Today is also St. Lutgardis’ day, amongst many other saints. . .
St. Lutgardis is the friend of St. Christina the Astonishing, another special saint.
"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. She apparently lived there at first as a mere boarder, still open to the possibility of marriage in her future. In her late teens Lutgardis received a vision of Christ showing her His wounds, and in 1194 at age 20 she became a Benedictine nun with a true vocation. She had visions of Christ while in prayer, experienced ecstacies, levitated, and dripped blood from forehead and hair when enraptured by the Passion. Chosen as prioress of her community in 1205, she repeatedly refused to be abbess.
The Benedictine order was not strict enough for Lutgardis, and on the advice of her friend Saint Christina the Astonishing, in 1208 she joined the Cistercians at Aywieres (near Brussels in modern Belgium) where she lived for her remaining 30 years. She 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 in prayer for the conversion of sinners. She died in the year of Our Lord 1264 at Aywieres."
From further accounts:
“So vividly did she come to realize God’s presence, that when engaged in prayer she beheld our Lord with her bodily eyes. She would speak with Him familiary, and if summoned away to perform some duty she would say, quite simply, ‘Wait here, Lord Jesus, and I will come back directly I have finished this task.’”
And the story of her conversion:
St. Lutgardis was visited by a young suitor once, and after he left, she had a vision of Christ who came to her and bared his breast revealing his burning Sacred Heart. He said to her, ‘Look. . . this is what thou oughtest to love. Forsake the attractions of human love, and thou shalt find in my Heart ineffable delights.’
And a little of the life of St. Christina the Astonishing from various sources:
'Christina was born to a peasant family in the town of Saint-Trond in 1150 A.D. She was orphaned at fifteen, along with her two sisters, and worked as a shepherd, growing closer to God over the years. In the process of this contemplation, she seems to have neglected her body’s need for sustenance; Thomas de Cantimpré writes, “she grew sick in body by virtue of the exercise of inward contemplation and she died.”
During her funeral Mass, she suddenly recovered, and levitated to the roof of the church. Ordered down by the priest, she landed on the altar and stated that she had been to hell, purgatory, and heaven, and had been returned to earth with a ministry to pray for souls in purgatory.
Her life from that point became a series of strange incidents cataloged by a Thomas de Cantimpré, Dominican professor of theology at Louvain who was a contemporary recorded his information by interviewin witnesses, and by Cardinal Jacques de Vitny who knew her personally. She exhibited both unusual traits and abilities. For example, she could not stand the odor of other people because she could smell the sin in them, and would climb trees or buildings, hide in ovens or cupboards, or simply levitate to avoid contact. She lived in a way that was considered poverty even in the 13th century, sleeping on rocks, wearing rags, begging, and eating what came to hand. She would roll in fire or handle it without harm, stand in freezing water in the winter for hours, spend long periods in tombs, or allow herself to be dragged under water by a mill wheel, though she never sustained injury. Given to ecstasies during which she led the souls of the recently dead to purgatory, and those in purgatory to paradise.
People who knew her were divided in their opinions: she was a holy woman, touched of God, and that her actions and torments were simulations of the experiences of the souls in purgatory; she was suffering the torments of devils – or she was flatly insane. However, the prioress of Saint Catherine’s convent testified that no matter how bizarre or excessive Christina’s reported actions, she was always completely obedient to the orders of the prioresses of the convent. Christina was a friend of Louis, Count of Looz, whose castle she visited, and whose actions she rebuked. Blessed Marie of Oignies thought well of her, and Saint Lutgardis sought her advice. ’
