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Eadburh of Bicester
(also
Eadburth,
or
Edburg
, death c. 650)
[1]
was an English
nun
,
abbess
, and
saint
from the 7th century. She has been called a "bit of a mystery";
[1]
there have been several
Saxon
saints with the same name, so it is difficult to pinpoint which one was Eadburh. It is most likely that Eadburh of Bicester was the daughter of
King Penda of Mercia
, who was pagan but had several children who were Christians.
[1]
[2]
Eadburgh was born in the now-deserted village of
Quarrendon
in
Buckinghamshire
. Her sister was Edith (or Eadith), with whom she co-founded an abbey near
Aylesburg
;
[3]
Eadburh probably became abbess at Aylesburg.
[1]
[4]
She was also aunt of
Osgyth
,
[1]
whom she trained "in the religious life".
[2]
There are legends that claim that Edburgh and Edith found Osyth after she had drowned three days earlier and "witnessed her return to life".
[1]
Eadburgh might have lived at
Adderbury
, which may have been named for her, 30 miles from Aylesbury. She died in c. 650; her burial place is unknown.
[1]
[2]
In 850, a simple Saxon church was built in
Bicester
.
[5]
In 1182, her relics were moved to Bicester, when an
Augustinian priory
was founded by a group of
Canons regular
and dedicated to Saint Eadburgh and to the
Virgin Mary
.
[2]
[4]
Many pilgrims visited Eadburh's shrine and holy well there. During the
Reformation
in 1536, Sir Simon Harcourt, the sheriff of
Oxford
, destroyed the Bicester Priory church, but he saved Eadburth's shrine and moved it to
Saint Michael
's Church in
Stanton Harcourt
so that it could be used as an Easter
sepulture
. Other parts of the shrine were combined into a tomb in the Harcourt chapel. In the late 1940s, there was an attempt to return the shrine to Bicester, but it was unsuccessful.
[1]
[2]
[4]
Saint Eadburh's feast day is 18 July.
[2]
References
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edit
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British / Welsh
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East Anglian
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East Saxon
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Frisian,
Frankish
and Old Saxon
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Irish and Scottish
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Kentish
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Mercian
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Northumbrian
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Roman
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South Saxon
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West Saxon
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Unclear origin
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