![[statue of Saint Walburga]](saintw02.jpg "7kb jpg photograph of a gothic statue of Saint Walburga, artist unknown, date unknown; located above the crypt of Saint Walburga, Benedictine Abbey of Saint Walburga, Eichstatt, Germany; please do not write to ask about the image")
Bugga Gaudurge Vaubourg Walpurga Walpurgis
25 February 1 May 12 October (translation of relics to Eichstätt) 24 September (translation of relics to Zutphen)
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.
against coughs against dog bites against famine against hydrophobia against mad dogs against plague against rabies against storms Antwerp, Belgium boatmen Eichstätt, Germany, diocese of Gronigen, Netherlands harvests mariners Oudenarde, Belgium Plymouth, England, diocese of sailors watermen Zutphen, Netherlands
abbess holding three ears of corn abbess with angels holding a crown over her abbess within a family tree of the kings of England crown near her own tomb as it exudes its miraculous oil phial of oil royal abbess with a small flask of oil on a book scepter three ears of corn with Saint Willibald and Saint Winebald
Book of Saints, by the Monks of Ramsgate Catholic Online Catholic Encyclopedia Lives of the Saints, by Father Alban Butler Our Sunday Visitor's Encyclopedia of Saints, by Matthew Bunson, Margaret Bunson, and Stephen Bunson Saints Alive, by Father Robert McNamara