Gertrude of Nivelles, St

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Gertrude of Nivelles, St (626–59), daughter of Pepin of Landen, abbess of Nivelles. She is represented in art with mice as her emblem, and has been invoked against pests of rats and mice, by travellers and pilgrims, and as a patroness of the recently dead, on the popular belief that the journey to the next world took three days, the first night of which was spent under the care of Gertrude. Fine weather on her feast-day was regarded as a signal for beginning garden work. Her feast day is 17 March.