WILGEFORTIS, Saint. — She is commemorated in the Roman Martyrology on July 20 as a virgin and martyr.
The Bollandists, who first dealt with her, stated that they did not know the origin of the legend (Acta SS. Iulii, V, Paris 1868, p. 70); in 1940, however, their successors were more decisive and wrote that W. never existed (Martyr. Romanum, p. 280).
Her cult, spread especially in the countries near the North Sea from the end of the 14th century, is a typical example of how hagiographic legends were formed in the Middle Ages. The great veneration that the people of Lucca had for their miraculous Crucifix, the so-called “Volto Santo,” meant that wherever they found themselves in Europe, a confraternity of the Volto Santo of Lucca arose. Thus, for example, in Paris in the 15th century a place is indicated as “par le Vou de Luccques de la rue aux Lombars.”
The northern peoples, who no longer recognized the representation of Christ with open eyes, a beard, and a long tunic, saw in that figure a woman. From this arose a new legend. The woman on the cross was a martyr; to preserve her virginity and avoid being forced to marry the son of a pagan king of Sicily, she asked the Lord to take away all her beauty; God granted her prayer and made a black beard grow on her. The origin of this legend has been fully demonstrated by G. Schnürer. Proof of this is found in the fact that the figure of the musician condemned to death for having stolen a silver shoe of the Volto Santo and miraculously saved by the same Crucifix is always present in all images of W. From the Netherlands, the cult of the new saint spread throughout Europe under the most varied names: as Ontcommer, Kümmernis, Regenfledis, and Liberata (q.v.). In Germany she became a martyr saint, by analogy with the Dutch virgin St. Ontcommer, i.e., “who frees from 'kommer' (worry).” The title of the Crucifix of Lucca, then, namely “Adiutor,” gave rise to the cult of a St. Helper, Hulse, Hille, Gehülfe in Germany, and Helpert in the Netherlands.
From a folkloric and iconographic point of view, the veneration of W. is very important because it links Italy with almost all of Europe, from Spain to the countries of the North Sea as far as those of the Baltic.