Saint
Mildrith
, also
Mildthryth
,
Mildryth
and
Mildred
, (
Old English
:
Mildþr?ð
) (born c. 660, died after 732), was a 7th- and 8th-century
Anglo-Saxon
abbess
of the Abbey at
Minster-in-Thanet
, Kent. She was declared a saint after her death, and, in 1030, her remains were moved to Canterbury.
Life and family
[
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]
Mildrith was the daughter of King
Merewalh
of
Magonsaete
, an area similar to the present day
Herefordshire
, a sub-kingdom of
Mercia
. Her mother was
Domne Eafe
(also sometimes named as Saint Eormenburga),
[1]
herself a great-granddaughter of
Æthelberht of Kent
, and as such appearing in the so-called
Kentish Royal Legend
.
Her sisters
Milburga of Much Wenlock
and
Mildgyth
were also considered saints, and Mildrith, along with her extended family, features in the Kentish Royal Legend, also known as the "Mildrith Legend".
In the 11th century,
Goscelin
wrote a
hagiography
of Mildrith, the
Vita Mildrethae
.
[3]
Another work, the
Nova Legenda Anglie
of 1516, gives an extensive account of her life.
Mildrith's maternal family had close ties to the
Merovingian
rulers of
Gaul
, and Mildrith is said to have been educated at the prestigious Merovingian royal
abbey of Chelles
.
[1]
She entered
the abbey
of
Minster-in-Thanet
, which her mother had established, and became abbess there by 694. A number of dedications to Mildrith exist in the
Pas-de-Calais
, including at
Millam
, thereby suggesting that ties to Gaul were maintained. Mildrith died at Minster-in-Thanet some time after 732 and was buried there in the Abbey Church of St Mary.
[3]
Relic remains
[
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]
Mildrith's successor as abbess, Eadburg (also styled
Edburga of Minster-in-Thanet
, a correspondent of
Saint Boniface
), built a new abbey church, also at Minster-in-Thanet, dedicated to Ss Peter and Paul, and translated Mildrith's remains there not later than 748.
[3]
The shrine within the abbey became a popular place of local pilgrimage, with Mildrith becoming a much-loved local patron saint.
[4]
The last abbess of Minster in Thanet was Leofruna, who was captured by Danes in 1011. The abbey was abandoned and the church downgraded to a parish church.
[5]
Mildrith's remains, despite fierce local opposition,
[6]
were
translated
to
St Augustine's Abbey
,
Canterbury
in 1030,
[1]
an event commemorated on 18 May.
St Mildred's Church, Canterbury
, within the town walls, dates back to this time.
[7]
Some of her relics were given, in the 11th century, to a church at
Deventer
, Netherlands. In 1881 the feast day of St Mildred was officially reinstated by
Pope Leo XIII
.
[8]
In 1882, following a refounding of a Benedictine monastery at Minster in Thanet, the nuns petitioned the Archbishop of Utrecht, who granted their return to Thanet.
[9]
It became a private house until 1937, when it was purchased by Benedictine nuns from St Walburga's Abbey in
Eichstatt
, Bavaria, as a refuge from persecution and became a dependent priory. In 1953, a relic of St Mildred was brought there.
[8]
Family tree
[
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]
The family tree of this part of the royal family of Kent in the 7th century is derived from the later Old English and Latin accounts. Eadbold became king in 616 A.D, succeeded by Eorcantberht in 640 A.D. (possibly co-ruling with his brother Eormenred, Mildrith's grandfather). Ecgberht came to the throne in 664 and died in 673 A.D.
[10]
References
[
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]
Literature
[
edit
]
Sources
[
edit
]
- Love, R. C., "Mildrith, St" in
Michael Lapidge
et al.,
The Blackwell Encyclopedia of Anglo-Saxon England.
Oxford: Blackwell, 1999.
ISBN
0-631-22492-0
- Rollason, D. W.,
The Mildrith Legend: a study in early medieval hagiography in England
(series "Studies in the Early History of Britain", Leicester University Press) 1982. (This includes the full Latin text of the 13th-century Bodley 285 Text and the
Vita Mildrethae
of Goscelin of Canterbury.)
- Introduction and primary texts of three Anglo-Saxon
Lives of St Mildreth
, dated between 725 and 974
, in Old English: Þa halgan (aka The Kentish Royal Legend); Caligula 'Life of St Mildrith' (with translation); The Lambeth Palace text of Þa halgan.
- O.S.B., "Saint Mildred and her Kinsfolk"
,
Virgin Saints of the Benedictine Order
, Catholic Truth Society, London, 1903
- Nova Legenda Anglie
(first published in 1516. This ed. 1901.) The entry for De Sancta Mildreda is in Vol. II p. 193?197
External links
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