonished eyes. He revealed the spear-wound in His side, and said to her: "Seek no more the pleasure of this affection: behold, here, forever, what you should love, and how you should love: here in this wound I promise you the most pure of joys."
Lutgarde was struck with both terror and love. Her eyes fixed themselves upon the wound in the Heart of Christ, she lost all consciousness of her surroundings and the sudden pallor of her face indicated to her visitor that something extraordinary had happened. Indeed, Lutgarde, penetrated to the depths of her soul by supernatural light of Jesus, felt the desire of her worldly affection suddenly become completely dispelled, and forever.
Her original biographer, Thomas of Cantimpre, does not go into much detail in describing her emotions on recovering her senses. He simply tells us that she turned to her friend with the words: "Go away from me, for I belong to another Lover."
From this point onward, she knew that she was to become a professed nun, offering herself and her virginity to Christ, to become His spouse forever.
LUTGARDE BECOMES A PROFESSED NUN -A MIRACULOUS LEVITATION
At age 12 she entered the
Benedictine convent of St Catherine’s at St.Trond We shall soon see how Jesus
had great plans for Lutgarde, that she would someday help to lead many souls to
Him, but He was not to force her to correspond to His will. For now He wanted
her first to see how the things she thought she wanted would in reality not
bring her the joy she thought they would. But one thing was certain: her love
for Jesus was sincere. She undertook many extra penances, fasting beyond the
measure of the rest, and spending much of the night in prayer. However, this
inflamed some jealousy in a few of her fellow sisters. Several spied on her,
seeking evidence that she was guided not by God, but by the devil.
God increased His miraculous favors upon her, so that the fervor of the young girl and her zeal for prayer and penance might bear the stamp of His approval. Once, some nuns came upon her alone at prayer in the middle of the night, and found her filled with a vivid radiance that poured out of her body which completely astonished them. Another time, on the Feast of Pentecost, when the Veni Creator Spiritus was intoned in choir at Tierce, Lutgarde was suddenly lifted two cubits from the floor, and was seemingly floating in the air on the wings of some unseen spiritual power. Thomas of Cantimpre explains that ‘her body had thus been granted a momentary share in the privileges of her spirit, because of the fact that her soul had already arrived at a high degree of purity and union with God.'
In fact, her intimate familiarity with God is illustrated by what might seem to some to be a presumptuous or cavalier attitude in expressing her likes and dislikes to Him, which we shall now see. For it came to pass at this time that she was granted a certain power of healing in which her very touch had the effect of instantly curing the little sicknesses of those who came to her. She perhaps thought it would help her lead souls to Jesus, yet it seemingly became a great distraction for her and her fellow nuns. Understandably, she soon found herself beginning to be very busy with those who appealed to her to cure them of their minor ailments. She complained to God of this, assuring Him that it interfered with her and the others prayer life: "Why did You go and give me such a grace, Lord? Now I hardly have any time to be alone with You! Take it away, please," and she added, artlessly, "only give me another grace, give me something better!'"
"What grace do you want Me to give you, then, in its place?" Jesus asked of her.
Lutgarde, being a choir nun, thought it would be very appropriate if she were
to be granted a miraculous understanding of Latin, in order that she might have
more devotion in reciting the psalms. As matters stood, she did not understand
a word of what she said in choir, although she prayed with great fervor. The
grace granted, she discovered to her surprise that once again it did not have
the result she expected. She began to receive many vivid intellectual lights at
the Office, and to be illuminated by numerous penetrating intuitions into the
meaning of the psalms. But somehow all this new knowledge left her heart empty
and dry.
God had granted her this last relatively useless favor together with enough light to see that it was not what she needed, and she soon turned to Him once more confessing that all these lofty intuitions only interfered with her devotion instead of nourishing it.
THE EXCHANGE OF HEARTS- LUTGRADE IS LED TO A MYSTICAL UNION WITH THE SACRED
HEART OF JESUS
So seizing the moment,
Jesus asked her: What, then, do you want?"
This time, Jesus had led
her secretly to the discovery of the right answer.
"Lord," she
told Him, "I want Thy Heart."
You want My Heart?" said
Jesus: “Well, I too want your heart."
Lutgarde replied: "Take
it, dear Lord. But take it in such a way that the love of Your Heart may be so
mingled and united with my own heart that I may possess my heart in Thee, and
that it may always remain there secure in Your protection."
