Wendreda
Saint Wendreda | |
|---|---|
| Born | date unknown PerhapsExning,Suffolk |
| Died | date unknown March,Isle of Ely |
| Venerated in | Roman Catholic Church Anglican Communion, Orthodox Church[1] |
| Majorshrine | Ely Cathedral;St Wendreda's Church, March |
| Feast | 22 January |
| Attributes | Nun,healer |
| Patronage | March, Cambridgeshire |
Wendreda,also known asWendreth,was anAnglo-Saxonnun, healer, and saint, perhaps of the 7th century. She was uncertainly reported as a daughter ofKing Anna of East Anglia,a Christian king, which would make her a sister ofEtheldreda,abbess ofEly,Sexburgha,abbess ofMinster-in-Sheppey,andEthelburga,abbess ofFaremoutiers,who are all better-known saints, and a half-sister ofSæthryth,also an abbess of Faremoutiers.
Wendreda is associated withMarch,in theIsle of Ely,andExning,Suffolk.
Life
[edit]Perhaps a daughter of Anna, king of theEast Angles,Wendreda may have grown up at Exning near Newmarket. Three of the daughters of Anna married kings, but, instead of marrying, Wendreda became a nun and a herbalist, expert in the arts of healing sick people and animals. She established herself in the wetlands ofthe Fensand according to one source founded aBenedictine nunneryat March, where she spent the rest of her life. She became famous as a healer, and eventually miraculous powers were attributed to her.[2]
Frances Arnold-Forster wrote in 1899 that Wendreda may have been an abbess, "for a little piece of ground opposite the church still retains its old name of 'the Nunnery'." She adds that an old coffin-lid was discovered there and moved to the churchyard and quotes the Rev. Charles E. Walker, Rector of March in 1890, as saying "It is evident that there was a small conventual establishment there, in all probability connected with S. Wendreda, but no trace of foundations or document can I discover."[3]
Agnes Dunbar said of Wendreda a few years later
St. Wendreda, or WENDRETH, Virgin, probably not later than 11th century. Patron of the town of March in Cambridgeshire. She was perhaps the founder and abbess of the church that bears her name at March, and of a nunnery that is believed to have adjoined it. Her relics and those of ST.PANDIONAare atEltisley,Cambs.[4]
Relics, church, and well
[edit]
According toJoseph Strutt,"The body of St. Wendreda, a virgin, was brought by Esinus (abbot of Ely) to Ely, where it was laid in a rich shrine most superbly ornamented with gold and precious stones."[5] The remains were kept in a golden shrine inEly Cathedraluntil 1016, whenEdmund Ironsidebought them and carried them into battle, in the hope that they would bring him victory against the Danes.[2]ButCanutecaptured the relics at theBattle of Assandunand later gave them toCanterbury Cathedral.In 1343 Wendreda's remains were returned to March, but their final resting place is usually now said to be unknown.[2]However, inMagna Britannia(1808)DanielandSamuel Lysonsstated that they were atEltisley,[6]and this claim was repeated in 1905 by Agnes Dunbar.[4]
The only church dedicated to Wendreda is at March and is notable for itsdouble-hammer beam roofcelebrating the saint with 118 angels, carved from oak, the largest of them half life-size, looking down into the church with wings outstretched.[7]John Betjemansaid of it that it was "worth cycling forty miles in a head wind to see",[8]and Clive Fewins has called it "the finest of all angel roofs".[9]
A spring at Exning was named St Mindred's Well, and a local legend had it that the Saint used its water in her healing. Newmarket jockeys used to take horses there to drink before a race.[2]As there is no other record of a saint called Mindred, the medieval scholarMontague Rhodes Jameswriting in 1930 came to the conclusion that Mindred and Wendreda were one and the same. However, he adds that "this takes us very little farther, for nobody knows a single fact about St Wendreda."[10]Following on from this, the water source, which is in the private grounds of the Hamilton Stud, is now called St Wendreda's Well.[11]
Wider veneration
[edit]Since theMiddle Ages,Wendreda's status has increased, and her influence has travelled out widely from the local level. It was reported in 1998 that "As saint, Wendreda is now implicated in the networks of international Catholic power and policy. In a small way she has entered the political relations between Rome and Canterbury."[12]
See also
[edit]Notes
[edit]- ^February 4 / January 22.https://www.holytrinityorthodox.com/htc/orthodox-calendar/
- ^abcdSaint Wendreda: the story of a Saxon Princessat fensmuseums.org.uk, accessed 9 April 2018
- ^"S. Wendreda of March, V", in Frances Arnold-Forster,Studies in Church Dedications: Or, England's Patron Saints(1899), p. 421, citing private letter from Rev. C. E. Walker, 1890
- ^abAgnes Baillie Cunninghame Dunbar,A Dictionary of Saintly Women,Volume 2 (1905) p. 299
- ^Joseph Strutt,Honda Angel-Cynnam, or A Compleat View of the Manners, Customs, Arms, Habits &c of the Inhabitants of England from the arrival of the Saxons, till the Reign of Henry the Eight with a short account of the Britons during the Government of the Romans(London: Benjamin White, 1775), p. 69
- ^"DanielandSamuel Lysons,Magna Britannia,volume 2, "Cambridgeshire and the County Palatine of Chester" (London: T. Cadell & W. Davies, 1808), p. 184
- ^Barbara Joanne Williams,Britain Our Way(1995), p. 64
- ^March and District Museum: Walks round March, The Town Centre(February 2004, archived 23 August 2011) at archive.org
- ^Clive Fewins,The Church Explorer's Handbook: A Guide to Looking at Churches and their Contents(Hymns Ancient and Modern Ltd, 2005), p. 151
- ^Montague Rhodes James,Suffolk and Norfolk: A Perambulation of the Two Counties(London: Dent, 1930), p. 14
- ^Phillipa Bryan,St Wendreda's Well, Exning, near Newmarketat insearchofholywellsandhealingsprings.com, accessed 5 March 2022
- ^Sara Maitland, Wendy Mulford,Virtuous Magic: Women Saints and Their Meanings(1998), p. 71
The construction of Ely Cathedral didn't commence until around 1087, and wasn't consecrated as a Cathedral until 1109. The story regarding Edmund Ironside must refer to the double monastery at Ely.
External links
[edit]- St. Wendreda, Hermitess of March, Cambridgeshire, Englandat antiochian.org
- St. Wendreda's Churchat BritainExpress.com