Patroness of farmers, servants, and peasants.

Notburga was born in 1265, along the Inn River in Tyrol, which was then a part of Bavaria, to a humble and simple family of milliners.

At the age of 18, she went to Schloss (Castle) Rottenburg and began working as a kitchen maid in the household of Count Henrich I and his countess. She was capable and pious and highly regarded by her employers.

At the end of each day, she took the leftover food from the day’s meals into town and gave them to the poor and starving.

When Heinrich II and Countess Ottilia became lord and lady, they ordered her to feed the pigs with it instead. So as not to lose her position, she began to save some of her own food to provide to those in need, but Ottilia still suspected those as their own scraps and fired her.

Even after she lost her room, board, and income, she remained committed to sharing whatever she had with others.

She went to Saint Rupert’s Chapel in Eben, which was on the other side of the Inn River, and negotiated with a farmer, who was a skewering peasant, on the condition that she be permitted to attend Mass in the evening before Sundays and festivals.

During her 5 years with the peasant, Count Henrich suffered difficulties, which he ascribed to the dismissal of Notburga. Many residents had departed, the pigs were ravaged by swine fever, and Otillia’s half-brother set the castle on fire. Ottilia herself became sick and died. Therefore, the Count sought her re-employment but only on the condition that he let her resume her care for the poor. He was happily married to Margarethe von Hoheneck and his estate prospered.

For 18 years, until her death, she served in the castle as the cook and nanny to their 5 children, all the while continuing her charitable good works unhindered.

A document from 1337 reports that the Rottenberger counts had pledged themselves to provide for at least 300 poor persons, a number later raised to 500.

Her feast day is September 13.

For God’s Glory.

Saint Notburga Museum in Eben