St. Lutgarde is perhaps the first saint in whom this mystical "exchange of hearts" was effected. Since her time, the exchange has become rather common in the lives of mystics devoted to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. We read of it in the lives of St. Gertrude, St. Mechtilde (both Cistercians), and St. Margaret Mary. The term is, of course, purely symbolic. There is no question of a physical exchange, but only of a mystical union of wills. Nor does it imply the perfect union of wills in mystical marriage. The exchange of hearts can take place in the degree of union known as spiritual betrothal. The gift then becomes not a sign of perfect transforming union but rather a pledge of that union, which still remains to be desired and which God withholds until His own good time. In more recent times for example, Sister Josefa Menendez, a lay sister of the Society of the Sacred Heart, received a similar grace as a protection against temptations to leave the convent.
JESUS COMES ALIVE ON THE CROSS
Thus, so far the mystical
life of St. Lutgarde had begun with two striking visions, both of which
established her as one of the first great devotees of the Sacred Heart of
Jesus. To be devoted to the Sacred Heart means to penetrate deeply, by
contemplation and love, into the mystery of the love of Jesus for men. The
perfection of the devotion is reached in a perfect union with that love - an
identification with Christ which conforms the heart of the saint entirely to
His burning Heart, pierced on Calvary by the lance of Longinus. Jesus had
awakened the heart of Lutgarde to a new life by showing her His own pierced
Heart, which is the fountain of all grace and all love and all delight. He had
even betrothed her to Himself by an espousal in which she received His Sacred
Heart in exchange for her own heart; that is to say in which she was raised to
a mystical union of love with Him. This union was still something short of the
perfection of mystical marriage. She was not yet transformed into her Beloved
so as to become completely one with Him. She still had to be raised out of
herself, and lifted up to Him in order to receive from Him the life of her life
and the love which was the source of all her love.
Her first biographer, Thomas of Cantimpre, places this next vision in the same period when she experienced the "exchange of hearts." Lutgarde had fallen sick with "a fever." She was in bed, and heard the bell ring for Matins, about 2AM. Her head was burning, her flesh shook with chills, and her clothing was wet with perspiration. She thought it would be wise to stay in bed and sleep off her sickness, because it might be dangerous for her to get up and go to choir with the nuns, and stand in the cold church when she was shivering and wet with fever.
Suddenly, she heard the voice of Jesus urging her to rise and go to choir with the others. "Get up, quickly, Lutgarde! Why are you lying there? For at this very hour, sinners are wallowing in the mire of their vices, and you ought to be doing penance for them, instead of lying there and letting your body perspire!'"
Filled with fear, Lutgarde leapt from her bed and hastened to choir where the Office had already begun. At the door of the Church she saw Jesus.
She beheld His living body, nailed to the cross: but the lance wound was open in His side. As she approached Him, Jesus let down one of His arms from the Cross to embrace her and draw her to Himself. As He did so, He pressed her lips to the bleeding wound in His side, and from His Sacred Heart the young nun drew forth from a infinite Spring which filled her with love and joy.
And so we have in her first vision, Lutgarde had been promised the knowledge of all that was worthy of love, if she would turn aside from creatures and concern herself with the Heart of Jesus alone. In her second vision, she had been granted an exchange of hearts with Jesus. Now she had been privileged to draw, from that same Heart, the Precious Blood and Water which flows from the Heart of our Lord.
A VISION OF ST JOHN THE APOSTLE
It is not surprising then
with all these graces, that she would now be given a visit with the
"Apostle whom Jesus loved" and who had rested his head upon our
Lord's breast at the Last Supper. For St John the Evangelist has always, for
obvious reasons, been closely associated with devotion to the Sacred Heart. In a
vision, he was sent to Lutgarde in the form of an eagle. In this particular
vision, St. Lutgarde saw the "Eagle of Patmos" flying with plumage
that so blazed with light that the whole world could have been illuminated by
the glory of his wings. Touching her lips with his beak, the "Eagle"
instantly filled her with a flood of such intense intellectual light that it
seemed there could be no secret of the divine essence that lay hidden to
her.
Thomas of Cantimpre testifies that after this vision, although her speech was plain, and her explanations were unscientific, St. Lutgarde was able to set forth the highest truths of theology with a wisdom, subtlety, and accuracy that simply took his breath away.
