25 February: Saint Walpurga (Walburga), Abbess

A contemplative devoted to evangelization

Walpurga (Walburga) was born around the year 710 in Wessex, in southern England. She came from a noble Anglo-Saxon family and received her education in a monastery, possibly at Wimborne.

Like her brothers—Saint Willibald (700–787), the first Bishop of Eichstätt, and Saint Wunibald (701–761), abbot of the Benedictine monastery of Heidenheim/Hahnenkamm—and like her relative Saint Boniface, she traveled to Germany in the 8th century to proclaim the Christian message. Her work was decisive in organizing female monastic life in German-speaking lands.

After the death of Wunibald in 761 at Heidenheim, Walpurga became Abbess and took leadership of the local Benedictine monastery, which was reorganized according to the Anglo-Saxon model as a double monastery, including both a male and a female community. For this reason, she is regarded as a consecrated woman who, responding to the call of the English missionaries engaged in the evangelization of Germany, was able to govern male and female monastic communities with balance and wisdom, becoming an example of spiritual leadership and evangelical dedication.

She died on 25 February, probably in the year 788 or 790, and was buried in the abbey church of Heidenheim. A few decades after her death, her relics were transferred to a church in Eichstätt at the request of the local bishop. Around this event, edifying accounts arose concerning the effectiveness of her intercession, which increased devotion to her.

During the Middle Ages, her devotion spread even further: rulers and bishops promoted new translation of her relics and many churches and abbeys were dedicated to her.