Cats have their very own patron saint.  

It’s true. Gertrude of Nivelles is the holy cat lady of all felines everywhere, regardless of breed or colour. She is celebrated on the same day as St Patrick. So if you are a cat who is not in any way Irish, you can have a feast; and if you are a cat who is Irish, you can have double catnips all round.

Gertrude was born in 626 in Nivelles, which is in modern day Belgium. Her family were wealthy and noble and embroiled in the power struggle swirling around the Merovingian, Carolingian and Pippinid dynasties all vying for power in Francia, which covered large parts of the area of what is now France, Netherlands, Belgium, Austria and Germany. (It’s all very gripping but far too much of a royal soap opera to cover right now, and we are here for Gertrude.)

Power was partly controlled by strategic marriage alliances. Gertrude’s sister made just such a marriage  but Gertrude was having none of it. When she was 10, her father suggested an arranged marriage., Gertrude refused point blank, and held out against him until he died. To escape further oppression, and the possibility of abduction, Gertrude’s mother Itta, founded an abbey at Nivelles,and installed Gertrude as the abbess.

Being devout, kind and devoted to helping the sick, poor, elderly and unfortunate, Gertrude was very popular, and was canonised directly after her death. Sailors prayed to her after she was thought to have saved a vessel in trouble; gardeners venerated her because she spent much of her time working in the Abbey gardens; foreigners loved her as she welcomed all travellers, refugees and pilgrims; and  everybody loved her as a preventer of plague,, as she was believed to have power over rats and mice.

But cats? 

There is no mention or iconography of Gertrude and cats in medieval sources (although plenty of rats and mice show up in images of her). It seems to have been an attribution from the early 1980s, which has now become a accepted wisdom.. 

Belvedere, of course, being a purist, snorts into his food bowl at this and occasionally rants about meretricious bandwagoning.

I find myself less enraged; not at all enraged actually. It makes sense. To have been so successful against rats and particularly mice, Gertrude would have needed a powerful ally, And who is the natural enemy of mice and reasonably-sized rodents? Cats ,of course. It’s inconceivable that there were no cats in the cloisters. And cats are self-contained independent beings who would not tolerate arranged marriages, if there were such a thing in cat world. Gertrude is a great fit for a holy cat lady. I’m for continuing the tradition, even if it is only 40 years old rather than 1440.

Salut, Gertrude.

For more about Gertrude see here