SAINT FEAST DAY 25 FEBRUARY: ST WALBURGA

 

ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN FEBRUARY

Saints celebrated on the 25th of February

Prayer to the Angels and the Saints

Heavenly Father, in praising Your Angels and Saints we praise Your glory, for by honouring them we honour You, their Creator. Their splendour shows us Your greatness, which infinitely surpasses that of all creation.

In Your loving providence, You saw fit to send Your Angels to watch over us. Grant that we may always be under their protection and one day enjoy their company in heaven.

Heavenly Father, You are glorified in Your Saints, for their glory is the crowning of Your gifts. You provide an example for us by their lives on earth, You give us their friendship by our communion with them, You grant us strength and protection through their prayer for the Church, and You spur us on to victory over evil and the prize of eternal glory by this great company of witnesses.

Grant that we who aspire to take part in their joy may be filled with the Spirit that blessed their lives, so that, after sharing their faith on earth, we may also experience their peace in heaven. Amen.

ST WALBURGA, ABBESS

Saint Walburga (Waltpurde, Walpurgis) was born in Devonshire, about 710. She is invoked as special patroness against hydrophobia, and in storms, and also by sailors. She was the daughter of St Richard, one of the under-kings of the West Saxons, and of Winna, sister of St Boniface, Apostle of Germany, and had two brothers, St Willibald and St Winibald. At Wimborne monastery, she was trained in solid learning. She is the first female author of England and Germany. 

WOMEN BECAME INVOLVED IN THE MISSIONARY WORK

Boniface was the first missionary to call women to his aid. In 748, in response to his appeal, Abbess Tetta sent over to Germany St Lioba and St Walburga, with many other nuns. They sailed with fair weather, but before long a terrible storm arose. Hereupon Walburga prayed, kneeling on the deck, and at once the sea became calm. On landing, the sailors proclaimed the miracle they had witnessed, so that Walburga was everywhere received with joy and veneration. 

A MIRACLE AT SEA

She was appointed abbess of Heidenheim. It was of these nuns that Ozanam wrote: "Silence and humility have veiled the labours of the nuns from the eyes of the world, but history has assigned them their place at the very beginning of German civilization: Providence has placed women at ever cradleside." 

She died in 777. In 893 Bishop Erchanbold, Otkar's successor, opened the shrine, and it was then that the body was first discovered to be immersed in a precious oil or dew, which has continued to flow from the sacred remains, especially the breast. This fact has caused St Walburga to be reckoned among the Elaephori, or oil-yielding saints. 

AN OIL-YIELDING SAINT

In the Benedictine Breviary her feast is assigned to 25 (in leap year 26) February. She is represented in the Benedictine habit with a little phial or bottle; as an abbess with a crozier, a crown at her feet, denoting her royal birth. 

(Excerpts from: Catholic Encyclopedia, 1913 - 🎨 The miracle at sea)