who knows anything about st. uncumber?

Answer 1

"Everybody still loves Chris" forgot to site his sourse: http://tse.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/11/2/43

So I did it for him.

Here's Mine:

Uncumber is the name of a legendary, androgynous saint, prayed to in many Western European countries. She is usually depicted crucified and wearing a full beard.

Of the myriad saints in Catholicism, perhaps none is stranger than Uncumber. Neither historical nor official, this legendary personage, originally known as St. Wilgefortis, got her colloquial name of Uncumber in England, where before Henry VIII's break with the Church in Rome, it was believed that women dissatisfied with their husbands or pestered by unwanted suitors could make an offering of oats to the saint and pray to be relieved or "uncumbered" of their male deadweights. This was actually a corruption of the belief that the child saint could help the faithful to accept death free from anxiety, in German, ohne Kummer. This earlier and more proper belief is evidenced by her names in other countries - Kummernis, Komina, Comera, Cumerana, Hulfe, Ontcommene, Ontcommer, Dignefortis, Eutropia, Reginfledis, Livrade, Liverade, Liberata, Liberada, Debarras, and Ohnkummer. What made her unusual was the fact that she had a full beard, and that this beard had been a gift from God.

http://outcyclopedia.0catch.com/uncumber.html

Here's another:
E. Cobham Brewer 1810–1897. Dictionary of Phrase and Fable. 1898.

Uncumber (St.),

formerly called St. Wylgeforte. “Women changed her name” (says Sir Thomas More) “because they reken that for a pecke of otys she will not faile to uncumber them of their husbondys.” The tradition says that the saint was very beautiful, but, wishing to lead a single life, prayed that she might have a beard, after which she was no more cumbered with lovers. “For a peck of oats,” says Sir Thomas More, “she would provide a horse for an evil housebonde to ride to the Devill upon.” 1
“If a wife were weary of a husband, she offered oats at Poules … to St. Uncumber.”—Michael Woode (1554).

[translation for above Elizabethan English: "Because they reckon for a peck of oats she will not fail to uncumber them of their husbands" = Meaning: for a small gift to the Saint, the saint will get rid of the praying woman's husband." ]

http://www.bartleby.com/81/16953.html


Here's another :

20. Rid Yourself of a Husband: Saint "Uncumber"


Today marks the old feast day for St. Wilgefortis, also known as Saint "Uncumber." According to an old legend, Wilgefortis was the daughter of a Portuguese King. Having taken a vow of chastity, Wilgefortis prayed for deliverance when her father arranged for her marriage. Miraculously, her prayers were answered with a full beard!

Her angry father had Wilgefortis crucified. In England, she became known as "Uncumber" or "Liberata" and was invoked by women who wished to "unencumber" themselves of difficult husbands or suitors. (top)


http://www.me2u.com/LoveLore/Calendar/july.tmpl



Here's a bit of Elizabethan history: (from my own research and knowledge of the period)
Many saints were "created" during the Elizabethan period as a means for the uneducated to continue their Pagan ways in a more acceptable form. Polytheistism was the Pagan (non-christian) tradition of the Peoples of the area. When Monotheism took over, the people clung to their old ways by infiltrating their traditions with the new religion.
It was quite common to hear of Saints for all sorts of ails, events, hopes...etc.

Here are some resources on this:
http://www.guildofstgeorge.com/holiday.htm

http://elizabethan.org/compendium/11.html



ANON!

Answer 2

Christian theology can begin to contemplate release or escape from a gendered theological hierarchy which has been mapped onto the cultural view of gender normativity by following the ancient saintly pattern of St Uncumber’s tradition. St Uncumber responds to the call to difference by retaining her anomalous sexual characteristics—as the bearded lady. And tradition, by making of her a liberator, opens up the possibility of configuring her as a liberator from the imprisonment of biological essentialisms or normative sex gender.