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The Insinuationes Divine Pietatis consists of Five Books. The Second only was written by the Saint: the remaining four were complied from her papers, and from personal knowledge of her life, by a religious of her monastery. This religious, who carefully conceals her name, was probably the Sister whom St. Gertrude mentions herself, and in whom she evidently had the greatest confidence. As the object of the Insinuationes is manifestly to relate the supernatural favors bestowed on St. Gertrude, her personal history is but briefly adverted to, and only in connection with the graces bestowed on her by God. Hence but little is known of the Saint's early life. The first book of the Insinuationes contains some allusions to it; but it consists principally of a panegyric and a formal enumeration of her virtues. To avoid needless and uninteresting repetition, this was omitted, and the substance of it carefully embodied in the life of St. Gertrude, for which we have endeavoured to collate materials from every possible source. The chronology of Campacci has been followed as the most reliable, and as highly esteemed by the learned Benedictines of Solesmes.
The second, third, fourth and fifth parts of this work are translations of the second, third, fourth and fifth books of the Insinuationes. The edition principally used has been the "Insinuationes Divine Pietatis, seu Vita et Revelations S. Gertrudis, Virginis et Abbatissae, Ordinis S. Benedicti. Amendis quibus scatebant expurgatae studio et labore D(om) N(icolas) C(anteleu) B(enedictinus). Parisiis apud Fredericum Leonard Congregationis S. Mauri Ordinis S. Benedicti. Typogr, via Jacobaea sub Scuto Veneto, M.DC.LX11. Cum privilegio et approbatione". The "Scunto Veneto" is duly represented on the title page, and the winged lion of St. Mark holds an open Gospel with the legend, "Pax tibi Marce Evangelista meus." The motto, "Virtute invidiam vince," is engraved on a scroll above the emblem.
Dom Canteleu was a holy and learned priest. It is said that the hour of his death was revealed to him while he was occupied in preparing his edition of the Insinuationes. But he had commenced his work for God, and for Him also it was consummated. The last corrections were made the very day of his death; and though he did not live to see his work issue from the press, surely his reward was not the less sure of magnificent.
This edition contains, first, a dedication of the work to the Maurist Fathers, by Leonard, the publisher; secondly, a brief Prologue, by D. Cabteleu, in which he explains the corrections and emendations which he has made in former editions; and thirdly, the well - known apology of Lanspergius, of which we have given a resume in the Introduction. There are also extracts from Blosius's Monili Spiritulale, and an important note, found in an old codex of a Styrian monastery, which mentions that the convent of Helfide was destroyed in the year 1342 during the wars between the Duke of Brunswick and the Count of Mansfield; but the holy virgins were saved by an evident protection of God and removed to the suburbs of Eislebeen.
It has been our earnest endeavor to render this translation as faithful and accurate as possible. One chapter has been omitted, and several passages, which could hardly be rendered in English with propriety; and as the substance of several chapters from the fifth book are contained in the Life, they have also been passed over. We are privileged to say that we have been guided in the general arrangement of the work by the advice of the Right Rev. Dr. Ullathorne, O.S.B., to whose paternal and most undeserved kindness on this, as on many other occasions, we owe a debt of affectionate gratitude. Nor can we omit most grateful mention of the invaluable assistance obtained from the world - famed Abbave of Solesmes, through the Rev. Father Wilfrid Windham, O.S.D., to whose researches and learning we owe many of the notes appended to this volume. We have also to acknowledge the charity of Dom Wolter. O.S.B., Prior of Beuron, whose noble and successful efforts to revive and extend the Benedictine Order in Germany are too well known to need further comment.
The recently published French translation of the Insinuationes is said to be a reprint of the translation made by Dom Mege, from his Latin edition of 1664. In this edition many passages are omitted, and others are rendered differently from the editions of Canteleu and Tilmanni Bredenbachii, Coloniae, 1563, which perfectly coincide. An Italian translation, which purports to be a translation from the Latin of Lanspergius, also corresponds with these works. The title page runs this: "La vita della B. Virgine Gertruda, ridotta in v. libri, del R.F. Geo. Lanspergio, Monaco della Certosa...Tradotta per L'Eccel. Medico M. Vicenzo Buondi, Venetia, 1606." This edition contains the Exercises.
Indeed, the Italian Benedictines have devoted themselves with special fervor to producing editions or translations of these Revelations; but perhaps one of the most valuable works on the subject is that of a secular priest, Gaspar Campacci, who published the Life of St. Gertrude, in quarto, at Venice, in 1748. His works is divided into two parts; the first part contains the Life of the Saints, the second part contains her Revelations. At the end of the first part he has appended a valuable Chronological Discussion, in which he fixes the date of her birth, her death and the principle events of her life.
But one of the most interesting editions of the Life and Revelations of this great Saint is the Spanish translation of Leander, of Grenada, a copy of which is at present in the Library of the British Museum and is dated, Seville 1606.
