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76 76 ST. MATILDA convent of Holfta. This was her reward for her anxiety for the salvation of the living and the dead. Then Grertrude saw the Lord crown her with a brilliant diamond ornament. Matilda von Wippra had visions and ecstasies, but was chiefly distinguished for her accomplishments and her power of teaching. Preger, Deutsche Mystik, Compare with SS. Gbktbcde (12 and 13) and the other Matildas of Helfta. St. Matilda (12) Mathildis, Mech- TiLD or Melchtide von Hackebom, April 10, 1240-1310, commemorated with her sister Gertbude of Helfta, Nov. 1.5, 17. She was bom at the castle of Helfta when Oertmde was already a nun in the Cistercian monastery of Bodarsdorf, afterwards removed to Helfta. When Matilda was seven years old, her mother went to see her elder daughter Gertrude at the monastery, taking with her the little Matilda to be amused and edified by the visit. The child was so charmed with the place and the chapel and the nuns that she would not come away. She ran and hid among the nuns and implored them to keep her. She wept, she prayed, she declared she must re- main fur ever in that holy house ; until at last the mother had to go home alone, leaving both her daughters to be nuns. Matilda received a good education in the convent, thanks partly to her more talented sister Gertrude, for whom she had a great admiration, and whom in all her visions, she always saw immeasurably superior to herself. From the age of twenty-five, she was under the influence of Matilda (9) of Magdeburg, and through her, of Dominican monks. This influence encouraged her leaning to a contemplative life; and promoted the wonderful converse with the Divine which her book shows. Always gentle and lovable, she was of a refined and emotional character, and does not appear to have had any of those combats with sensual nature that troubled so many of the saints. It was easy to her to free her- self from outward things. During dinner she did not know she was eating, or what she ate. The nuns made innocent jokes on hor absence of mind. She neglected her dress, she lived in the spirit. Thoughts moved her more than sights; the visible image was to her only the symbolic clothing of the thought Her thought-world is not very deep and rich, but it has a charm because it shows her peculiarly delicately strung charac- ter. She sang sweetly, and was often in ecstasy ; her nervous temperament made her inspirations take this form. She once had frightful headache for a whole month and then a sense of being forsaken by God for a week, during which she screamed and was heard all over the house ; then she had a period of comfort and sweetness and often lay in a blissful state from Matins to Prime and from Prime to Nones. Li this state she had visions and revelations of holy mysteries, and at last the feeling of bliss, of being so near the Lord, so overruled her that the graces she had hidden for so many years were now proclaimed to all who came to her, not only the sisters, but guests and strangers. At this time, Gertrude, her sister, died ; therefore we gather that these manifestations began 1291. Perhaps it implies that while the practical Gertrude lived, she kept hor more excitable sister quiet, and that she gave way to her natural impulses when this restraint was withdrawn. Matilda sufifered much pain for thii*ty years, and all that time went on reveal- ing her visions until 1310, when it is probable she died. While she suffered so dreadfully from headache and com- plained of sleeplessness, the sisters thought she made a mistake as she often lay quiet for hours with her eyes shut ; but she explained that her soul was then swimming in the Godhead, like a fish in the water, and that the only difference between the union of her soul with God and that of the souls of the saints, was that they were in joy and she in extreme anguish. She was very sympathetic, and had comforting visions concerning her friends who were in sorrow or difficulty. Her book, Speculum Spiritualis Gratm^ shows a fluency in Latin rare among the women of that time. Preger, Deutsche Mystik der Mittel Alter. In most of the collections of lives of Saints she is hope- lessly confused with SS. Matilda (9 and 11) who were her sister-nuns, and with