Move Over, St. Patrick

St. Patrick’s “Sister Saint”

- Heidi Crabtree

It may surprise many to learn that March 17 is not just a beloved day for beer aficionados. St. Patrick’s Feast Day is not his alone. It also belongs to another. Who? The Patron Saint of Cats, that’s who! St. Gertrude of Nivelles has a very long, non-feline history. Born in what is now Belgium in about 628 CE, she came from a very prominent family, her father being Pepin of Landen, a nobleman from East Francia who was associated with the court of King ClotharI. Gertrude’s older sister Begga was married to the son of another powerful man, Arnulf of Metz. Their son, and thus Gertrude’s nephew, would become Pepin II and establish the Carolingian Dynasty.1 Though this has been debated over the centuries by scholars, the story goes that when Gertrude was being sized up at a young age for an arranged marriage, the child firmly stated that she would never give in to Holy Matrimony. The Holy Life was for her.2 Indeed, when Gertrude’s father died, her mother, Itta, founded a monastery, Nivelles Abbey, in part to keep Gertrude away from the many fortune hunters that would certainly be vying for her little hand. After Itta passed away, Gertrude herself became the Abbess. Due to her care of the sick, she earned the reputation as a patron of not only the ill, but of widows, gardeners, travelers, “vermin banishing, and those with fevers.”3 The Abbey of Nivelles would become home to not just nuns, but also Irish monks. (There’s an Irish anecdote for March).