SHE was daughter to the holy king St. Richard, and sister to SS.
Willibald and Winebald; was born in the kingdom of the West-Saxons in
England, and educated in the monastery of Winburn in Dorsetshire, where
she took the religious veil. After having passed twenty-seven years in
this holy nunnery, she was sent by the abbess Tetta, under the conduct
of St. Lioba, with several others, into Germany, at the request of her
cousin, St. Boniface.[2] Her first settlement in that country was under
St. Lioba, in the monastery of Bischofsheim, in the diocese of Mentz.
Two years after she was appointed abbess of a nunnery founded by her two
brothers, at Heidenheim in Suabia, (now subject to the duke of
Wirtemberg,) where her brother, St. Winebald, took upon him at the same
time the government of an abbey of monks. This town is situated in the
diocese of Aichstadt, in Franconia, upon the borders of Bavaria, of
which St. Willibald, our saint's other brother, had been consecrated
bishop by St. Boniface. So eminent was the spirit of evangelical
charity, meekness, and piety, which all the words and actions of St.
Walburge breathed, and so remarkable was the fruit which her zeal and
example produced in others, that when St. Winebald died, in 760, she was
charged with a superintendency also over the abbey of monks till her
death. St. Willibald caused the remains of their brother Winebald to be
removed to Aichstadt, sixteen years after his death; at which ceremony
St. Walburge assisted. Two years after she passed herself to eternal
rest; on the 25th of February, in 779, having lived twenty-five years at
Heidenheim. Her relics were translated, in the year 870, to Aichstadt,
on the 21st of September, and the principal part still remains there in
the church anciently called of the Holy Cross, but since that time of
St. Walburge. A considerable portion is venerated with singular devotion
at Furnes, where, by the pious zeal of Baldwin, surnamed of Iron, it was
received on the 25th of April, and enshrined on the 1st of May, on which
day her chief festival is placed in the Belgic Martyrologies, imitated
by Baronius in the Roman. From Furnes certain small parts have been
distributed in several other towns in the Low Countries, especially at
Antwerp, Brussels, Tiel, Arnhem, Groningue, and Zutphen; also Cologne,
Wirtemberg, Ausberg, Christ Church at Canterbury, and other places, were
enriched with particles of this treasure from Aichstadt. St. Walburge is
titular saint of many other great churches in Germany, Brabant,
Flanders, and several provinces of France, especially in Poitou, Perche,
Normandy, Burgundy, Lorraine, Alsace, &c. Her festival, on account of
various translations of her relics, is marked on several days of the
year, but the principal is kept in most places on the day of her death.
A portion of her relics was preserved in a rich shrine in the repository
of relics in the electoral palace of Hanover, as appears from the
catalogue printed in folio at Hanover in 1713. See her life written by
Wolfhard, a devout priest of Aichstadt, in the following century, about
the year {470} 890, again by Adelbold, nineteenth bishop of Utrecht, (of
which diocese Heda calls her patroness;) thirdly, by an anonymous
author; fourthly, by the poet Medibard; fifthly, by Philip, bishop of
Aichstadt; sixthly, by an anonymous author, at the request of the nuns
of St. Walburge of Aichstadt. All these six lives are published by
Henschenius. See also Raderus, in Bavaria Sancta, t. 3, p. 4. Gretser,
de Sanctis Eystettensibus, &c.
Footnotes:
1. This saint is corruptly called, in Perche, St. Gauburge, in Normandy
and Champagne, St. Vaubourg, about Luzon, St. Falbourg, in ether
parts of Poitou, St. Avougourg, in Germany, Walburge, Waltpurde,
Walpourc, and in some places Warpurg. Her English-Saxon name
Walburge, is the same with the Greek Eucharia, and signifies
gracious. See Camden's Remains.
2. St. Boniface being sensible of how great importance it is for the
public advantage of the church, and the general advancement of the
kingdom of Christ in the souls of men, called over from England into
Germany many holy nuns whom he judged best qualified to instruct and
train up others in the maxims and spirit of the Gospel. Among these
he placed St. Tecla in the monastery of Kitzingen, founded by
Alheide, daughter of king Pepin; St. Lioba was appointed by him
abbess at Bischofsheim; St. Cunihilt, aunt of St. Lulius, and her
daughter Berathgit, called also Bergitis, were mistresses of
religious schools in Thuringia, and were honored in that country
among the saints. Cunihildls is also called Gunthildis and
Bilhildis. See Thuringia Sacra, printed at Frankfort, an. 1737.