St. Walburga
was born in Devon in 710. She was educated by the nuns of Wimborne Abbey.
Later, she joined her brothers in assisting their uncle, St. Boniface, in
evangelizing pagan Germans. They were really a power family of missionaries and
sainthood. Walburga wrote of her brother, St. Winebald, and his travels to
Palestine as well as their work in the Frankish kingdom. Because of her accounts
of their work, she is sometimes credited as the first female writer of both
England and Germany.
She finally
joined a religious order while in Germany, and in 751, she became abbess. When
her brother St. Willibald died, she became abbess over his order as well,
making her a mother superior over both men and women. She died in 777. Her
feast day is February 25. She is the patron of sailors against storms and
hydrophobia.
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