| Honorific-Prefix: | Saint |
| Ida of Toggenburg | |
| Birth Date: | 1140 |
| Birth Place: | Kirchberg |
| Attributes: | Deer, or a deer with 12 candles, crow |
| Death Date: | 3 November 1226 |
| Death Place: | Fischingen |
| Feast Day: | 3 November |
| Venerated In: | Catholic Church |
| Beatified Date: | 1724 |
| Beatified By: | Pope Benedict XIII |
| Patronage: | Headaches, pregnancy complaints, for finding escaped cattle |
Ida of Toggenburg (1140 – 3 November 1226) (also: Idda, Ita, Itha, Itta, Ydda, Judith and Gutta of Fischingen) is a Swiss Christian nun, venerated as a saint in the Diocese of Constance especially in Fischingen, Switzerland. She is the protagonist of many stories and legends in the local culture.
There is no written record of a cult in Fischingen Abbey before the 15th century. The first humanist Albrecht von Bonstetten wrote several "Lives of Saints" that the oldest dates back from 1481.
According to legend, Ida was the daughter of a Count of Kirchberg near Ulm and was married to a Count of Toggenburg (in a document after 1562 he was named Heinrich). According to legend, a raven stole Ida's wedding ring. The ring was found in the bird's nest by a bird catcher. When her husband noticed the ring on the bird catcher's hand, he accused Ida of infidelity. He had the bird catcher killed and threw Ida out of his castle window. However, due to her innocence, God miraculously saved her and Ida fled the castle. By a divine miracle later she returned home and retreated to a cave where she found in her hermitage, the error was cleared up, but Ida wanted to continue dedicating her life to God as a hermit. When she went to the nearby Fischinge monastery during the mass, a stag ran ahead, and it had twelve rings in it. A huntsman went there and told his grandfather. Later, her repentant husband had a hermitage built for her in Au, near the Fischingen monastery, where she lived until her death on 3 November 1226 and died in the name of holiness and was venerated as a saint before 1410.[1]
In the 12th century there was an Ida, who was married to a Diethelm of Toggenburg and a second marriage to Gottfried of Marstetten.[2] It is hypothesised that she was Countess of Homburg and founded the cult tradition through her holy life.
Ida of Toggenburg is represented as a nun, with a crow or a deer, whose antlers shine. It is said that he often led her to the monastery church. Her memory is celebrated on November 3.
In 1496 a monumental table tomb was dedicated to the saint from the newly established Fischingen monastery, who even expelled Our Lady from the monastery's secrecy in the 18th century. In 1580 an Ida brotherhood was founded. Veneration for Ida was limited to Fischingen and its environs until around 1600, after which it extended to the county of Kirchberg. Ida is also the patron saint of the Bauen chapel, on Lake Lucerne, where it is documented for the first time in 1561 at the Chapel of Saint Ida.[3]
In 1704 the legend of Ida was reconstructed by the abbot of Fisching Franz Troger[4] with local data (Lake Lucerne):
In 1724 Pope Benedict XIII granted her cult for the entire Diocese of Constance.[5] She is also venerated to this day in the Diocese of Basel as the patroness of runaway cattle.A little south of Fischingen Abbey, on a 976-meter-high mountain in the area of the Kirchberg community, there is a small pilgrimage site, St. Iddaburg (966 m).