(A.D. 779.)
[On this day the Martyrology bearing the name of Bede; also those of
the metropolitan Churches of Prague, of Treves, and Utrecht; the
Benedictine Kalendar; and as usually commemorated in Germany. But
some give April 27th. No mention of S. Walburga in the French
Martyrologies. Some give Feb. 25th as the day of her Translation,
others October 12th, others September 21st; but May 1st is the most
solemn day of her Translation. Authority:--Her Life by a priest of
Eichstadt in the following century; another life by Adelbold, B. of
Maestrecht, d. 1027; another by Eynwick, provost of S. Florian;
another by an anonymous writer, and others later. Walburga is
variously called Waldburga, Wilburga, Vaubone, Valpurgis, Vaubourg.]
The blessed Walburga was a daughter of S. Richard, West Saxon Thane,
(Feb. 7th), and sister of S. Willibald, (July 7th), and S. Wunnibald,
(December 18th). These holy brothers accompanied their uncle, the
great S. Boniface, (June 5th), apostle of Germany, on his mission, and
are regarded and honoured as his fellow apostles. S. Walburga was
educated from early childhood in the monastic calm of Wimbourne, in
Dorsetshire, where she took the veil, and spent an untroubled youth
till called by S. Boniface to Germany. Boniface had asked his
kinswoman, the abbess Tatta, to send him a colony of nuns to found a
religious house in the newly acquired provinces of the kingdom of
Christ. She sent S. Lioba, with several under her, amongst whom was S.
Walburga, and they settled at first at Bischofsheim, in the diocese of
Mainz. Two years after she was appointed abbess of Heidenheim, a
religious house founded by her brothers, Willibald, bishop of
Eichstadt, and Wunnibald, who ruled an abbey of men. So great was her
prudence and virtue, that on the death of Wunnibald, in 760, following
the Anglo-Saxon precedent, Walburga was appointed to superintend the
abbey of monks, as well as her own convent of nuns, and this double
charge she executed till her death. S. Willibald translated the body
of his brother to Eichstadt, in 776; and S. Walburga was present at
the ceremony. She died in 779 or 780, but on what day is not mentioned
by her biographer.
[Illustration: S. WALBURGA. From Cahier. Feb. 25.]
In art she is represented with a flask of oil, on account of the
miraculous and fragrant oil which distilled from her relics in the
church of S. Cross, at Eichstadt; or with three ears of corn, with
which she is said to have cured and satisfied a girl afflicted with a
ravenous appetite.
Her relics were translated in 870, to Eichstadt, on Sept. 21st. A
considerable part still remains there; another portion was carried by
Baldwin the Bearded, Count of Flanders, in 1109, to the abbey of
Furnes, near Ostend, where they are still preserved, and the festival
of the translation is kept on May 1st. From Furnes, small portions
have been distributed to churches in Antwerp, Brussels, Thiel,
Arnheim, Zutphen, and Gröningen. Other relics of this saint are said
to be preserved at Prague, Cologne, Augsburg, and Hanover, and many
were anciently distributed over Lorraine, Alsace, and Burgundy.
There can be no doubt that S. Walburga has inherited the symbols and
much of the cultus anciently devoted to Walborg, or Walburg, the Earth
Mother.