WALPURVA, or WALPITRGIS, SAINT (otherwise Walburga), followed her brothers St. Wilibald and St. Wunnibald (sons of a king of the Test Saxons), in the time of St. Boniface, from her nativo country, England, to Germany, to help them in extending Christianity. Wilibald established the bishopric of Eichstadt about 741; and Wunni bald, the neighboring convent of Heidenheim about 745, the direction. of which last. Walpurga undertook, after his death (about 763), as the first abbess, and continued till the end of her own life (778). Her bones, from which, according to the oldest biog raphy, a miraculous healing oil flowed, were transferred to Eiehstadt, where a convent. was erected in her honor. That old biography was written toward the end of the 9th c. by a monk, Wolfhart, in the monastery of Hasenried, and contained, like all the later legends, which are based solely upon it, only a multitude of marvelous stories of the usual stamp. A somewhat more special significance lies in the trait that Walpurga was not molested by biting dogs, and was in consequence invoked for protection against them and other ferocious animals. The veneration of Walpurga became wide-spread. Throughout all Germany, and even in France, the Netherlands, and England, churches and chapels were dedicated to her, relics of her were shown, and festivals celebrated in her honor. The feast of Walpurga falls properly on Feb. 25; but as in some German
calendars it is assigned to May 1, the name of Walpurga has become associated, in a quite accidental way, with some of the most noted popular superstitions. May 1 bad been one of the most sacred days of all paganism; it was the time of a great sacrificial festival, and of time old May assembly of the people. For centuries ou May 1, informal courts of justice continued to be held, the joyful May procession took place, and the kindling of the sacred May-fire. See BELTELN. When afterward the old heathen gods had been completely degraded into devils by the Christian missionaries, and when the belief in witchcraft had come in vogue, the Walpurgis-night obtained naturally a notorious significance, inasmuch as, during the night between April 30 and May 1, the witches were held to ride on broomsticks and lie-goats to the old places of judgment and sacrifice, in order to enjoy themselves there with their master the devil_ Such witch-hills were tolerably numerous in Germany and the neighboring countries. The best-known, however, was the highest point of the Harz, the Brocken, Brocks, or Brocksbcrg, which has obtained a wide celebrity as the scene of the witches' Sabbath in Goethe's Faust.