In 1957, she fell ill with tuberculosis in an epidemic in which many thousands died.
Friend Ajani Adigun Davies says Mrs Wenger believes the illness was a kind of sacrifice, in return for the knowledge she was receiving about the gods.
"The Yoruba beliefs all depend on sacrifice, that you must give something of value to get something of value, you must suffer pain to gain knowledge," he says.
In her early years in Nigeria she met Adjagemo, a high-priest of creator-god Obatala, who would become her mentor.
"He took me by the hand and led me into the spirit world," Mrs Wenger told a French documentary maker in 2005.
"I did not speak Yoruba, and he did not speak English, our only intercourse was the language of the trees."
She divorced her husband and resolved to stay in Osogbo for the rest of her life.
Mrs Wenger believes that the spirit world has long been neglected by Western culture, and spirits can appear to anyone as long as they are willing to accept them.
"You need special eyes to see them," she says.
Traditions
Enemies in churches and mosques have tried to smash her sculptures of deities and burn down the forest that shelters them.
But artist Sangodare Gbadegesin Ajala, Mrs Wenger's adopted son, says many local people accepted her eagerly.
"Was Christ an African? Muhammad was an Arabian. Why can't our saviour be European?"
The first time he met her was the day of his initiation into the cult of Sango, when he was 11.
His father was an unapologetic devotee of the old gods, and refused to let his child be baptised or go to schools run by Christians or Muslims.
But Mr Ajala wanted to learn to read, and he thought a white woman would let him.
"I saw some children reading books, and I wanted to be able to go to school to read these stories."
But six months after he moved in with Mrs Wenger, he asked her if he could go to school.
"She shouted: 'No! you cannot go to school, they will turn you into a Christian and your life will be over!'" he remembers.
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