Gertrud the Great (12561302) entered the monastery of Helfta in eastern Germany as a child oblate. At the age of twenty-five she underwent a conversion that led to a series of visionary experiences, some of which she recorded in Latin ';with her own hand,' in what became Book Two ofThe Herald of God's Loving-Kindness, the standard version of her revelations. The other four bookswere written down by a close confidant of the saint, now often known as Sister N.Recently a different version of Gertruds revelations hasbeen discovered, in an early fourteenth-century manuscript held at the University of Leipzig, Germany,mucholder than the known manuscripts ofThe Herald.The Memorial of the Abundance of the Divine Sweetnessis shorter thanThe Herald,andwhile the two versions have some text in common (notably most ofThe HeraldsBook Two), the new manuscript also contains some completely new material, which sometimes modifies and sometimes complements what readers already know of the saint.
