Q&A-The St. Gertrude Prayer & Usual Conditions
- catholicindulgence
- Feb 21
- 8 min read
Hello Everyone! Often times I try to keep my eyes open for questions floating around that are asked about indulgences. Many times there are questions I wouldn’t have even thought of, and I try and answer them to help make indulgences a little clearer and more accessible. Granted I’m no expert, but least questions like these may give us all something to think about, and help us get to the right answer
Note: some questions may be adapted from how they were originally asked. Also, in some cases, these questions were asked to a priest or to some other person known to give sound advice. If that’s the case, I will try to include their answer too! Anything to help.
Today our Question topics are:
Confession before, during, and after an indulgence
How to pray for the Pope’s intentions
A single or multiple indulgences for a soul in purgatory
How many indulgences can we gain per day
Indulgences and the St. Gertrude Prayer
Q: I am riding home with two friends from the [National Eucharistic Congress] and we are trying to figure out how the timing of the plenary indulgence works. One of us went to confession right before, one during, and one hasn't yet been but intends to soon. - F. W. E.
A: ...The Confession can be made around 20 days of the indulgenced act, but nevertheless since a plenary indulgence requires complete detachment from all sin, one may be required to confess before the indulgeced act/work/pilgrimage/etc in order to be in a state of grace if mortal sin is on the soul… Other requirements include reception of Holy Communion. One Communion per plenary indulgence is required. One plenary indulgence per day may be sought, with a second being sought only if applied to the Holy Souls in Purgatory – Fr. PB
A: Although there is a specific Eucharistic Congress Indulgence outlined in the Manuel of Indulgence, for this question, we will be putting that aside. Because the idea of ‘indulgence-timing’ isn’t just for Eucharistic Congress indulgences, but the question is applied broadly to most all of the plenary indulgences that are available to us.
So the first point to make is that, since plenary indulgences can only be gained one-per-day, plenary indulgences are generally assigned to the date that the work was completed. There are some exceptions to this, but most of the time the date of completion is when a plenary indulgence is considered to apply. For the sake of this exercise, let’s say these 3 friends fulfilled the plenary indulgence work on July 21st.
From there, to gain a plenary indulgence, some things must be completed at the same time as the work (Not just on the date of July 21st, but precisely at the same time as the work). Things like detachment from sin, and other basic conditions like being baptized, not excommunicated, and in a state of grace.
Other aspects may be done at a different time, such as confession, communion, and praying for the Pope’s intentions. These can be done within 20 days before or after the work. ( July 1st – Aug 10th) Once these other things are completed, it is applied forward or backward to the work that was done on the date of July 21st. So regarding the timing of the 3 friends, all of them would have gained the same indulgence, on the same day, as long as the last friend does, in fact, go to confession with 20 days.
Q: When praying for the Pope's intentions for the month - do we pray for a month? If not, for how many days? - F. W.E.
A: You need not pray for the Pope's monthly intentions, just pray for the Pope's intentions generally with at least an Our Father and Hail Mary. This is done just one time, at least, per indulgence sought. – Fr. PB
A: As far as indulgences go, you only need to pray for the intention of the Holy Father on a one-to-one basis for each plenary indulgence you receive. That is to say, if you only intend to gain one plenary indulgence you only need to pray once to fulfill the requirements for that indulgence. If you intend to gain two, then pray twice, etc. The Manuel of Indulgences says it is fitting to pray on the same day as you do a plenary indulgence, but you can also pray any time within 20 days before or after you do the plenary indulgence work (so long as you pray on a one-to-one bases)
It is important to note that you do not need to pray specifically for the Pope’s intentions, but rather you can pray generally (“For the Pope’s intentions, I pray…”). This means that you do not necessarily need to know what the specific monthly intention is, or when it changes.
Lastly, you may pray one Our Father and one Hail Mary (which fully satisfies the requirement) or you have the option of reciting any other prayer according to your individual piety/devotion.
Q: My question is in seeking an indulgences for the dead — is a single plenary indulgence for someone assumed to be in purgatory sufficient, or should multiple indulgences be sought? - B. K.
A: Short of a particular private revelation, which is possible but perhaps infrequent, or a public canonization, you do not know if your loved one has entered Heaven. Also, you do not necessarily know if you obtained the plenary indulgence. If you love them, you would not cease praying for them even after attempting to gain a plenary indulgence for them. – Fr. FG
A: Norm 2 states: An indulgence is partial or plenary according to whether it removes either part or all of the temporal punishment due sin.
The answer, in short, is YES, a single plenary indulgence suffices for a soul in purgatory. A plenary indulgence removes all of the temporal punishment due sin. This temporal punishment is believed to be the only thing that holds a soul in purgatory/hinders a soul from entering heaven. Therefore, once a soul in purgatory (who can not sin anymore) is atoned from all their temporal punishment they should never need to atone for more then that and they should be able to enter heaven.
