Saint Walpurga

Infobox Saint
name=Saint Walpurga
birth_date=c. 710
death_date=February 25, 777 or 779
feast_day=Varies
venerated_in=


imagesize=
caption=
birth_place=Devonshire
death_place=Heidenheim
titles=
beatified_date=
beatified_place=
beatified_by=
canonized_date=870
canonized_place=
canonized_by=Adrian II
attributes=
patronage=Eichstätt, Antwerp and other towns
major_shrine=
suppressed_date=
issues=
prayer=
prayer_attrib=

Saint Walpurga (variants include Walpurgis, Valborg, Walburge, Wealdburg, Valderburger, Valpuri), born in Crediton near Exeter, in what used to be Wessex, c. 710, died at Heidenheim, 25 February, 779 was an English missionary to the Frankish Empire She was canonized on 1 May, ca. 870 by Pope Adrian II.Together with her brothers, Saint Willibald and Saint Winibald, she travelled to Württemberg to assist Saint Boniface, her mother's brother. She had been well prepared for the call. She was educated in the convent of Wimborne, Dorset, where she spent twenty-six years as a member of the community. Thanks to her rigorous training she was later able to write St. Winibald's "vita" and an account in Latin of St. Willibald's travels in Palestine, so that she is often credited with being the first female author of both England and Germany. [A point made by [http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/15526b.htm "Catholic Encyclopedia"] ]

She became a nun and lived in the convent of Heidenheim near Eichstätt, which was founded by her brother, Willibald. Walpurga died on 25 February 779 and was buried at Heidenheim; that day still carries her name in the Catholic calendar. In the 870s her remains were transferred to Eichstätt, and in some places, e.g. Finland, Sweden, and Bavaria, her feast day commemorates the translation of her relics on 1 May. Walpurgis Night is celebrated on the night of April 30th, the eve of Saint Walpurga's feast, when the witches and other occult folk can celebrate before being banished by the dawn of this saint's special day.

The two earliest miracle narratives of Walpurga are the "Miracula S. Walburgae Manheimensis" by Wolfhard von Herrieden, datable 895/96, and the late tenth-century "Vita secunda" linked with the name of Aselbod, bishop of Utrecht. In the fourteenth-century "Vita S. Walburgae" of Phillipp von Rathsamhaüsen, bishop of Eichstätt (1306-22) the miracle of the tempest-tossed boat is introduced, which Peter Paul Rubens painted in 1610 for the disassembled altarpiece for the church of S. Walpurgis, Antwerp. [Susanne Heiland, "Two Rubens Paintings Rehabilitated" "The Burlington Magazine," 111 No. 796 (July 1969:421-427) p. ]

She is the patron saint of rabies.

Walpurga is the patroness of Eichstätt, Antwerp, Oudenarde, Furnes, Gronigen, Zutphen and other towns in the Low Countries. [ [http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/15526b.htm "Catholic Encyclopedia"] gives a fuller list.]

The Church of St. Walburge, Preston, a Roman Catholic church in Preston, Lancashire, England, is a particularly tall and beautiful church dedicated to her. The origin of the variation on her name is not clear.

See also

* Germanic Christianity

Notes