Wilgefortis

Who is Wilgefortis?

Wilgefortis is a female saint of popular religious imagination whose legend arose in the 14th century, and whose distinguishing feature is a large beard. Her name is thought by some to derive from the Old German "heilige Vartez", a translation of the Italian "Volto Santo"; others believe it to derive from the Latin "virgo fortis". In England her name was Uncumber, and in Dutch Ontkommer. In German lands she was known as Kümmernis. She was known as Liberata in Italy and Librada in Spain, and as Débarras in France. In places such as Sigüenza, Spain, she was sometimes conflated with another Saint Liberata, the sister of Saint Marina of Aguas Santas, whose feast was also celebrated on July 20. She was venerated by people seeking relief from tribulations, in particular by women who wished to be liberated from abusive husbands.

Art historians have argued that the origins of the cult can be found with Eastern-style representations of the crucified Christ, and in particular the Volto Santo of Lucca, a large eleventh century carved wooden figure of Christ on the Cross, bearded like a man, but dressed in a full-length tunic that might have appeared to be like that a woman instead of the loin cloth familiar and by the late Middle Ages normal in depictions in the West. The theory is that when the composition was copied and brought north of the Alps over the next 150 years, in small copies by pilgrims and dealers, this unfamiliar image led Northerners to create a narrative to explain the androgynous icon. Some older images of the crucified Christ were re-purposed as Wilgefortis, and new images clearly intended to represent the saint created, many with female clothes and breasts. Some older images of Christ on the cross are argued to have already deliberately included hints at an androgynous figure for theological reasons. Single images normally showed Wilgefortis on her cross, but two prominent standing images where she carries a smaller cross as an attribute as part of a group of saints, are mentioned below. Images showing a set of scenes covering the whole legend are unusual, but a German on of 1513 is illustrated here.