LUTGARDE IS ELECTED SUPERIOR OF THE CONVENT, BUT LEAVES TO JOIN THE CISTERCIANS
(TRAPPISTS)
As was mentioned earlier,
although a certain amount of envy from the other nuns had initially been
directed towards Lutgarde, her intense devotion and charity seemed to have
eventually won everyone over during the course of her nine years in St.
Catherine's convent, and she was elected to be Superioress of the community
there. In fact, she was elected unanimously - a thing which is rather
surprising, in view of the envy of which she had once been the object. The year
was 1205, when the saint was twenty-three years old.
Far from being flattered or pleased by her elevation to this dignity, Lutgarde regarded it as a disaster. Indeed, it seems to have moved her to look elsewhere, and to seek some other Order. She thought St. Catherine's could provide her with sufficient opportunities for living as a contemplative as long as she was an obscure member of the community, but not when she took her place at its head. While taking up her role as Superior, it was natural that her thoughts should turn to the austere Cistercian nuns, commonly known as Trappists, who had by this time, many flourishing convents in the Low Countries.
She asked the advice of a learned preacher of Liege, Jean de Lierre, who urged her to give up her post as prioress and leave the Benedictine Order for the Cistercian convent of Aywieres, (Awirs) which had recently been founded near Liege, but had been transferred to a site in Brabant, near the village of Lillois. She was very reluctant to accept this particular choice, because French was spoken in Brabant, and she felt it would be unwise to enter a convent where she would not understand the language of her superiors or spiritual directors.
Meanwhile, Christ Himself intervened, and spoke the following words to her:
"It is My will that you go to Aywieres, and if you do not go, I will have
nothing more to do with you."
As if this were not enough, Lutgarde was also admonished by a saintly friend, who has since been venerated as St. Christine "the Admirable" who told her to go to Aywieres, and so with no further pos¬sibility of doubt as to the convent of the Cistercian Order to which she was called, Lutgarde left St. Catherine's without consulting her community and went to Aywieres.
When the nuns of St. Catherine's discovered their loss, they were inconsolable,
but it was too late to do anything about it. Lutgarde, in her turn, prayed
earnestly for the peace of the community she had left and was assured by the
Blessed Virgin that her prayers would be answered. Indeed, Thomas of Cantimpre
ends the first book of his life of St. Lutgarde with the comment: "The
indubitable effect of these prayers is to be seen even today [some fifty years
later] in the community of St. Catherine's. For this particular convent
continues to grow in fervor more than ever, and to increase, at the same time,
in temporal prosperity."
At the new convent, the
nuns of Aywières spoke French, not Lutgarde’s native Flemish. Despite her
efforts, she found the French language very difficult to master.
AN APPEARANCE OF THE
BLESSED VIRGIN MARY-- LUTGARDE BECOMES A VICTIM SOUL FOR SINNERS AND HERETICS
It was through the Mother of God that her special vocation as victim for the heretics was announced to her. The Blessed Virgin Mary appeared to St. Lutgarde in deep anguish, and the sight of our Lady's sorrow pierced the nun so deeply that she cried out: 'What ails thee, oh my dearest Lady, that your face should be so saddened and pale?"
The sorrowful Virgin replied: "Behold, my Son is once again being
crucified by heretics and bad Christians. Once again they are spitting in His
face. Therefore, if you accept, I ask you to do penance, and fast for seven
years, to appease the anger of my Son which now hangs heavy over the whole
earth!"
The vision was gone, and Lutgarde, her heart on fire with desire to do penance for a world full of sin, began the first of her three seven-year fasts.
A FAST FROM FOOD
During these years she lived on nothing but bread and the ordinary drink of the convent, which happened to be weak beer. Fasts as extraordinary as this had been known in the Church before St. Lutgarde, and, indeed, the common fare of the old Fathers of the Desert had been little better than this and it is not usually claimed that their fasts were miraculous. In the case of a woman - and one of none too strong a constitution - such a feat was evidently much more surprising, and, to dispel every doubt as to its miraculous character, God presented evidence of it in the following sign.
St. Lutgarde was more than once ordered, under obedience, to take other food
besides bread, but it was physically impossible for her to swallow anything
else, "even a bean'" as her biographer tells us. Indeed, he adds that
her fasts, instead of weakening her health, only increased her strength and her
power of resistance.
