St. Lutgarde – Benedictine Nun and Mystic

Rebroadcast of the long-running radio program, "The Ave Maria Hour," a presentation of the Franciscan Friars of the Atonement. www.AtonementFriars.org

St. Lutgarde was born in 1182 in Tongres, Belgium. When she was twelve she was placed in St. Catherine's Benedictine Convent at Saint Trond because her family did not have the necessary dowry for marriage.

During her teenage years, a young man fell in love with her and began paying her frequent visits. One day, while Lutgarde was speaking with her admirer, a vision of Jesus appeared before her and revealed the spear wound in His side. Her eyes fixed upon the wound in the Heart of Christ, she lost all consciousness of her surroundings and indicated to her visitor that something extraordinary had happened. This vision of Christ compelled Lutgarde to become a Benedictine nun.

St. Lutgarde had many mystical experiences, levitated, and had a form of the stigmata. She was blind for the last eleven years of her life, and died of natural causes on June 16, 1246 at the age of 64. She is revered as one of the leading mystics of the 13th century.