Note on Page 302 {in Note B.}
The Medicinal Oil of St. Walburga.
I have received the following on the subject of the oil of St. Walburga from
a German friend, the Rev. Corbinian Wandinger, which is a serviceable addition
to what is said upon it in Note B. He says:—
"In your 'Apologia,' 2nd Edition, p. 302 {in Note B}, you say you neither have, nor ever
have had, the means of going into the question of the miraculousness of the oil
of St. Walburga. By good chance, there has arisen a contest not long ago between
two papers, a catholic and a free-thinking one, about this very question, from
which I collected materials. Afterwards I asked Professor Suttner, of Eichstädt,
if the defender of the miraculousness might be fully and in every point trusted,
and I was answered he might, since he was nobody else but the parson of St.
Walburga, Rev. Mr. Brudlacher.
"You know all the older literature of the oil of St. Walburga, therefore I
restrict myself to statements of a later date than 1625.
"First of the attempts to explain the oil as a natural produce of the rock.
"Some thought of ordinary rock-oil. But the slightest experiment proves that
origin, properties, and effect of the oil of St. Walburga and petroleum have
nothing common with each other.
"Others thought of a salt-rock, and of solution of the salt particles.
But the marble slab from which the oil drops is of Jura-chalk, and in the whole Jura is
not a single particle of salt to be found, and the liquor itself does not in the
least savour of salt; besides that, if this were the case, the stone must have
crumbled into pieces long since, whilst it is quite massive still.
"Others thought of humour in the air, or the so-called sweating of the
stones. But why does the slab which bears the holy relics alone sweat? and, why
do all others beside, above, beneath it, in and out of the altar-cave, though
being of the same nature, remain perfectly dry? Why should it sweat, the whole
church being so dry that not a single humid spot of a hand's breadth is visible?
Why does this slab not sweat except within a certain period, that is from
October 12, the anniversary of depositing, to February 25, the day of the death
of St. Walburga? And why does it remain dry at every other time, even at the
most humid temperature of the air possible, and in the wettest years, for
instance, 1866? Besides, what other stone, and be it in the deepest cave, will
sweat during four or five months a quantity of liquor from six to ten Mass (a
Mass = 1·07 French Litres)? If these naturalists are asked all this, then they,
too, are at the end of their wits.
"To this point I add two facts which may be proved beyond any doubt; the one
by unquestionable historical records, the other by still living eye-witnesses.
When under Bishop Friedrich von Parsberg the interdict was inflicted on the city
of Eichstädt, during all the year 1239 not a single drop of liquor became
visible on the coffin-plate of St. Walburga. The contrary fact was stated on
June 7, 1835. The cave was opened on this day by chance, passengers longing to
see it. To their astonishment they found the stone so profusely dropping with
oil, that the golden vase fixed underneath was full to the brim, whereas at this
season never had been observed there any fluid. Some weeks later arrived the
long-wished-for royal decree which sanctioned the reopening of the convent of
St. Walburga; it was signed on that very 7th of June, 1835, by his Majesty King Louis I.
"Moreover, let one try to gather water which is dropping from sweating stone,
or glass, or metal, and let him see if it will be pure and limpid, or rather
muddy, filthy, and cloudy. The oil of St. Walburga on the contrary, is and
remains so limpid and crystal, that a bottle, which had been filled and
officially sealed at the reopening of the cave after the Swedish invasion, 1645,
preserves to this day the oil so very clear and clean as if it had been filled
yesterday; an occurrence never to be observed even on the purest spring-water,
according to the testimony of the royal circuit-physician (K. Bezirksarzt).
"To this testimony of a naturalist may be added that of a much higher
authority. The renowned naturalist, Von Oken, surely an unquestionable expert,
came one day, while he was Professor in the University of Munich, to Eichstädt
on the special purpose to investigate this extraordinary phenomenon. The cave
was opened to him, he received every information he wished for, and having seen
and examined everything, he pronounced publicly without any reluctance that he
could not explain the matter in a natural way. He took of the liquor to Munich in order
to subject it to a chemical analysis, and declared then by writing the result of
his researches to be that he could take it neither for natural water, nor oil,
and that, in general, he was not able to explain the phenomenon as being in
accordance with the laws of nature.
