IDA of TOGGENBURG, Blessed. — A lay sister or recluse among the Benedictines at Fischingen from 1218, where she was buried. Died in 1226. Feast day November 3. In 1481 Albrecht von Bonstetten published a Life of her, based on the legend of St. Genevieve (q.v.): Ida was said to have been the daughter of Count Hartmann of Kirchberg (d. c. 1110), founder of the monastery of Wiblingen, and wife of a supposed Count Henry of Toggenburg; he cast her from a castle window, but she was miraculously saved and continued to live as a hermit. A similar legend is connected with the castle of Braunsburg near Merano.
BIBL.: Many biographies reproduce the legend: A. Gemplin, Histori V. der heil. Gräfin Yta, Freiburg 1900; M. V. CODICE, I., Gräfin oder die wunderbare selige Einsiedlerin, oder der Todessturz vom 400 Ellen hohen Felsen, Passau 1840; anon., Das Leben der heil. Idda, Gräfin V. T., Einsiedeln 1864. — Critical studies: Acta SS. Novembris, II, Brussels 1894, pp. 102-20; E. Stückelberg, Die schweizerischen Heiligen des Mittelalters, Zurich 1903, pp. 61-63; A. Zimmermann, I. von T., in LThK, V, cols. 204 sq.; L. M. Kern, Die I.-Legende, Freiburg 1928. Felice da Mareto