This first seven-year fast was to be followed by another, and then a third, which only differed from it in minor details. The second was also the result of a revelation, and its intention, instead of being for "bad Christians and heretics" was for sinners at large. In addition to bread she put some vegetables on her diet this time.
St. Lutgarde had the character of her vocation more and more deeply impressed upon her soul by a series of visions during the time of this fast--visions which occurred almost daily, and usually took place at Mass. She would see Jesus standing before the face of His heavenly Father, showing Him His wounds, which had the appearance of having been freshly opened and were full of blood. Turning to Lutgarde, our Lord would say: "Do you not see how I offer Myself entirely to My Father, for My sinners? In the same way, I would have you offer yourself entirely to Me for My sinners, and avert the anger which has been kindled against them, in retribution for sin."
Her third seven-year fast brought her to the end of her life. Its intention was
more specific and more urgent than either of the others. In 1239 or 1240,
Christ again appeared to her, and warned her that His Church was exposed to
attack by a powerful enemy. This attack would result in terrible harm to souls,
unless someone undertook to suffer and win grace from God. Thus St. Lutgarde
began her third and last fast. She was to die in its seventh year: but her
death would be serene with the confidence of victory. Even in the year that
preceded it, she was to tell Thomas of Cantimpre:
"Dear friend, do not
worry: this man who secretly desires the overthrow of the Church is either
going to be humbled by the prayers of the faithful, or else he will soon depart
this life, and leave the Church in peace."
At the time when Thomas was writing, however, these prophecies had not yet been fulfilled, although they soon were to be, and so he did not venture to name the enemy who was most probably the Emperor Frederick II.
Frederick II, cultured and skeptical, devoured with pride and ambition and given to a life of indulgence, scarcely concealed his contempt for the Church and for the Christian religion - indeed, for all religion, and for the very notion of God. He had been heard to say that "three impostors, Christ, Moses, and Mohammed had led the world to its ruin." Presumably men like himself were destined to build it up, again by unbelief, debauchery, and war. It was also said of him that once, on seeing a priest carrying the Blessed Sacrament to a sick person, he had exclaimed: "How much longer will this comedy last?" With this we can see that he was a likely candidate who was seeking to overthrow the Church at that time.
LUTGARDE IS GIVEN THE STIGMATIC WOUND IN THE SIDE AND A BLOODY SWEAT
Thomas Merton, in his
biography of the Saint, reports that she had a particular devotion to St.
Agnes, the Roman virgin martyr. She was one day praying to St. Agnes when
"suddenly a vein near her heart burst, and through a wide open wound in
her side, blood began to pour forth, soaking her robe and cowl."
She then sank to the floor and "lost her senses." She was never known to have been wounded in this way again, but it is known that she kept the scar until the end of her life. This took place when she was twenty-nine years old. Witnesses to this event were two nuns, one named Margaret, the other Lutgarde of Limmos, who washed the Saint's clothes.
Thomas Merton also tells that on many occasions, this saintly Cistercian, in
meditating on Christ's Passion, would fall into ecstasy and sweat blood. A
priest who had heard of this sweat of blood watched for an opportunity to
witness it himself. One day he found her in ecstasy, leaning against a wall,
her face and hands dripping with blood. Finding a pair of scissors, he managed
to snip off a lock of the Saint's hair which was wet with blood (he did so
thinking to have proof of the event, and also to have the lock of hair as a
relic) As he stood marveling at the blood on the lock of hair, the Saint
suddenly came to herself. Instantly the blood vanished; not only from her face
and hands, but also from the lock in his hands, and also the blood that was on
his hands! Thomas Merton writes “At this, the priest was so taken aback that he
nearly collapsed from astonishment.”
HER INTERCESSION FOR THE
SOULS IN PURGATORY—A VISION OF POPE INNOCENT III
In July, 1216, St.
Lutgarde suddenly saw the Sovereign Pontiff in a vision. His body was wrapped
in a great flame. Lutgarde did not know the Pope had died, as the news had not
yet reached Belgium, and even if she had, she would not have been able to
recognize him since she had never seen him.
"Who are you?" she
asked of the figure in the flame.
"I am Pope
Innocent."
'What!" cried Lutgarde, in complete shock, "How is it that you, our holy father, are being tormented in such great pain?"
