Saint Mechtilde of Helfta
![[Saint Mechtilde of Helfta]](saintm0h.jpg "Saint Mechtilde of Helfta; please do not write to ask about the image")
- Also known as
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Matilda von Hackeborn-Wippra
Mechtilde von Hackenborn
Mechtildis of Hackeborn
- Memorial
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16 November
formerly 19 November
formerly 26 February
- Profile
- Born to a pious, powerful Thuringian noble family; her older sister was a nun.
Convent educated from age seven.
Nun at Rodersforf.
Moved to the Helfta monastery in 1258 where her sister served as abbess.
Teacher and choir director at the convent school at Helfta.
Visionary and mystic.
Novice mistress for Saint Gertrude of Helfta who wrote The Book of Special Grace about Mechtilde's teachings; she was initially terrified that the book might cause trouble, but Christ appeared to her in prayer and told her not to worry.
Much sought spiritual advisor to her sister nuns, laity and learned Dominicans.
May have been the inspiration for the character Matelda in Dante's Purgatorio.
- Born
- c.1241 at her family's castle of Helfta near Eisleben, Saxony, Germany
- Died
- 19 November 1298 at Helfta monastery of natural causes
- Additional Information
-
New Catholic Dictionary
Catholic Encyclopedia, by Gertrude Casanova
Ecole Glossary, by Karen Rae Keck
For All the Saints, by Katherine Rabenstein
Google Directory
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- Readings
- There has never before been anyone like her in our monastery, and I fear there never will be again.
- Saint Gertrude of Helfta, about Saint Mechtilde