St. Willibald's Travels

Although St. Willibald wrote about St. Boniface (to whom he was related on his mother's side), what we mostly know about him came from another's writing, an itinerary written by an Anglo-Saxon nun named Huneberc who knew Willibald and his brother, St. Winebald. The two brothers also had a sister who became a saint, Walburga, whom I wrote about here.

In fact, the entire family was notable. Their mother was a saint, Wuna of Wessex; some think she was the sister of Boniface. Their father was known as Richard the Pilgrim because in 721 he went on pilgrimage to the Holy Land with his wife and two sons, leaving his daughter in care of the abbess of Wimborne in Dorset. Richard himself died in Lucca, in Tuscany, after developing a fever; he is considered a saint and his relics were displayed in Lucca and in Eichstätt. Both his and Luna's feast day is 7 February.

After Lucca, Willibald with Winibald continued the pilgrimage. They stayed in Rome, visiting the Lateran Basilica and St. Peter's. Then disaster struck, as Huneberc relates:

Then with the passing of the days and the increasing heat of the summer, which is usually a sign of future fever, they were struck down with sickness. They found it difficult to breathe, fever set in, and at one moment they were shivering with cold the next burning with heat. They had caught the black plague. So great a hold had it got on them that, scarcely able to move, worn out with fever and almost at the point of death, the breath of life had practically left their bodies. But God in His never failing providence and fatherly love deigned to listen to their prayers and come to their aid, so that each of them rested in turn for one week whilst they attended to each other's needs.

The symptoms more closely align with malaria. After recovering, Willibald continued his journey in 724. Winibald stayed in a monastery in Rome.

Willibald went to Ephesus where he visited the tomb of John the Evangelist. He spent the winter in Lycia (in Turkey), then traveled to the island of Cyprus, then to Syria and the church of Saint John the Baptist.

He is the first known Englishman to visit the Holy Land, visiting Nazareth and Bethlehem. He also visited Egypt, before returning to Nazareth, and then Cana, Capernaum, and finally arriving in Jerusalem on 11 November 725. He visits many places in the area before going to stay awhile in Tyre, after which he went to Constantinople.

He spent two years in Constantinople, staying in a small room at the Church of the Holy Apostles. He visited Nicaea, where he studied the records from the First Council of Nicaea, which had been called by Constantine to settle the question of Arian versus Nicene Christianity. He finally left for Naples, arriving there after seven years of traveling. He then spent ten years (729 - 739) at Monte Cassino.

He might have been content to stay at Monte Cassino, but a conversation between Boniface and Pope Gregory III would change his status, his location, and reunite him with his family. I'll explain that next time.

Saint Walburga

Saint Walburga (c.710-779), mentioned yesterday because of the "Oil of Saints" that flows from the stone and metal on which her relics rest, deserves a little more attention.

She was born in Devonshire in England. Her whole family was very devout: her father was St. Richard the Pilgrim, her uncle was St. Boniface (d.754), and her brothers Winibald and Willibald also became saints. She was raised by the nuns of Wimborne Abbey. Her education was very thorough. She is presumed to be the author of a life of St. Winibald and an account of the travels through Palestine of St. Willibald, making her the earliest known female author in Western Europe.

While St. Boniface was christianizing Germany, he called for help from women as well as men. St. Walburga and many other nuns started a voyage to Germany. When a storm threatened to capsize the craft, Walburga knelt on the deck and prayed for deliverance, whereupon the waters immediately became calm (pictured here in a painting by Rubens). Upon landing, the sailors told everyone who would listen of the miracle, and Walburga's fame grew.

Arriving at Mainz, she joined St. Boniface and St. Willibald, and later was made abbess of Heidenheim, putting her near Winibald who was abbot of the companion monastery of Hahnenkamm. When Winibald died in 751, she became the abbess of both monasteries. When she died in 779 (or 777, the records not being clear), Willibald placed her remains near their brother's; traffic to the tombs for cures and miracles was substantial. Willibald himself died in 786, after which Walburga's fame faded.

In 870, Bishop Otkar of Eichstadt decided to restore the now-decrepit monastery of Heidenheim. In the process, the remains of Walburga were disturbed. She appeared to Otkar in a dream one night, reproaching him for the actions of the workmen. The bishop resolved to move her remains with great care to Eichstadt to the Church of the Holy Cross, which was renamed for St. Walburga. This is where her relics, placed in a stone and metal receptacle, began to produce the liquid that is reputed to have curative properties. The substance was first noted in 893 when Otkar's successor, Bishop Erchanbold, opened the tomb to share the relics with the abbess of Monheim. It still appears to this day, and only has not appeared when Eichstadt was under church Interdict, and an occasion when robbers shed the blood of a bell-ringer in the church.