The Pope revealed to her three causes why he had rendered himself worthy even of hell, but said he had merited grace to escape that torment by founding a monastery dedicated to the Mother of God. Nevertheless, he said he had been consigned to purgatory until the Day of Judgment, but begged for her prayers - and added that the grace to appear to her and make known his great need had also been obtained for him by our Lady.
Lutgarde undertook some extraordinary penance for the soul of the great
Pontiff, but its nature is not revealed to us by her biographer. Neither does
he tell us the three causes of this suffering. Lutgarde had made them known to
Thomas of Cantimpre, but he decided to bury them in oblivion, out of respect
for the memory of so eminent a Pope. A confirmation of her vision can be
supported through a similar vision concerning Pope Innocent III was had by
Blessed Simon of Aulne, a contemporary of St. Lutgarde's, famous for his
charismatic gifts, especially for his miraculous knowledge of the secrets of
souls. This holy Cistercian lay brother had even been summoned to Rome by the
same Innocent III, at the time of the Lateran Council, that is, shortly before
his death, and the Pope had consulted him not only on matters of Church policy
but even personal spiritual affairs. Thus we can find some additional
confirmation from this holy personage.
ANOTHER VISIT FROM A SOUL
IN PURGATORY
Our next case is that of a certain abbot who owed his liberation from purgatory to St. Lutgarde. This man, a learned and talented nobleman from Germany, entered the Cistercian Order and became abbot of Foigny. A fervent lover of the Rule, he had nevertheless failed to grasp the tremendous importance of its seventy-third chapter, and St. Benedict's condemnation of that "evil zeal of bitterness which separates men from God and leads them into hell."
Simon (as the abbot was called) tried to enforce the Rule in the harsh, disciplinarian spirit of an army officer, instead of applying it with the wisdom and discretion of a loving father. He had the misfortune to die suddenly in this frame of mind, and soon found out how little there was of the spirit of Christ in his way of training men.
St. Lutgarde had known him before his entrance into the Order, and was greatly afflicted at the news of his death, so that she began to pray, do penance and fast, fervently begging God for his release. Soon she received an answer, from a heavenly Voice, that her prayers were favorably received, and that all would be well with her friend. But Lutgarde was not satisfied with so vague a statement. It was not enough to know that he might get out of purgatory some time soon, she wanted to hear that he was definitely in heaven. Until then, she could not rest, and, returning to the attack, she pleaded with the Sacred Heart to take away whatever consolations He had destined for her, and to grant them all to the poor suffering soul of the abbot of Foigny.
Christ did not keep her ardent charity any longer in suspense. He presently
appeared to her, and brought with Him the soul for whom she had interceded with
such loving insistence.
"Dry your tears, My beloved," said our Lord to the saint. "Here he is."
Lutgarde flung herself face downward on the floor, adoring the mercy of God and blessing Him for His bounty. The soul of Abbot Simon, exulting and praising God, thanked his benefactress, and she saw him pass on into heaven.
We must not imagine that these visions of disembodied souls passed before the mind (perhaps even the bodily eyes) of St. Lutgarde without striking her to the depth of her soul with movements of wonder, love, and fear. Perhaps the most terrifying experience was that by which she was supernaturally informed of the death of her own sister. Suddenly, one day, in the air above her head, she heard a terrible, resounding cry, the voice of a woman in great anguish: "Have mercy on me, dearest sister! Have mercy on me and pray for me, and obtain mercy for me, as you did for all those other souls!" Soon afterward, the news of her sister's death reached her by ordinary means, confirming what she had heard.
Then there was the holy priest Jean de Lierre, on whose advice she had entered
Aywieres, He did not have to appeal to her from purgatory. These two saintly
souls had made a pact with one another, in which they mutually promised that
the first of them to die would appear to the other and make the fact
known.
Jean de Lierre had gone
to Rome on a mission in behalf of some convents under his direction in the Low
Countries, and died while crossing the Alps. He did not delay in keeping his
bargain, but appeared to Lutgarde in the cloister at Aywieres. The fact that
she was not surprised to see him there and that, believing him to be alive, she
made him a sign to step into the parlor where the nuns were permitted to speak
to visitors. He replied to her, saying:
"I am dead. I have
left this world. But I have come to keep my bargain with you, and inform you of
my death as I promised before God."
