- Saint Walpurga
Infobox Saint
name=Saint Walpurga
birth_date=c. 710
death_date=February 25, 777 or 779
feast_day=Varies
venerated_in=
imagesize=
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birth_place=Devonshire
death_place=Heidenheim
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beatified_date=
beatified_place=
beatified_by=
canonized_date=870
canonized_place=
canonized_by=Adrian II
attributes=
patronage=Eichstätt ,Antwerp and other towns
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suppressed_date=
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prayer=
prayer_attrib=Saint Walpurga (variants include Walpurgis, Valborg, Walburge, Wealdburg, Valderburger, Valpuri), born in
Crediton near Exeter, in what used to beWessex , c. 710, died atHeidenheim ,25 February ,779 was an English missionary to theFrankish Empire She was canonized on1 May , ca. 870 byPope Adrian II .Together with her brothers,Saint Willibald andSaint Winibald , she travelled toWürttemberg to assistSaint 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 firstfemale 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 nearEichstätt , which was founded by her brother,Willibald . Walpurga died on25 February 779 and was buried at Heidenheim; that day still carries her name in theCatholic calendar. In the 870s her remains were transferred toEichstätt , and in some places, e.g. Finland, Sweden, and Bavaria, herfeast day commemorates the translation of her relics on1 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 theLow Countries . [ [http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/15526b.htm "Catholic Encyclopedia"] gives a fuller list.]The
Church of St. Walburge, Preston , aRoman Catholic church inPreston ,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
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Germanic Christianity Notes
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