Saint Walpurga

Born around 710 in Anglo-Saxon England, Walpurga joined the mission to the Frankish Empire, carrying the faith east in an age when that work meant months of travel and no promise of return. She died on 25 February 777 or 779. Nearly a century later, Pope Adrian II canonized her on 1 May around 870, and the eve of that feast day became Sankt Walpurgisnacht in the Medieval calendar. The date overlapped with May Day, and the night took on a life of its own — long after her feast was moved, the name stuck to May Eve and the old spring fires that had nothing to do with a missionary saint.