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St. Walburgis of Heidenheim
February 25, Saint


Source: Catholicsaints.info



Roman Martyrology: At the monastery of Heidenheim in German Franconia, Saint Walburga, abbess, who, at the request of Saint Boniface and his saintly brothers, Willibald and Winebald, travelled from England to Germany, where she ruled excellently a double monastery of monks and holy nuns.


Canonization: by Pope Adrian II.

SHORT BIOGRAPHY

Born c.710 at Devonshire, Wessex, England. 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.


Died  February 25, 779 at Heidenheim, Swabia, Germany of natural causes.

 








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