The abbey was founded by Itta of Metz, the widow of Pepin of Landen, Mayor of the Palace of the Kingdom of Austrasia, with their daughter, Gertrude of Nivelles. Christianity was not at all widespread in that place and time. It was only the development of cities and the initiative of bishops that led to a vast movement of evangelism, which led to the flowering of monasteries everywhere in the seventh and eighth centuries.[4]
Gertrude's Vita describes how Bishop Amandus came to Itta's home, "preaching the word of God. At the Lord's bidding, he asked whether she would build a monastery for herself and Christ's handmaid, Gertrude".[5] Itta founded Nivelles as a Benedictine monastery of nuns. It later became a double monastery, with one section for monks and another for nuns. However, after they entered the monastic life, Gertrude and her mother suffered, "no small opposition" from the royal family. During this period, trials for the family are mentioned involving the usurper Otto's bid to replace the Pippinids at the side of the king.[6]
There is some precedent for Gertrude and Itta's withdrawal to Nivelles with the intention of founding a monastery. According to Wemple, "during the second half of the 7th century, women in Neustrian-Burgundian families concentrated on the creation of a network of monasteries rather than on the conclusion of politically advantageous unions, while families whose holdings were in the northeastern parts of the kingdom, centering around the city of Metz, were more concerned with the acquisition of power through carefully arranged marriages." Itta's move to start a monastery was thus not completely out of the ordinary, and may have in fact been the norm for a widowed noblewoman.[7]
Upon Itta's death at about the age of 60 in 652,[8] Gertrude took over the monastery. At this time, Gertrude took the "whole burden of governing upon herself alone," placing affairs of the family in the hand of "good and faithful administrators from the brothers." Some have argued that this implies that Gertrude ruled the monastery with an abbot. Frankish double monasteries were almost always led by an abbess, or jointly by an abbess and abbot.[9]
In the 9th century there began a process of secularization of the community which possibly ended in the 12th century. The abbey had close ties to the royal family, and played an important role in the social life of the palace. The abbey was part of the dower of Emperor Otto II to the Byzantine princess Theophanu. From the 12th century, the character of the community began to change to a more prestigious one, so that the members became canonesses regular who came from among the nobility, as attested in a document dated 1462. For most of the Middle Ages the abbey remained an Imperial Abbey, a semi-sovereign institution directly under the king.
Nowadays, the basement of the old abbey holds a number of artifacts and a rich archaeology and is open to the public. The adjoining Romanesque-Gothiccloister dates from the 13th century. A procession is held every year on the Sunday after Michaelmas.
Known abbesses
Gertrude (626–659), daughter of Itta of Metz, was the first abbess of the double monastery, although her mother may have been first abbess as well at its foundress.
Vulfetrude, Gertrude's niece and daughter of her brother, Grimoald I, succeeded her from 659 to 669.
Agnes, who in 691 allowed Begga, sister of Gertrude to take some nuns to found the Monastery of Andenne on Modelled.
^van Uytven, R. (2004). Geschiedenis van Brabant : van het hertogdom tot heden. Zwolle: Waanders. p. 53. ISBN9789085261018.
^Anne-Marie Helvetius, Du monastère double au chapitre noble : moniales et chanoinesses en Basse-Lotharingie. In Les chapitres de dames nobles entre France et Empire, études réunies sous la direction de Michel Parisse et Pierre Heili. Éditions Messene, Paris, 1998.
^Joseph Delmelle, Abbayes et béguinages de Belgique, Rossel Édition, Bruxelles, 1973, pp. 52 & 53.
^Donnay-Rocmans, Claudine. La Collégiale Sainte-Gertrude de Nivelles. (Gembloux: Duculot, 1979).p34
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