OUR LADY OF TRUT

Germany, 10th century

The church of Our Lady of Trut is near the city of Cologne in Germany, and was built by Otho I; that is under his reign, by order of Saint Heribert, Archbishop of Cologne, on the very spot where, formerly, pagan idols had been worshiped. To atone for this, a shrine to the Mother of the true God was erected and has remained both a place of pilgrimage and of miracles.

Among the many miracles which Mary is accredited with at this shrine, two are mentioned in the life of Saint Heribert. During the time of a great drought, the saint went to the altar of Mary, and resting his head in his hands, he prayed long and fervently. When he left the church, rain was falling in torrents. Another time his prayers induced Mary to spare the people from the plague, that was raging all around.

Saint Heribert, born in 970, was the Archbishop of Cologne, and was revered as a saint even during his lifetime. He founded the Abbey of Deutz, a Benedictine monastery in Cologne, though no reference can be found to Our Lady of Tru or Trut, and there is currently no town in Germany of that name.

Among the more rare and excellent privileges of most pure Mary, the chief one is, that she is Mother of God, which is the foundation of all the rest. The second is, that she was conceived without sin. The third, that she enjoyed many times the beatific vision in this mortal life, and the fourth is that she continually saw clearly the most holy soul of her Son and all its operations for her imitation. She had it present to her eyes, as a most clear and pure mirror, in which she could behold Herself again and again in order to adorn herself with most precious gems of virtue, made in imitation of those seen in that most holy Soul. There she saw it united with the divine Word and she exercised her humility in seeing how much her own human nature was inferior to that of Christ.

She perceived with the clearest insight the acts of gratitude and praise, with which the soul of Christ praised the Almighty for having been created out of nothing as the rest of the souls, and for the graces and gifts, with which it was endowed above others as a creature; and especially, for having been elevated and made godlike by the union of the human nature with the Divinity. She pondered over His petitions, prayers and supplications to His eternal Father for the human race; and how in all His other activity He prepared Himself for its Redemption and instruction, as the sole Redeemer and Teacher of man for eternal life.