Venerable Wiborada of St. Gallen

Venerable-Martyr Wiborada of St. Gallen was born in the second half of the ninth century into a devout Swabian family in what is now Switzerland. After the death of her parents, she and her brother Hatto, who later became a priest, dedicated themselves to God: she served the poor and bound books for the library of the monastery of St. Gallen. She embraced the ascetic life of an anchoress, living first near the church of St. George, then walled into a cell beside the church of St. Mangen in St. Gallen, where for some thirty years she remained in fasting, prayer, and spiritual guidance of the many pilgrims who sought her counsel through a small window. Gifted with foresight, in 925 she foretold an invasion of the Magyars, enabling the monks to hide the monastery's books and treasures and take refuge. Though urged to flee, she remained in her cell. In 926 the Magyars ravaged the region, broke into her cell, and killed her with an axe. Wiborada, the first woman formally canonized by a pope (Clement II, 1047), is venerated by the Orthodox Church as a venerable-martyr and patroness of libraries.