Falling on her knees
before him, Lutgarde suddenly saw his garments filled with splendor, blazing in
white and red and blue. Asking him the meaning of these colors she was told
that the white signified the spotless innocence of virginity which the saintly
man had preserved all his life, the red betokened the labors and sufferings in
the cause of justice which had absorbed so much of his time and energy during
life and which had eventually led to his death. The blue showed the perfection
of his spiritual life, that is his life of prayer and his union with God.
HER GIFT OF HEALING
Thomas of Cantimpre reports of a woman had a son, a boy named John, who had epileptic fits. One night in a dream, she heard the words: "Go to Mother Lutgarde, who lives at Aywieres, and she will deliver your son from his sickness." Accordingly, the very next day the mother arose and took her child and went to Aywieres. Lutgarde said a prayer, put her finger in his mouth, at the same time making a sign of the cross on his chest with her thumb, and from that day forth he was completely cured.
There was a good lady of Liege called Matilda, who had two grown sons in the army and had lost her husband. Leaving what property she had to the two soldiers, she entered Aywieres to finish her life peacefully in the service of God. She was getting to be an old lady, and was quite deaf.
One day, while the choir was singing Vespers of some great feast, someone made a sign to old Sister Matilda, to the effect that the nuns were singing very high and it was just beautiful to hear them. The poor old lady caught the meaning of the sign, and bowed her head and began to cry because she was so deaf that she had not heard a thing.
Lutgarde came in just then and saw her crying, and made her a sign, asking what was the matter. Sister Matilda replied that she was crying because she was deaf, and could not hear the singing. This reply roused the compassion of the Saint. She knelt and prayed a little, then, rising, she moistened her fingers with saliva and placed them in Matilda's ears. And then the old nun suddenly felt the wall that barred all sound from her mind break down with a roar, and her ears being opened, she heard the sweet singing in a rush of clear and wonderful sound. Letting out a cry of joy, both of their hearts swelled with thanksgiving to God for His infinite kindness and mercy.
THE MIRACULOUS IDENTIFICATION OF AN UNKNOWN RELIC
The incident concerns the discovery of some relics at the monastery of Jouarre, near Meaux, in France. They were in an alabaster tomb in a chapel crypt, and the priest who had discovered them, having failed by ordinary means to find out whose relics they were, asked St. Lutgarde to pray for a revelation concerning them.
Shortly afterwards, the forgotten saint appeared to Lutgarde and declared that
she was St. Osmanna, a virgin and daughter of the King of Ireland, who had come
to France and taken up her dwelling in Brittany, where she had led a very holy
life. Not wanting to rely simply on her own private revelation, Lutgarde asked
the Irish saint to confirm this by appearing also to the priest from Jouarre,
which she did, with great promptness and generosity, not only once but three
times in succession.
LAST YEARS AND DEATH OF
ST. LUTGARDE
Five years before her
death, that is, in 1241, St. Lutgarde received the revelation that she would
enter heaven on the third Sunday after Pentecost, when the Gospel of the Great
Marriage Feast would be sung.
Meanwhile, she had been totally blind for the past six years, that is since 1235. Unfortunately Thomas of Cantimpre does not provide too much information concerning her blindness, but such was relatively common at that time due to overall poor nutrition. Besides that, since 1239, she had been carrying on her third and last seven-year fast on bread and a few vegetables, to save the Church from the power-politics of Emperor Frederick II. The strictness of her fast may be judged from the fact that she did not even mitigate it on Easter Sunday but fasted relentlessly every day for the whole seven years.
For St. Lutgarde, the desire of heaven was something more than a pious wish—she longed for heaven with all of her soul. . It was a mystical affliction that united her with Christ on Calvary. Thomas himself testifies that he sometimes saw her weep¬ing so piteously in her disappointment that she was not yet dead and able to enter into heaven, that he himself could not bear to look at her without being moved to tears."
In 1244 it seemed for a time that she would have her wish. She fell gravely ill, and Fra Bernard, calling at Aywieres, found that she had been given the Last Sacraments, as though she were expected to die at any moment. At this, of course, the saint was in a high state of enthusiasm and delight. But the Father decided that he saw no evidence that she was about to leave this world, and told her so.
"Oh, don't say that, dear Father," cried St. Lutgarde, "for
indeed I greatly desire to see Christ, face to face."
