La más amada de Cristo. Iconografia y culto de santa Gertrudis la Magna en la Nueva España

Abstract

Figurative images and the printing press were two of the means most extensively used by the Catholic Counter–Reformation in order to diseminate and foster the worshipment of saints. This paper explores the iconography and cult of a saint of whom little is known nowadays, in spite of being the subject of extensive printed literature during the Colonial period, whose representations were performed over canvasses, altarpieces and jewelry. St. Gertrude was adopted as Puebla's patron saint, and also as a devotee of the Christ-child. On acount of her German origins Gertrude, Abess of Ardent Heart and a promoter of a proper manner of dying, was also associated, with the Catholic struggle against Protestantism.