CHURCH OF SANTA GERTRUDIS DE FRUITERA
As every November 16th Santa Gertrudis at the center of the Island celebrates its festivity, therefore today not only it will be the geographical center of the island but also the place to go for festivity. The image of the major altar of this church (picture above), that though externally it is not the typical white building, the certain thing is that indoors it has the typical style of the Ibicencan churches.
The Holder of this church is Saint Gertrudis Magna, a Holy German writer and Benedictine mysticism that was born in 1256. Many of her writings have disappeared (as her body since it is not known where her tomb is, though it is known that she died near Eisleben in Germany), but there exists an important legacy of her writings all of them written in Latin. During her life she lived in a monastery, where she devoted herself to the prayer and contemplation.
As a good rural from Ibiza church has not lack the "indispensable" details that are habitual in these churches. The Calvary (image of above) that is next to the entry, and the crosses that they indicate in the proximity of the temple and distributed by the whole village where there are located the points of the Vía Crucis. In the image it corresponds to the point XI.
One of the things that one find in these churches are the simplicity and the white walls of lime. This image of below is more evident due the simplicity of a small opened window where it entersa bit of light to illuminate one of the lateral chapels adorned with the sole image of a Saint (in this case mine, Saint Vicente Ferrer) that I believe is the most present of all the Saints in the churches of the island.
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There is a drainage ditch in Temecula, California, USA named after Santa Gertrudis. However, this name may refer to a breed of cattle from Texas, which in turn appears to have got its name somehow from a Spanish land grant in Texas. All this is unfortunate, because it seems Saint Gertrude of Germany was an honorable person, not worthy of having cow, let alone drainage ditch, named after her. Every time I cross the bridge over the ditch, I wonder who she is.
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