Saint Lutgardis

Lutgardis was born in 1182 at Tongeren, in today's Belgium. At twelve she was placed with the Benedictine nuns of Saint Catherine near Sint-Truiden because her dowry had been lost, and at first she had little interest in religious life. Then, according to her biographer, Christ appeared to her and showed her the wound in his side, and she gave him her whole heart. She grew in prayer and was elected prioress.

To escape being made abbess, in 1206 she moved to the Cistercian convent of Aywières, where the nuns spoke French, a language she never mastered. There she lived for forty years in prayer and fasting, offering herself for sinners and for the souls in purgatory. She was known for her mystical experiences of the Heart of Jesus. She was blind for her last eleven years and died on June 16, 1246.

Her life was written soon after her death by the Dominican Thomas of Cantimpré, and she is honored as a forerunner of devotion to the Sacred Heart, which is often celebrated in June. Cistercian monasteries keep her feast.

In Belgium she is a beloved saint of Flanders, and people with failing eyesight ask her help.