Today is St. Gertrude's Day. Yes, I know it's also St. Patrick's Day but I've told you before about Patrick being born just up the road from us here in Banwen. (Some people may argue that he was born elsewhere but we Welsh know the truth.)

By Simon Bening

So, back to Gertrude. She was born in 628 in what is now Belgium, and she and her mother founded the Abbey of Nivelles. At a young age she declared that she would never marry as she was called to be the bride of Christ, and she spent her life helping the sick, elderly, and poor. 

This earned her the title of patron saint of travellers, widows, and mentally ill. She's also patron saint of gardeners, and her name is invoked against rats and mice.

Sometime in the 1980s cat-lovers decided that, as she stood against vermin, she must be in favour of cats, and she is now wisely known as patron saints of cats and cat-lovers.

There is a legend that one day she sent some travellers to a distant country, promising that no misfortune would befall them on the journey; when they were on the ocean, a large sea-monster threatened to capsize their ship, but disappeared upon the invocation of Saint Gertrude. In memory of this occurrence travellers during the Middle Ages drank the so-called "Sinte Geerts Minne" or "Gertrudenminte" before setting out on their journey.

She died at 33 "because of too much abstinence and keeping of vigils", according to Cambridge Mediaeval History. Which just goes to show.

Today is the saint's day for at least twenty others, including the closer-to-home, St. Llinio of Llandinam.

St. Llinio's church in Llandinam. I got distracted. It looks like a very pretty part of the countryside with some lovely houses for sale, including one 20-bedroomed mansion.