Subj : May 2nd - St. Wiborada, Virgin and Martyr To : All From : rich Date : Fri May 01 2020 10:32:18 From: rich May 2nd - St. Wiborada, Virgin and Martyr KLINGNAU, in the Swiss canton of Aargau, was the birthplace of St. Wiborada= , who is called in French Guiborat and in German Weibrath. Her parents belo= nged to the Swabian nobility, and she led a retired life in the house of he= r father and mother. After one of her brothers, Hatto by name, had decided = to be a priest she made his clothes and also worked for the monastery of St= ... Gall, where he prosecuted his studies. Many of the books in the abbey lib= rary were covered by her. Upon the death of her parents, Wiborada joined this brother, who had been m= ade provost of the church of St. Magnus, and he taught her Latin so that sh= e could join him in saying the offices. Their house became a kind of hospit= al to which Hatto would bring patients for Wiborada to tend. After the brot= her and sister had made a pilgrimage to Rome, Hatto resolved to take the ha= bit at St. Gall, largely through Wiborada's influence. She, on the = other hand, remained for some years longer in the world, though not of it. = It may have been at this period--but more probably, as certain writers have= argued, after she became a recluse--that she came into touch with St. Ulri= c, who had been sent, as a delicate little lad of 7, to the monastic school= of St. Gall. We read that she prophesied his future elevation to the episc= opate, and in after years he regarded her as his spiritual mother. According to some of the saint's biographers--but not the earliest-= -she suffered so severely from calumnies against her character that she und= erwent trial by ordeal at Constance to clear herself of the charges. Whethe= r the story be true or false, she decided to withdraw into solitude that sh= e might serve God without distraction. At first she took up her abode in an= anchorhold on a mountain not far from St. Gall, but in 915 she occupied a = cell beside the church of St. Magnus; there she remained for the rest of he= r life, practising extraordinary mortifications. Many visitors came to see = her, attracted by the fame of her miracles and prophecies. Other recluses s= ettled near her, but only one of them was admitted to any sort of companion= ship. This was a woman called Rachildis, a niece of St. Notker Balbulus. She was = brought to St. Wiborada suffering from a disease which the doctors had pron= ounced incurable. Having apparently been cured by the ministrations of the = recluse, she could never be induced to leave her benefactress. But after th= e death of the latter the malady returned with so many complications that s= he seemed a second Job, owing to the multiplicity of her diseases and the p= atience with which she bore them. St. Wiborada foretold her own death at the hands of the invading Hungarians= , adding that Rachildis would be left unmolested. Her warnings enabled the = clergy of St. Magnus and the monks of St. Gall to escape in time, but she h= erself refused to leave her cell. The barbarians burnt the church and, havi= ng made an opening in the roof of the hermitage, entered it as she knelt in= prayer. They struck her on the head with a hatchet and left her dying; Rac= hildis, however, remained unharmed and survived her friend for 21 years. St= ... Wiborada was canonized in 1047. There is good evidence for most of the details given above. Hartmann, a mon= k of St. Gall, who first wrote a sketch of her life--it is printed by Mabil= lon and in the Acta Sanctorum,, May, vol. i--was almost a contemporary. A l= ater life by Hepidannus is less reliable. But we have also other references= to St. Wiborada, for example, in Gerhard's Life of St. Ulric of Au= gsburg and in Ekkehard (iv), Cams S. Galli. This last is printed by G. Meye= r v. Knonau, St. Gallische Geschichtsquellen, iii. See also A. Schroder=E2= =80=99s valuable article in the Historisches Jahrbuch, vol. xxii (1901), pp= ... 276-284, and A. Fah, Die hl. Wiborada (1926). Saint Quote: My confidence is placed in God who does not need our help for accomplishing= his designs. Our single endeavor should be to give ourselves to the work a= nd to be faithful to him, and not to spoil his work by our shortcomings --St. Isaac Jogues Bible Quote: Let no temptation take hold on you, but such as is human: and God is faithf= ul, Who will not suffer you to be tempted above that which you are able, bu= t will make also with temptation issue, that you may be able to bear it. (1= Cor. 10:13) DRB <><><><> I Knew Thee Not, Thou Wounded Son Of God I knew Thee not, Thou wounded Son of God, Till I with Thee the path of suffering trod; Till in the valley, through the gloom of night, I walked with Thee, and turned to Thee for light, I did not know the mystery of love, The love that doth the fruitless branch remove; The love that spares not e'en the fruitful tree, But prunes, that it may yet more fruitful be. I did not know the meaning of the Cross: I counted it but bitterness and loss: Till in Thy gracious discipline of pain.=C2 I found the loss I dreaded purest gain. And shall I cry, e'en on the darkest day "Lord of all mercy, take my cross away Nay, in the Cross I saw Thine open face,=C2 And found therein the fullness of Thy grace. --George Wallace Briggs --- NewsGate v1.0 gamma 2 * Origin: News Gate @ Net396 -Huntsville, AL - USA (1:396/4) .