The Bearded Female Saint Who Never Existed. Medieval Europe's Cult #shorts #history #medievalhistory

Added: 2026-06-02

[00:00:00]Flanders, the 15th century.

[00:00:03]A bearded woman, crowned and crucified.

[00:00:06]They called her Wilgefortis.

[00:00:09]In England, Uncumber.

[00:00:12]In Germany, Kümmernis, the grieving one.

[00:00:15]The legend went like this.

[00:00:17]She was a Christian princess in Portugal.

[00:00:20]Her pagan father betrothed her to a pagan king.

[00:00:23]She had taken a vow of chastity, so she prayed. She prayed to be made repulsive enough to escape the marriage.

[00:00:31]She woke with a full beard. Her father was so enraged, he had her crucified.

[00:00:37]For 500 years, women came to her. Women in marriages they could not leave.

[00:00:42]They left a peck of oats at her shrine to be uncumbered of their husbands.

[00:00:47]Thomas More wrote about the practice in 1529.

[00:00:51]But she never existed.

[00:00:53]In the cathedral of Lucca, in Italy, there is a wooden crucifix.

[00:00:58]The Volto Santo, the holy face.

[00:01:01]It was carved in the 8th century.

[00:01:04]In it, Christ [music] does not wear a loincloth. He wears a long robe.

[00:01:08]That robe is a colobium, an old Eastern tradition.

[00:01:13]In the 11th century, pilgrim copies began traveling north to people who had never seen a robed crucifix.

[00:01:20]They saw a long-haired figure in a gown on a cross.

[00:01:23]They saw a beard. And they invented a princess.

[00:01:27]In 1969, the Catholic Church quietly removed her from the calendar.

[00:01:32]But the chapels still stand.

[00:01:35]Their candles are still lit.

[00:01:37]The women still come.