Mechtilde

Who they were

Mechtilde, of a noble Thuringian family and sister of Abbess Gertrude of Hackeborn, was so frail at birth that she was rushed to baptism; the priest foretold she would become a holy nun. At seven she begged to enter the cloister.

She lived at the monastery of Helfta, where she died on 19 November 1298. Her feast is kept in her order by special permission of the Holy See.

The miracles

There was never a formal cause: she has been honoured as a saint since before the Church's formal processes began.

Why that counted as sanctity

A Benedictine mystic of Helfta.

Connected on this site

• Gertrude of Hackeborn Saint Brother or sister
  “Mechtilde, of a noble Thuringian family and sister of Abbess Gertrude of Hackeborn, was so frail at birth that she was rushed to baptism; the priest foretold she would become a holy nun.” — this site's research