She was born to a pious, powerful Thuringian noble family; her older sister was a nun.
She was educated in a convent from age seven. Mechtilde became a nun at Rodersdorf, Switzerland. She moved to the Helfta monastery in 1258 where her sister served as abbess.
She became a teacher and choir director at the convent school at Helfta. She was visionary and mystic and also a novice mistress for Saint Gertrude the Great who wrote The Book of Special Grace about Mechtilde’s teachings; she was initially terrified that the book might cause trouble, but Christ appeared to her in prayer and told her not to worry.
She became a much sought spiritual advisor to her sister nuns, laity and learned Dominicans. May have been the inspiration for the character Matelda in Dante’s Purgatorio.