St. Verena, Coptic Healing Saint

February 21, 2013 — Bad Zurzach, Baden, Verena, Verenahof

St Verena of Egypt

I first knew St. Verena because I stayed many times a year for many years at her hotel in Baden Switzerland. It is a fantastic Belle Epoque building with plaster elephants on the dining room ceiling and a direct access to the hot spring mineral baths. Verena served one of the best ever Swiss breakfast buffets, which is saying a lot. The Swiss hotel breakfast buffet is designed to wow you, fill you, and make you a loyal customer of the establishment. As a vegetarian I do not care about all the cold cut and caviar stuff, but am an expert in knowing a good muesli bar when I find one. Verenahof had everything, but the stairs were noisy and creaky, the elevators smelled highly of sulpher, and the surrounding hotels had closed. Now it looks like Baden, with a history of spa since Roman times is having a grand reopening. I am so pleased to know that Verena will once again be serving breakfast at the bad.

I did not think too much about her until I visited Bad Zurzach on the Rhine a few years ago. She is buried there in a church. The mineral spring there was not discovered until relatively recently, but Verena was a big deal there for centuries. I saw all kinds of statuary and art of Verena, and made an attempt to read about her in German (ha!). It looked like she was from Egypt and lived in a cave in Switzerland ( aka Rome) where she became a magical healing saint. Since that was way too weird, I decided I must be translating very badly. I went to her grave and lit some candles and hung out all by myself with her a few times at the church. She does have a heavy vibe, based on the people who have come here to see her for centuries. When I arrived in the states I looked up her story and read about Coptics in the Roman army in English. Her story is even wilder than I could have imagined.

Verena grew up in Luxor and traveled to Italy to receive a Christian education. When she learned of the fate of St Maurice she went to Switzerland to look for the Theban legion. They had been decimated by the Roman Emperor Maximian. Since her army was slaughtered, she found herself in a strange land with no language skills, so she went into a cave to pray and meditate. She came out of the cave healing like crazy, and was even imprisoned for it. She is typically depicted as holding a water vessel and a comb, symbols of her work with the sick and the poor. Today you can visit the cave where she had her big empowerment. Who would guess that a third century Coptic saint would end up at Swiss spas? Another great reason to visit Bad Zurzach, where the healing complex is extensive and elegant, is the hand organ festival which they hold each year.