The Nightingale of God

Among the brightest figures of the monastery of Helfta in the 13th century stands Mechthild of Hackeborn, a woman of extraordinary spirituality and a distinctive voice in medieval mysticism. Her fellow nun, Gertrude the Great, in the sixth book of the Liber specialis gratiae—a work collecting the divine revelations received by Mechthild—acknowledges that what was written represents only a small portion of what the Saint actually experienced. She explains that it would have been unjust to remain silent about such abundant gifts, for they were granted by God not only for Mechthild herself, but as a spiritual treasure offered to the Church of every age.