SOME SAXON SAINTS OF WIMBORNE. 211 



superior of a community of men. Upon the death of 

 Wunnibald in 760 Walpurga was given the superintendence 

 of the abbey of monks in addition to her own convent of nuns, 

 and she continued to have the charge of this double monastery 

 until her death in, or about, 780. She was skilled in the 

 practice of medicine. In art she is represented with a flask, 

 though possibly this may have a reference to the oil which 

 was supposed to have miraculously flowed from her shrine at 

 Eichstadt. Mrs. Jameson, in her " Legends of the Monastic 

 Orders" states (cf. also Encyd. Britt.} that the hollow rock in 

 which her body was laid was a spot where a kind of bituminous 

 oil exuded from the stone. For long it was supposed to 

 proceed from her remains, and the place became a place of 

 pilgrimage. The oil can * still be purchased at Eichstadt. 

 A beautiful church marks the place of her burial, and other 

 churches bearing the name of St. Walpurga are to be found 

 not only in Bavaria, but all over Flanders,and in Burgundy, 

 Poitou, and Lorraine. In Canterbury Cathedral is a chapel 

 dedicated to her honour. Rubens painted for her church at 

 Antwerp. 1. The voyage of the saint and her companions 

 from England to Mayence. (They are in a small boat tossed 

 by a storm.) 2. The burial of St. Walpurga. She died on 

 February 25th, and she was canonised on May 1st. This 

 latter day is solemnised as her festival throughout Germany. 

 On this day of the great spring festival of heathendom she was 

 honoured as the protectress against magic arts. To students 

 of Goethe her name will be familiar as having been given to the 

 night of the witches' festival Walpurgis Night. 



ST. TECLA. 



Of one more of our Wimborne saints but little is known. 

 St. Tecla was a kinswoman of St. Lioba's f and like her and 



* Boniface of Crediton and his Companions, p. 121. 

 f cf. Epistles of St. Boniface, 67. 



