Saint Kakwkylla

Kakwkylla was a local saint venerated in Sweden and Germany under a wide range of names during the Late Middle Ages. She served as protector against rats and mice. Her cult probably originated as a misnomer for the Irish saint Columba, apparently combined with misappropriated traits of Gertrude of Nivelles. In Sweden, where Columba was not widely venerated nor Gertrude of Nivelles associated with rats, Kakwkylla appears to have played a more independent role. Late medieval depictions of a female saint, typically equipped with a spindle and spinning, and with rats either on the thread, on the saint or in the surroundings, are known from the Swedish churches of Film, Forssa (vanished), Harg, Kaga, Njutånger as well as possibly Viksta, and Hattula in Finland. Some of these also have speech scrolls identifying the saint. Similar depictions are also known from Germany, including on an altarpiece in the monastery of Adelberg, Baden-Württemberg under the name Cutubilla. A woodcut from the middle of the 15th century in the Kupferstichkabinett in Berlin also depicts the saint, and may indeed be indicative of how depictions of her were spread to Sweden, using early printing techniques. A large number of variations of the saint's name are known. From Sweden, the forms Kakwkylla, Kacacila, Kakitkaina, K(akuk)olla (possibly), and Katakyla (possibly) are known. From German sources, the names Cakukilla, Cutubilla (or Cutubilla von Württemberg), Kakukabilla, Kakukilla and Kukakille have been identified. In a German context, the saint may have originated due to being confused with Columba, an Irish abbot and missionary to Scotland, venerated as a saint. His name may have been locally interpreted as a female name, and variants known from the 14th century (Columquillus) indicate that distortions similar to the known names of the Swedish-German saint existed.