Gertrude was born in Voorburcht in the
County of Holland, to peasant parents, and entered
domestic service at Delft. Her surname of
van Ooten, or "of the East", came from her custom of singing a hymn which began:
Het daghet in den Oosten, i.e., "Daylight breaks in the East", which some believe that she composed herself. After living a religious life for many years and being left by her fiancé, Gertrude obtained admission into the
beguinage in
Delft. She was not a
nun, and she was not bound by
religious vows, she profited from the ample opportunities for
contemplation afforded by life in the community. She had great devotion to the mysteries of the
Incarnation, especially to the
Passion of Christ. She is believed to have received the
Stigmata in the Good Friday of 1340: She begged God that this grace might be withdrawn, and the blood ceased to flow, but the marks of the Stigmata remained. Gertrude died in Delft on the
feast day of the
Epiphany and was buried in the Church of St. Hippolytus in Delft, as that beguinage did not have its own church or cemetery. Her name has never been inscribed in the
Roman Martyrology, though she is commemorated in various others, and her
cultus is a purely local one. ==References==