"Let me add the testimony of a historical authority. Mr. Sax, counsellor of
the government (K. Regierungsrath), in his history of the diocese and city of
Eichstädt, after he has spoken of the origin, the properties, and the effect of
the oil of St. Walburga, concludes that 'they are of such a singular kind, that
they not only exceed far the province of extraordinary nature-phenomena, but
that they, in spite of the constant discrediting and slandering by bullying
free-thinkers, preserved the great confidence of the catholic people even in far
distant countries.'
"Now of the miracles. There are related by the people many thousands, but, of
course, few of them are attested. In the Pastoral paper of Eichstädt, 1857, page
207, I read that Anton Ernest, Bishop of Brünn, in Moravia, announces, under
Nov. 1, 1857, to the Bishop of Eichstädt, the recovery of a girl in the
establishment of the sisters of charity from blindness, and sends, in order to
attest the fact, the following document, which I am to translate literally:—
"'In the name of the indivisible Trinity. We, Anton Ernest, by God's and the
Holy See's grace, Bishop of Brünn. After we had received, first by the curate of
the establishment of the Daughters of Christian Charity in this place, and then
also from other quarters, the notice that a girl in the aforesaid establishment
had regained the use of her eyes miraculously in the very moment when she had a
vial, containing oil of St. Walburga, offered to her, brought to her mouth and
kissed, we thought it to be our duty to research scrupulously into the fact, and
to put it beyond all doubt in the way of a special commission, by hearing of
witnesses and a trial at the place of the fact, if there be truth, and how much
of it, in the supposed miraculous healing.
"'About the report of this commission and the adjoined testimony of the
physician, we have then, as prescribes the Holy Council of Trent (Sess. 25),
collected the judgments of our theologians and other pious men; and as these all
were quite in accordance, and the fact itself with all its circumstances lay
before us quite clear and open, we have, after invocation of assistance of the
Holy Ghost, pronounced, judged, and decided as follows:—
"'The instantaneous removal of the most pertinacious eyelid-cramp (Augenlied
krampf), which Matilda Makara during many months had hindered in the use of her
eyes and kept in blindness, and the simultaneous recurrence of the full
eye-sight, phlogistic appearances still remaining in the eyes, which occurred
when Matilda Makara on Nov. 7, 1856, had a vial with the oil of St. Walburga
brought, full of confidence, to her mouth and kissed, must be acknowledged to be
a fact which, besides the order of nature, has been effected by God's grace, and
is therefore a miracle.
"'And that the memory of this Divine favour may be preserved, that to God
eternal thanks may be given, the confidence of the faithful may be incited and
nourished, this devotion to the great wonder-worker St. Walburga may be
promoted, we order that this aforegoing decision shall be affixed in the chapel
of the Daughters of Christian Charity in this place, that it shall be preserved
for all times to come, and that the 7th Nov. shall be celebrated as a holiday
every year in this aforesaid establishment.
"'Given in our Episcopal Residence at Brünn,
"'Nov. 1, 1857,
"'(L. S.) Anton Ernest, Bishop.'
"A second record about St. Walburga I find in the Eichstädt Pastoral paper,
1858, page 192, from which I take the following: 'The Superioress of the Convent
of St. Walburga had received in summer 1858 the notice of a miraculous cure
written by the Superioress of the Convent of St. Leonard-sur-Mer, Sussex. At
request for an authenticated report, John Bamber, chaplain of the Convent of the
Holy Infant at St. Leonard-sur-Mer, wrote about the following: "Sister Walburga
had been ill fifteen months, of which five bedridden. The physician pronounced
the malady to be incurable. Large exterior tumour, frequent (thrice or four
times a day) vomitings were caused by the diseased pylorus. The matter was
hopeless, when the Superioress on April 27 thought of using the oil of St.
Walburga. The chaplain brought it on the tongue of the sick sister, and in the
same moment she had a burning feeling which seemed to her to descend, and to
affect especially the sick part. In a few minutes the inner smart ceased, the
tumour fell off, she felt recovered. Next morning she rose, assisted at the holy
mass, communicated, ate with good appetite. She was quite recovered, but
somewhat feeble, as people always are after a great disease. The physician, a
Protestant, abode by his opinion the malady to be incurable, acknowledged,
however, the healing. His words were: 'I believe the healing to be effected by
the oil of St. Walburga, but how, I don't know.' As a Protestant he refused to
give testimony that the operation of the oil had been miraculous.'
"The report is authenticated by Thomas, Bishop of Southwark.
"Freising, Bayern,
"September 13, 1873."