Saint Walburga

Dec 072008

[Saint Walburga]
Also known as

Auboué
Avangour
Avongourg
Bugga
Falbourg
Gaubourg
Gauburge
Gaudurge
Gualbourg
Valborg
Valburg
Valpurge
Valpuri
Vaubouer
Vaubourg
Walbourg
Walburg
Walburge
Walpurd
Walpurga
Walpurgis
Waltpurde
Warpurg

25 February
1 May
12 October (translation of relics to Eichstätt)
24 September (translation of relics to Zutphen)

Profile

Daughter of Saint Richard the King. Sister of Saint Willibald and Saint Winebald. Student of Saint Tatta at Wimborne monastery, Dorset, England, where she later became a nun.

Beginning in 748, she evangelized and healed pagans in what is now Germany with Saint Lioba, Saint Boniface, and her brothers, a mission that was very successful. Abbess of communities of men and of women at Heidenheim. Cures are ascribed to the oil that exudes from a rock on which her relics were placed, which together with her healing skills in life explains her patronage of plague, rabies, coughs, etc.

The night of 1 May, the date of the translation of Walburga’s relics to Eichstätt in 870, is known as Walpurgisnacht; it is also a pagan festival marking the beginning of summer and the revels of witches. Though the saint had no connection with this festival, her name became associated with witchcraft and country superstitions because of the date. It is possible that the protection of crops ascribed to her, represented by three ears of corn in her icons, may have been transferred to her from Mother Earth and the connection to this pagan holiday.