Saint of the Day

May 2: Saint Wiborada

If you enjoy this daily blog of lesser-known saints, see my book, which contains short biographies of saints for every day of the year.

Saint Wiborada (d. 926) was born in Klingnau, Switzerland, into a noble family. By the time her brother became a priest, their parents had died, so Wiborada joined him, cared for him, and cared for the sick people of their own. After the brother and sister completed a pilgrimage, her brother became a monk, and she began to live as a recluse.

Unsurprisingly, as word spread about her holiness, prophecies, and miraculous healings of the sick, vicious rumors spread too. Some say she accepted trial by ordeal (that is, some sort of painful test; if you survived, you were considered innocent) to prove her faithfulness. For the rest of her life, she lived in a cell next to Saint Magnus church, praying for hours and practicing many mortifications. Shortly before an invasion of Hungarian forces, she accurately predicted that she would be killed, but her warning allowed the monks and nuns of the area to escape. She was killed with a hatchet while praying (and, one may safely assume, praying for her murderers) and is considered a martyr.

Saint Wiborada, help me to forgive those who harm me.