Saint Matilda of Hackeborn

Matilda was born in 1240 or 1241 in the castle of Helfta, in Saxony, into one of the most important families in Thuringia. At seven she went with her mother to visit the monastery where her sister Gertrude was abbess, and she didn’t want to leave anymore: her parents agreed to let her stay. In those years Helfta was something extraordinary: a women’s monastery that was also a center of learning, where the nuns read Scripture and the Fathers, and wrote. Three women who are studied in universities today lived there together — Matilda of Hackeborn, Mechthild of Magdeburg and Gertrude of Helfta, known as the Great. Matilda led the choir and had a beautiful voice: they called her the nightingale of Christ. For fifty years she told no one what happened to her when she prayed. Then, toward the end, she spoke about it to two fellow nuns — Gertrude among them — who began to write it down in secret. When she found out, according to the story, she was deeply upset. The result was the *Liber Gratiae specialis*, which spread enormously throughout Europe: some have argued that she is the “Matelda” whom Dante meets in the Earthly Paradise. The devotion of the three Hail Marys is traced back to her. She died at Helfta on November 19, 1298. If your name is Matilda, today is your name day.