WALPURGA, WALBUR GA, or WALPURGIS, Saint, German abbess: b. England; d. 778. She was sister of Saint Willibald, first bishop of Eichstadt, in Germany, and niece of Saint Boniface, the apostle of the Germans. She went, like her uncle and brother, to Germany as a missionary and became, about the middle of the 8th century, abbess of a con vent at Heidenheim, in Franconia. She must have been a learned woman, as she was con sidered the author of a Latin description of the 'Travels of Saint Willibald.) After her death she received the honors of a saint, was believed to work many miracles, and chapels in her honor were built in many places. From the circumstance that in German almanacs the name Walpurgis has been accidentally placed, sometimes alone, sometimes together with the names of the apostles Philip and Jaznes, against the first of May, the night previous to the first day of May, so famous in German legends for the assembling of the witches, has been called Walpurgis Night. The first of May is an im
portant day for the German cultivator; many contracts are made at this time; the labors of the field assume new activity, etc. It is not strange that, on so important a day, the devil and the witches were supposed to be more active titan usual and to assemble in a par ticular place to organize the woric of evil. This superstition, however, may have had its origin in the ancient German mythology. Hence straw was burned in many places on Walpurgis Night, with a view of dispersing the malignant beings , — a custom still preserved in some places. The chief convocation of the witches was considered to talce place on the Brocken. Many customs connected with the first of May in Germany originated in this superstition.