From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Saint
Cuthburh
or
Cuthburg
,
Cuthburga
(
Old English
:
C?þburh
; died 31 August 725) was the first Abbess of
Wimborne Minster
.
[1]
[2]
[3]
She was the sister of
Ine
, King of
Wessex
and was married to the
Northumbrian
king
Aldfrith
.
Life
[
edit
]
Cuthburh was the daughter of
Cenred of Wessex
. In addition to her brother Ine, she also had a brother Ingild, who was an ancestor of
Alfred the Great
, and a sister
Cwenburh
. Her marriage to Aldfrith allied him with Ine, one of the most powerful kings in
Anglo-Saxon England
. Cuthburh was Aldfrith's only known wife. Aldfrith had at least two sons,
Osred
and Offa, it is believed Cuthburh was the mother of Osred, Offa it is not certain.
[4]
It is also believed they were the parents of a daughter
Osana
, who would later be known as Saint Osana.
[5]
[6]
According to a report by
Florence of Worcester
, written long afterwards, at some time before Aldfrith's death in 705 he and Cuthburh "renounced connubial intercourse for the love of God". Following this, Cuthburh entered Abbess
Hildelith
's nunnery at
Barking Abbey
.
[7]
Cuthburh is traditionally associated with the "Cuthburh" mentioned in the dedication of
Aldhelm
's treatise
De virginitate
.
[8]
It is thought that she was in some way related to Aldhelm.
[7]
After Aldfrith's death, around 705, Cuthburh and
Cwenburh
established a double-monastery in her brother's kingdom of
Wessex
, at
Wimborne, Dorset
.
[7]
She is described as austere, and she communicated with prelates through a little hatch in the
nunnery
at Wimborne. Among
Saint Boniface
's surviving letters is an anonymous account of a vision of Abbess Cuthburh in Hell.
[9]
Cuthburh died on 31 August 725 at Wimborne and is said to be buried under the wall of the chancel.
[10]
In 1538, Wimborne Minster being in need of repair, the guardians of the church wrote
Thomas Cromwell
for permission to melt down the silver reliquary containing Cuthburh's head. As a few years later, the tower collapsed, it is surmised that the reliquary was confiscated to the King's use. It is not mentioned what then happened to her head.
[11]
The
feast day
associated with her is 31 August.
[7]
See also
[
edit
]
References
[
edit
]
- ^
"St. Cuthburga - Saints & Angels"
.
- ^
"EBK: St. Cuthburga, Abbess of Wimborne"
.
- ^
"Archdiocese of Thyateira and Great Britain"
.
- ^
Kirby, D. P. The Earliest English Kings. London: Unwin Hyman, 1991.
ISBN
0-04-445691-3
, p. 145.
- ^
"EBK: St. Cuthburga, Abbess of Wimborne"
.
- ^
"Archdiocese of Thyateira and Great Britain"
.
- ^
a
b
c
d
Mayo, 1860
- ^
Dockray-Miller, Mary.
Motherhood and Mothering in Anglo-Saxon England
, Springer, 2000
,
ISBN
9780312299637
, p. 29
- ^
Bonifacius, Ephraim Emerton, and Austin P. Evans.
The Letters of Saint Boniface.
New York: Columbia University Press, 1940. P. 190.
- ^
"EBK: St. Cuthburga, Abbess of Wimborne"
.
- ^
"Wimborne Minster",
The Saturday Review
, October 1, 1881, p. 415, John W. Parker and Son
Sources
[
edit
]
- Farmer, D. H. (1987). The
Oxford Dictionary of Saints
, p. 96. Oxford:
Clarendon Press
.
- Lapidge, Michael, "Cuthburg", in M. Lapidge et al.,
The Blackwell Encyclopedia of
Anglo-Saxon England
.
(Oxford: Blackwell, 1999)
- Mayo, C.H. (1860). History of Wimborne Minster: The Collegiate Church of Saint Cuthberga and King's Free Chapel at Wimborne, (pp. 4?6). London: Bell and Daldy.
archive.org
External links
[
edit
]
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