As the literary history of this work is one of more than ordinary interest and edification, as well as a necessary explanation of the origin of the miraculous engraving, an account of it is appended at considerable length; and this account is translated from the letter of the saintly Bishop Ypres, of Tarragona, to Dom Leander:
"I cannot tell you with what joy and consolation I have received the book of the Revelations of Gertrude, which you have translated into Castilian....I will now relate what occurred regarding the Latin edition printed at Madrid.
"While I was Confessor to the King, I met with the works of Blosius accidentally, and found so much pleasure therein, that I read them repeatedly. Afterwards, when I mentioned this to Dom Alphonsus Colone, now Archbishop of Carthagena, he assured me that a translation was then in the press at Seville; and I requested him to send me the sheets as they appeared. This was at the time when King Philip 11 was seized with his last illness. I considered the work so suitable for his circumstances that I read it to him frequently; and he found such consolation and sweetness therein that in my absence he caused it to be read to by the Infanta Madame Elizabeth. I know well the profit he derived from it, and it will be known to all in Heaven.
"From this moment I conceived so strong an affection for the Revelations of St. Gertrude that I desired ardently to know if they had been published".
The good prelate then relates how he found them, after much research, in the library of St. Lawrence; that the volume had never been opened since it had been placed there ten years before; and details his many and unsuccessful attempt to obtain a translation. After he had retired to Tarragona, he commenced the undertaking himself; but when he "had completed, corrected, and amended the first four books," he heard that the work was already in the press at Salamanca.
"I desired some copies to be sent to me" he continues; "and when I had seen the translation, considered the diligence with which it had been made, the grave, clear, eloquent style, and the careful annotations, I was supremely delighted, because the same thing had happened to me as to St. Bonaventure and St. Thomas, in regard to the Office of the Most Holy Sacrament; and I consider it a special favor that the Saint has so ordered all that my edition has been delayed, since the result will be a greater glory to her Sovereign Spouse. As for myself, I am persuaded that I have lost nothing thereby, and that she has received my labor and my good will into her treasury. I must confess also that I have never in my life received a greater satisfaction in the perusal of any other work than this; for though I have read the Revelations so often in Latin that I know them almost by heart, I do not the less esteem this translation, and I will make it known to all my friends. Be assured, my father, that you have performed a great service to God, a great good to souls, and that you have thereby secured your salvation. May God fulfil in you all the privileges and promises which He has made to the clients of this sublime virgin!
"I have purchased an immense number of these volumes for the Discalced Carmelites, and all who are earnestly desiring a more perfect life; and I would, were it possible, disseminate them throughout the entire world.
"If by chance you have met with the picture of this blessed Saint, I wish to tell you the origin of it, because I hope it will be a subject of consolation to you. The first picture, which was done in Spain, was copied, by my desire, from a portrait of a Religious of the same Order, which was in the royal cabinet at Madrid. To distinguish the copy from the original, I desired the painter to put an Infant Jesus in her heart, and a scroll with the words, Invenies me in corde Gertudis ("You shall find Me in the heart of Gertrude."). I also had seven rings put on the fingers of her right hand, that they might be a pledge of the promises which Our Lord has made to favor her friends.
"The artist has declared to me that never in his life did such a thing happen to him as has happened in painting this virgin; for though he had always succeeded in copying to the life, he now found that he could not succeed, with all his pains, in imitating the original; and each time that he attempted to do so, he found he drew what far surpasses what he could have thought or imagined; and so his picture in now way resembled the original, except in the habit. This picture has been circulated through out Spain, I have had it painted in many places, in company with our holy mother Teresa of Jesus, who you so often consoled by your discourses".
The saintly prelate concludes thus: "God have you in His holy keeping. I hope that His Majesty will grant you the grace that you may be assisted at the hour of your death by His two faithful spouses, who during their lives were always so full of gratitude and courtesy.
"Fr. Diego, Bishop of Tarragona. " "Given at Tarragona, Nov. 15, 1603."
We can scarcely be surprised that a miraculous favor should be granted to one so profoundly humble, so deeply loving and so rarely disinterested. Perhaps the annals of literature have seldom furnished so distinguished an example of courtesy as that given by the Bishop of Taragona; or rather, we should say, Christian charity has seldom shone forth so sweetly and so brightly as in his cordial desire for the success of another in a labor which he had all but accomplished himself.
A number of approbations follow that of the holy Bishop, notably one from Suarez, dated Salamanca, July 15, 1603, and another from the Father Prior of the Discalced Carmelites, who observes that an edition in the mother tongue is most useful and acceptable, even to the learned.
The miraculous picture was soon engraved, and its fame extended throughout Europe. The copy contained in this volume has been made from the edition of "P.F. Laurentii Clement, Monachi Ordinis S. Benedicti Congregationis Hispanicae. Salisburgi, MDCLX11
CONVENT OF POOR CLARES, KENMARE,
Feast of St. John before the Latin Gate,
May 6, 1865.
"Typed by:
Sue Burton, Sacred Heart Publications UK.
@Copy right Sue Burton & Marianne Eichhorn.
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