"Truly, Mother, you will not see Him now," said the priest. 'Well," she said, lifting up her eyes to heaven, "if I am not to see Him now, at least may His will be done tomorrow. Let me get up and I will at least receive Him in Communion.'"
St. Lutgarde was not so absorbed in her desire of heaven that she remained indifferent to everything that went on around her on earth. With characteristically blunt simplicity she had observed that the nuns in the infirmary were reciting their Office in a rather careless manner, and she told them that their execution of this duty could be considerably improved. Also she did not hesitate to warn them that if they did not do better the convent as a whole would be given grave cause to regret their neglect: a prophecy which Thomas of Cantimpre considers to have been fulfilled after her death.
Finally dawned a joyful day for Lutgarde, sad for her dear friends in this world: a day which Thomas of Cantimpre had prayed to be allowed to anticipate with his own death: a day which left him lamenting his lot, and declaring that he had been left an orphan. On June 9, a Saturday, the day before the second Sunday after Pentecost, which Thomas calls the "Octave of the Holy and undivided Trinity,"23 St. Lutgarde entered upon the final stages of her sickness.
It soon became clear to all that the saint was dying. Just how many more days
she had left was not clear. On the following Monday a lay brother of Affiighem
saw her, and remarked that he wished his Father Abbot, a good friend of St.
Lutgarde's, could be there.
"He will be here
tomorrow," said the saint.
The lay brother,
unwilling to contradict her, kept silent.
The very next day the
abbot of Affiighem, on a journey, happened to pass within two miles of Aywieres
and, as he was on the road, he said to his companions:
"It is a long time since I last saw Mother Lutgarde. Let us turn aside and go over to Aywieres.'
When the Benedictine entered the saint's sickroom, she raised herself up in bed
and greeted him with joy, saying:
"I am about to start
for heaven, dear friend: and you are the best of all those I leave behind
me."
A day passed, then
another. On the Thursday of that week - it would have been Corpus Christi, if
that feast had been instituted -Lutgarde looked up and said to Sybil de
Gages:
"Come and sit here close to my heart. For look, the monastery is all filled with the soldiers of the heavenly army: the souls of the blessed are here present with us, and among them are many, many of our sisters who have gone before us out of this world."
Yes, all her heavenly friends who had before come to summon and to advise her individually had now gathered in a tremendous multitude. She could see the whole convent packed with them, as though they were jostling one another in the corridors, and the doorways, and in the cloister, waiting to catch up their new companion with a song of exultation, and begin their journey home into the realms of light.
With these words St. Lutgarde fell silent and remained rapt in spirit, her face
shining with happiness for more than a day - the whole Friday that followed.
Finally, on the Saturday, she returned to herself long enough to receive the
Last Sacraments, and then, at last, took flight, peacefully and quietly to the
kingdom of her Bridegroom with her friends, the glorious saints. Her passing
from this life to heaven was at around 4pm on June 16, 1246--the same day of
the month on which St. Margaret Mary was to have her famous vision of the
Sacred Heart, in the year 1675.
-St Lutgarde of Aywières, pray for us!
Primary source for this
article is the book 'WHAT ARE THESE WOUNDS? : THE LIFE OF A CISTERCIAN
MYSTIC, SAINT LUTGARDE OF AYWIÈRES' By Thomas Merton
SOURCE : https://www.mysticsofthechurch.com/2015/09/st-lutgarde-of-aywieres-first-known.html
Frei
Cipriano da Cruz, Santa Lutgarda, Museu Nacional de Machado de Castro
Santa Lutgarda Religiosa
Tongres, 1182 - Aywières,
Brabante, 16 giugno 1246
Nata a Tongres nel 1182,
in Belgio, Lutgarda a dodici anni entrò fra le Benedettine di Santa Caterina a
Saint-Trond. Eletta priora, nel giorno stesso della nomina lasciò il suo
monastero per raggiungere la comunità cistercense di lingua francese a Aywières
in Brabante dove Lutgarda si ostinò a parlare fiammingo. Appartenendo al gruppo
di pie donne del XIII secolo che condussero un'intesa vita mistica, Lutgarda fu
devota dal Sacro Cuore che le concesse apparizioni e incontri commoventi. Si
sottopose a un regime di austerità per la conversione degli albigesi, di alcuni
signori della regione e dei poveri peccatori dei dintorni. Avrebbe ottenuto
guarigioni miracolose per intercessione delle anime del Purgatorio. Divenuta
cieca, visse ancora per undici anni esercitando un forte influsso sui devoti
del suo tempo. Morì il 16 giugno 1246. Il 4 dicembre 1796 la comunità, per
sfuggire alle conseguenze della Rivoluzione francese, si rifugiò a Ittre con le
reliquie della santa. Nel 1870 le preziose spoglie divennero proprietà della
chiesa parrocchiale per passare, sette anni dopo, a Bas-Ittre dove sono
custodite tuttora. È patrona dei fiamminghi. (Avv.)
