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Also known as:
Lutgard; Lutgarde of the Sacred Heart; Lutgarde of Tongres; Lutgarde;
Lutgardis of Aywieres; Luthgard
Memorial : 16 June
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 she received a vision of Christ showing her
his wounds, and at age 20 she became a Benedictine nun with a true
vocation. She had visions of Christ while in prayer, experienced
ecstasies, levitated, and dripped blood from forehead and hair when
enraptured in the Passion. She repeatedly refused to be chosen abbess of
her house.
The Benedictine order was not strict enough for Lutgardis, and on the
advice of her friend Saint Christina the Astonishing she joined the
Cistercians at Aywieres (in modern Belgium) where she lived for her
remaining 30 years. 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 praying
for the conversion of sinners.
Born: 1182 at Tongres, Limburg, Nederlands
Died: 16 June 1246 at Aywieres, just as night office began on the
Saturday night following Feast of the Holy Trinity
Patronage
birth, blind people, blindness, childbirth, disabled people, handicapped
people, physically challenged people
Representation
as Christ shows her His wounded side; blind Cistercian abbess; Cistercian
nun being blinded by the Heart of Jesus; Cistercian to whom Christ extends
his hand from the cross; in attendance when Christ shows his Heart to the
Father
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