HOWEVER, even though we may hope out indulgences go to a specific soul, like a friend or family member, we are unable to determine how our offered indulgence are distributed (except when we retain them for ourself). I am reminded of a soul that St. Faustina encountered. She and her community prayed for this soul, but when the soul re-appeared to St. Faustina, still in purgatory, St. Faustina asked if all their prayers had helped this soul or not. The soul replied: ‘these prayers had instead helped other souls.’
The point of this account is that, even if we offer our plenary indulgence for someone specific, which would be enough to release them from purgatory, Christ may see it fitting to apply our efforts to a different brother or sister in purgatory.
Because of this, there is a fine balance to maintain. We want to persist in keep our loved ones in mind while also recognizing that only one, good, plenary indulgence is necessary for their soul. If I may offer my personal opinion, I often pray that Christ will apply my offered indulgence to my loved one or a sibling in purgatory in honor of my loved one, according to His good will. In this way we don’t hinder God, and we can keep our loved one on our hearts.
Q: Can more than one indulgence be gained per day for the dead (as I understand only one per day for one's self), or can you gain indulgences for multiple people in one day? - B. K.
A: You may only gain one plenary indulgence per day whether for yourself or for the dead. There is no limit to the partial indulgences you can obtain in a day whether for yourself or for the deceased. – Fr. FG
A: This depends on if we are talking about plenary or partial indulgences.
Norm 18 says: §1. A plenary indulgence can be acquired only once in the course of a day; a partial indulgence can be acquired multiple times….
So partial indulgences can be gained throughout the day, and assumably you can retain or offer them up as you please. A plenary indulgence can only be gained once a day, regardless of to whom it goes to. This, of course, does have some rare exceptions. For example, during the Jubilee year of 2025 a second plenary indulgence was allowed under the condition that it was offered for the departed, and that you received sacramental communion for a second time that day.
Also Norm 18 continues on, to §2, and says: ...The faithful however can obtain the plenary indulgence at the hour of death, even if they have already gained one on the same day.
Lastly, regarding ‘multiple people,’ only 2 types of people may gain your received indulgences: You and Souls in Purgatory. The living can not receive your indulgences. So, assuming you mean multiple people *in purgatory, it is important to note that we do not actually have any control over the distribution of our indulgences. We entrust that to God and we make special intercessions that Christ would apply our indulgences to certain people, but that is it. So you can most definitely pray that Christ apply the fruits of your indulgences to multiple souls in purgatory, but you can not personally guarantee the application.
Q: Is that (indulgences) the same as saying the St. Gertrude Prayer? - B. K.
A: No, the St. Gertrude is not a matter of indulgences. The promise of a thousand souls being freed from that prayer is not well attested to. On the one hand, we should be confident of great mercy in response to our prayers. On the other hand, we should not presume that our prayers are equal in efficacy to St. Gertrude the Great. – Fr. FG
A: The St. Gertrude prayer (which is said to deliver 1,000 poor souls from purgatory when it is said devoutly and starts with the line, "Eternal Father, I offer Thee the Most Precious Blood of Thy Divine Son…”) is not indulgenced. At lease, not in a unique was that reflects the ‘promise’ of the prayer. What I mean by this is that: all prayers are granted a partial indulgence under some of the grants (namely Grant 15, for mental prayer). In this way alone, this prayer is capable to some degree of offering an indulgence, but not in any special way that other prayer could not offer the same indulgence.
Furthermore, just to present a fair amount of the information: The Church has not endorsed this prayer as anything more then a simple prayer, even outside of the question of indulgences. It has not endorsed the ‘promise’ that is rumored to go with this prayer. And, it has not endorsed this prayer’s promises to be granted to anybody else besides St. Gertrude herself for saying this prayer. To say it another way, what this means is that the Church (likely out of either humility and/or speculation) endorses no extra-ordinary benefits that have been linked to this prayer. In fact, there is speculation that when Christ made this promise to St. Gertrude, the promise was only for St. Gertrude. That this was a private revelation which was not necessarily designed to be carried over to the rest of the church body.
Now, I have nothing against this prayer, or the hopes that the promises of this prayer be honored by Christ just like he said to St. Gertrude. However, I myself am skeptical in the ‘1,000 souls’ promise. Instead, I feel that I must encourage everyone who prays this prayer (and everyone who doesn't) to pray for the souls in purgatory, even if it turns out that you are not releasing 1,000 souls. That is, no mater how many poor souls in purgatory that you aid in your lifetime (even if it is 0 souls) I encourage you to keep praying for these souls and to keep trusting in Christ’s desire and mercy to bring the souls of his children to heaven. This attitude is beneficial when praying this prayer or gaining indulgences.
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