16 November - Gertrude was born on 6 January 1256 in Eisleben, Thuringia. At the age of five, she was entrusted to the care of the Cistercian nuns of the monastery of Helfta in what is now Saxony-Anhalt. Mechtilde of Hackeborn, who, at the age of 20, took over Gertrude's education.

She was admitted to the monastery as a boarder and soon proved to be a particularly gifted schoolgirl, and was well suited to the quality of education in Helfta, which, in addition to the liberal arts (trivium and quadrivium), required the study of Sacred Scripture and the Church Fathers. Later on, Gertrude will write small biblical treatises or patristic florilèges in the vernacular German. She will reserve Latin, the language of culture, for more ambitious works.

At the age of 25, Gertrude, who became a professed nun, is gratified by a vision, on January 27, 1281, after the office of Compline, which changes the course of her spiritual life. It will date from this day the time of her interior conversion. Blaming herself for her past neglect, the young intellectual fervent in knowledge renounced the secular sciences to devote herself solely to the deepening of her interior life. From now on she will divide her life between reading, meditation and copying manuscripts, singing the Divine Office in the choir and illness in her room, mystical graces and the spiritual accompaniment of the nuns.

In the monastery, there was no shortage of trials: in 1284, Helfta was sacked by the brothers of a nun and their vassals; in 1291, Abbess Gertrude died of apoplexy. In 1295, the monastery was banned because of debts, and the nuns were deprived of the sacraments; in 1298, Melchtide, Gertrude's lifelong friend, died. Gertrude had collected her confidences in The Book of Special Grace. The same year, the new abbess resigned; she was not replaced until 1303. Gertrude expires during the vacancy on November 17, 1302.