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Osgyth

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Saint Osgyth
An illuminated capital commencing the anonymousLa Vie seinte Osith, virge e martire(Campsey Manuscript, British Library Additional Ms 70513, fol. 134v)
BornQuarrendon,now inBuckinghamshire
Died700 AD
Venerated in
CanonizedPre-congregation
Feast7 October
AttributesDepicted as acephalophore;[1]or represented with a stag behind her,[1]

Osgyth(orOsyth;diedc.700 AD) was a Mercian noblewoman and prioress, venerated as an Englishsaintsince the 8th century, from soon after her death. She is primarily commemorated in the village ofSt Osyth,inEssex,nearColchester.Alternative spellings of her name includeSythe,OthithandOsitha.Born of a noble family, she became a nun and founded apriorynearChichwhich was later named after her.

Life

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Born inQuarrendon,Buckinghamshire(at that time part ofMercia), she was the daughter ofFrithuwald,a sub-king of Mercia in Surrey.[2]Her mother was Wilburh, of the royal house of Mercia.[3]Her parents, with St. Erconwald, foundedChertsey Abbeyin 675 AD.

Raised in the care of her maternal aunts,St Edith of AylesburyandEdburga of Bicester,her ambition was to become anabbess,but she was too important as a political pawn to be set aside.[4]She was forced by her father into adynastic marriagewithSighere,King of Essex.She is likely the mother ofOffa of Essex,although this is not certain.[2]

While her husband was off on a long hunt to run down a beautiful white stag, Osgyth persuaded two local bishops to accept her vows as a nun. Upon his return some days later, he reluctantly agreed to her decision and granted her some land at Chich near Colchester, now named after her asSt Osyth,where she established a convent,[3]and ruled as first abbess. She was beheaded by some raiding pirates, perhaps because she may have resisted being carried off.[3]

Legends

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One day, St. Edith sent Osgyth to deliver a book to St. Modwenna of Northumbria at her nunnery. To get there, Osgyth had to cross a stream by a bridge. The stream was swollen, the wind high, she fell into the water and drowned. Her absence was not noted for two days. Edith thought she was safe with Modwenna who was not expecting her visit. On the third day, Edith, wondering that her pupil had not returned, went to Modwenna. The abbesses were greatly concerned when they discovered Osgyth was apparently lost. They searched for her and found the child lying near the banks of the stream. The abbesses prayed for her restoration and commanded her to arise from the water and come to them. This she did.[5]A similar tale is found in Irish hagiography.

Her later death was accounted amartyrdomby some, butBedemakes no mention of Saint Osgyth. The 13th-century chroniclerMatthew Parisrepeats some of the legends that had accrued around her name. The site of her martyrdom was transferred to the holy spring atQuarrendon.The holy spring at Quarrendon, mentioned in the time of Osgyth's aunts, now became associated with her legend, in which Osgyth stood up after her execution, picking up her head likeSaint Denisin Paris, and othercephalophoric martyrsand walking with it in her hands, to the door of a local convent, before collapsing there. Some modern authors link the legends of cephalophores miraculously walking with their heads in their hands[6]to theCelticcult of heads.[6]: 123 

Gatehouse of the formerSt Osyth's Priory(later abbey),St Osyth,Essex

Veneration

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Her cult was promoted byMaurice,bishop of London, where there was a shrine dedicated to her at St. Paul's Cathedral.[7]

Around 1121, his successor,Richard de Belmeis Ifoundeda prioryforcanons of Saint Augustine,on the site of a former nunnery at Chich.[4]He obtained the relic of an arm for the monastery church. His remains were buried in the chancel of the church in 1127: he bequeathed the church and tithes to the canons, who elected as their first abbot or priorWilliam de Corbeil,afterwardsArchbishop of Canterbury(died in 1136). Corbeil acquired the other arm for Canterbury.[7]

Benefactions, charters, and privileges granted byHenry II,made the Canons wealthy: at theDissolution of the monasteriesin 1536, priory revenues were valued at £758 5s. 8d. yearly. In 1397 the abbot of St Osgyth was granted the right to wear amitreand give the solemn benediction, and, more singularly, the right to ordain priests, conferred byPope Boniface IX.[8]The gatehouse, the so-called 'Abbot's Tower', and some ranges of buildings remain.

Osgyth's burial site atSt. Mary the Virgin, Aylesburybecame a site of great, though unofficialpilgrimage;following a papal decree in 1500, the bones were removed from the church and buried in secret. Undeterred, according to the curious 17th-century antiquaryJohn Aubrey(author of theBrief Lives), "in those days, when they went to bed they did rake up the fire, and make a X on the ashes, and pray to God and Saint Sythe [Saint Osgyth] to deliver them from fire, and from water, and from all misadventure."

Veneration of St Osyth was widespread across England. Norwich Cathedral and St Albans Abbey had chapels dedicated to her in the Middle Ages.[citation needed]

Herfeast dayis 7 October. She is often depictedcarrying her own head.[1][9]

References

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  1. ^abcDrake, Maurice; Drake, Wilfred (1971) [First published 1916].Saints and Their Emblems.New York: Burt Franklin. pp. 96, 182.
  2. ^abWragg, Stefany (2022).Early English Queens, 650–850.Taylor & Francis. p. 89.ISBN9781-0005-9522-2.
  3. ^abcButler, Alban(1995). "St. Osyth, martyr".Butler's Lives of the Saints.Vol. 10. Liturgical Press. p. 46.ISBN9780-8146-2386-2.
  4. ^ab"History".St. Osyth Priory.
  5. ^Dunbar, Agnes. "A Dictionary of Saintly Women" (1904)Public DomainThis article incorporates text from this source, which is in thepublic domain.
  6. ^abWhite, Beatrice (1972). "A Persistent Paradox"Folklore,vol.83no. 2 (Summer 1972), pp. 122–131, at p. 123: "The stories of St. Edmund, St. Kenelm, St. Osgyth, and St. Sidwell in England, St. Denis in France, St. Melor and St. Winifred in Celtic territory, preserve the pattern and strengthen the link betweenlegendandfolklore"
  7. ^abBurns, Arthur,St. Paul's: The Cathedral Church of London, 604–2004,Yale University Press, 2004, p. 117ISBN9780300092769
  8. ^Egerton Beck, "Two Bulls of Boniface IX for the Abbot of St. Osyth"The English Historical Review26.101 (January 1911:124-127).
  9. ^"St. Osyth".Catholic Online: Saints & Angels.

Further reading

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