Eadgyth of Aylesbury, Eadridus
BornEngland
Diedunknown
Venerated inRoman Catholicism, Anglicanism
Major shrineAylesbury (?)

Eadgyth of Aylesbury also known as Eadridus was a Dark Ages Catholic saint[1] from Anglo-Saxon England.[2][3]

History

She is known to history mainly through the hagiography of the Secgan Manuscript,[4] but also the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle[5]

She was the daughter of Penda of Mercia.[6] One of her sisters was Eadburh of Bicester; the other, Wilburga, was married to Frithuwold of Chertsey. Wilburga's daughter St Osyth grew up in the care of her maternal aunts.

A Saint Edith is also mentioned in Conchubran's Life of Saint Modwenna, a female hermit who supposedly lived near Burton-on-Trent. The text, written in the early 11th century, mentions a sister of King Alfred by the name of Ite, a nun who served as the Kings tutor and had a maidservant called Osid. Although an Irish nun called St Ita was active in the 7th century, Ite's name has been interpreted as "almost certainly a garbling of Edith"[7] and that of Osid a rendering of Osgyth.[8]

See also

Further reading

References

  1. ^ Oxford Dictionary of Saints,[page needed]
  2. ^ Yorke, Barbara (2003). Nunneries and the Anglo-Saxon Royal Houses. London. p. 22
  3. ^ Thacker, Alan (2001). "Dynastic monasteries and family cults: Edward the Elder's sainted kindred". In N. J. Higham and D. H. Hill. Edward the Elder 899–924. London: Routledge. p. 257. ISBN 0-415-21497-1
  4. ^ Stowe MS 944, British Library
  5. ^ Anglo-Saxon Chronicle manuscript C (1046).
  6. ^ Williams, T., "Origins and First Growth of Christianity in Bucks", Records of Buckinghamshire, Or, Papers and Notes on the History, Antiquities, and Architecture of the County, Together with the Proceedings of the Architectural and Archaeological Society for the County of Buckingham, Vol. 7, J. Pickburn, 1897, p. 358Public Domain This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
  7. ^ Thacker, Alan (2001). "Dynastic monasteries and family cults: Edward the Elder's sainted kindred". In N. J. Higham and D. H. Hill. Edward the Elder 899–924. (Routledge, 2001). p257.
  8. ^ Robert Bartlett, Geoffrey of Burton. Life and miracles of Modwenna (Clarendon, 2002) pp. xviii-xix.


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