SEE ALSO POPE BENEDICT XVI on MECHTILD of HACKEBORN and GERTRUDE the GREAT
MECHTILD [English: Matilda] of Hackeborn (1240/1241 – 19 Nov. 1298), Saxon Benedictine nun, visionary, and spiritual author, was born Mechtild von Hackeborn-Wippra in 1240 or 1241, into a noble and powerful Thuringian family. Her sister was the illustrious Abbess Gertrude of Hackeborn (not to be confused with Gertrude the Great), who in 1258 transferred her monastery from Rodarsdorf to Helfta near Eisleben, adjoining their family’s ancestral estate. Mechtild was musically gifted and served as choirmistress (precentrix)at Helfta, both leading the choir and teaching music and liturgical spirituality to the young nuns. Her sister the abbess entrusted to the special care of Mechtild the younger Gertrude, who helped Mechtild as assistant choirmistress, revered her as spiritual mentor, was present at Mechtild’s death, and asisted in the editing of a book describing Mechtild’s liturgical and deeply personal visions.
WAS HELFTA A CISTERCIAN or BENEDICTINE COMMUNITY?
“The nuns were unofficially Cistercian, wearing the order’s gray habit and following its customs. St. Bernard, as we learn from the Book [of Special Grace], was one of their favorite theologians. Yet in 1228, just a year before the nunnery at Rodarsdorf was founded, the Cistercian General Chapter had taken a momentous decision to incorporate no new houses for women. So the ladies of Helfta (as they were called) remained officially Benedictine. Indeed, they viewed Bernard himself as a Benedictine saint; the word Cistercian never appears in the Book. The order of St. Benedict, it says, ‘sustains the Church like a pillar that supports the whole house;’ and ‘all other orders imitate this one in some way’ (1.28). ”
Barbara Newman: Mechtild of Hackeborn, The Book of Special Grace, Classics of Western Spirituality, (Paulist Press, 2017), Introd., p. 2 ‘’
This Webpage was created for a workshop held at Saint Andrew's Abbey, Valyermo, California in 1998