Martirologio
Romano: Nel monastero delle monache cistercensi di Aywières in Brabante,
nell’odierno Belgio, santa Lutgarda, vergine, insigne per la devozione verso il
Sacro Cuore di Gesù.
Santa LUTGARDA (lat.
Liudgarda, Liutgardis, Lutgardis; ted. Luitgard, Lutgard), patrona dei
FIAMMINGHI.
La Vita Lutgardis fu compilata in meno di due anni dopo il trapasso della
santa; l'autore era uno dei suoi familiari la cui testimonianza è, quindi,
importante per quanto vada considerata con prudenza e spirito critico. D'altra
parte, egli modificò il suo racconto dopo il 1254, per l'intervento di un altro
familiare di Lutgarda, fra Bernardo, penitenziere di Innocenzo IV.
Questa Vita ebbe un certo successo, a giudicare dalle versioni popolari, in
lingua fiamminga, che fiorirono ad intervalli regolari; citiamo in proposito
quelle di Guglielmo d'Afflighem e di Gerardo.
Nata a Tongres, Lutgarda a ca. dodici anni (?) entrò fra le Benedettine di s.
Caterina a Saint-Trond. Eletta priora, nel giorno stesso della nomina lasciò il
suo monastero per raggiungere infine, certamente dopo soste nelle comunità di
Awirs (presso Liegi) e di Lillois, Aywières, comunità di lingua francese, dove
Lutgarda si ostinò a parlare fiammingo.
Appartenendo a quel gruppo di pie donne del XIII sec. che condussero una vita mistica piuttosto eccezionale, come Cristina di Saint-Trond, Giuliana di Cornillon, Ida di Nivelles ecc., Lutgarda fu particolarmente privilegiata dal Sacro Cuore che le concesse apparizioni e incontri commoventi; si sottopose a un regime di eccessiva austerità per la conversione degli albigesi, di alcuni signori della regione e dei poveri peccatori dei dintorni. Avrebbe ottenuto guarigioni miracolose per intercessione delle anime del Purgatorio e beneficiato di premonizioni specialmente relative alla duchessa di Brabante e alla propria morte. Divenuta cieca, visse ancora per undici anni esercitando un certo influsso benefico sui devoti del suo tempo.
Fu beatificata "modo antiquo" e la sua tomba, nel coro di Aywières
sul lato destro, fu oggetto di viva devozione. Il 4 dicembre 1796 la comunità,
per sfuggire alle conseguenze della Rivoluzione, si rifugiò a Ittre con le
reliquie della santa, esumate nel sec. XVI. Nel 1870 queste preziose spoglie
divennero proprietà della chiesa parrocchiale per passare, sette anni dopo, a
Bas-Ittre dove sono custodite tuttora.
La festa della santa si celebra il 16 giugno.
ICONOGRAFIA. Le non numerose rappresentazioni della santa, se si eccettua
qualche figura generica, in abito monacale, con un libro e un rosario in mano,
fanno riferimento alle sue mistiche visioni. Mentre scambia il suo cuore con
quello di Gesú (cor mutuans corde); in atto di accogliere sulle labbra un lungo
filo di sangue che parte dal costato di Gesú (una scena che riprende il motivo
dell'allattamento mistico di s. Bernardo); infine mentre morente si accosta
alla croce da cui Gesú stacca il braccio destro per stringersela al petto. Tra
le varie opere d'arte, tutte del sec. XVII, ricordanti questi episodi sono: il
gruppo marmoreo di Matthias Brun sul ponte Carlo IV di Praga; una xilografia di
Teresa Pruner; il dipinto di Pierre Bradl nella chiesa di Sedlec in Boemia;
quello del Goetz nella chiesa di Birnau in Svezia.
Autore: Mireille De Somer - Angelo Maria Raggi
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