Why St. Walburg Is Special to Me

     Just yesterday, February 25, 2014, we celebrated the feast day of our patron St. Walburg. We began with sung morning, a short noonday prayer for special feasts, and a sung evening prayer and short night prayer. During all these prayers, St. Walburg was the focus of our day. Of course, we had some special treats which everyone who knows us would expect. 

     Have you ever wondered how on earth this monastery in Villa Hills came to be named after St. Walburg? When I tell many people I am from St. Walburg Monastery, I’m asked, “Where is that or who is St. Walburg?”  Then I ask, “Do you know where Villa Madonna Academy is?” The answer is usually, “O, yes.” It sometimes frustrates me to need to add that our monastery sponsors the Villa. The payoff is when a stranger hears the word monastery and asks whether men also live here! 

     St. Walburg was born in England in 710. She was educated in the Benedictine Abbey of Wimborne and became a member of that monastery. From there she and other sisters were sent to Germany to establish monasteries in Germany. Her brother, Winnibald established a double monastery at Heidenheim and asked Walburg to take change of the nuns. Upon her brother’s death Walburg was appointed Abbess and was responsible for both monks and nuns. Now doesn’t that make you excited that Walburg had this position 761? 

     Making a long story short, in 1852 St. Walburg Abbey in Eichstatt, Germany sent a small group of sisters to America to Elk County, PA and named the new community St. Mary. Four years later a group of sisters from St. Mary established St. Benedict Convent in Erie PA. From there three sisters arrived in Covington to become the foundation of St. Walburg. 

     The choice of the very name of our foundation, St. Walburg, is a reason she is special to me. It has called me to become acquainted with her life, some of her miracles, and the miraculous oil that exudes from her remains from her two feast days on October 12^th to February 25^th.  My blog would be too long to discuss the statements in this paragraph. 

     You may want to research more information yourself and may have questions I may or may not be able to answer. What I have written has given me some questions to research.

       Sr. Victoria Eisenman, OSB