What She Actually Saw in Purgatory.

The prayer that carries her name promises a thousand souls released every time you say it. I read her book, the whole 1870 English edition, and the prayer is not in it. The number is not in it. This is what St Gertrude of Helfta actually recorded when she prayed for the dead: the sister who would not walk into heaven until she was ready, the golden rod with a hook for every prayer, the lay brother freed by five Our Fathers, the dead man who said our tears reach him as a friend's kindness, and the answer she was given when she asked how many souls a prayer frees. It was not a number. Drawn from The Life and Revelations of Saint Gertrude (1870 English edition, public domain), with F. X. Schouppe, Purgatory Illustrated by the Lives and Legends of the Saints (1893), and Denis the Carthusian as Schouppe records him. Leave the name of the soul you are praying for in the comments. I read them, and the people watching will pray for that soul by name. Eternal rest grant unto them, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon them.