Thread by @DouayRheims1

16th JUNE: ST LUTGARDE

1. St Lutgarde's parents first wished her to be betrothed to a merchant; and when, through the loss of her fortune, her marriage became impossible, they urged her to take the veil. She entered the Benedictine convent at Tongres in Brabant
#StLutgarde

2. but lived in a discontented state, secretly sighing for a worldly life. One day when she had gone to gossip, as was her wont, in the parlours, our Lord Himself stood before her.

Pointing to His still bleeding Heart, He bade her seek in Him alone the joys of Divine love.

3. From that hour St Lutgarde renounced the world and its follies, and began a new life of prayer and penance. During the bloody struggle with the Albigenses she offered herself a victim for the Church, and suffered most fearful tortures of mind and body. #CatholicTwitter

4. To conceal the miraculous gifts with which she was favoured, she exchanged to the Cistercian Order, and prayed earnestly that she might remain there unknown. Her petition was granted.
#Cistercian #Benedictine #monastery #MonasticLife #nun #Christianity

5. She lived for forty years in a community of French nuns, from whom, by her ignorance of the language, she was completely isolated.

Towards the end of her life, her solitude was further increased by the total loss of sight.
#blind #VisuallyImpaired #prayer #Christians

6. At length, in 1146, her eyes, which had been closed for eleven years, opened to behold a troop of blessed spirits who came to lead her to heaven.

(Excerpts from H. S. Bowden's "Miniature Lives of the Saints for Every Day of the Year")

#books #ChristiansOnTwitter

"Bitterly do I grieve that up till now, I, a valueless and wretched worm of earth, have so little understood the excess of thy Love, and have given thee such poor thanks for all the hardships, pains and martyrdom thou hast bourne for me" (#StLutgarde)