Æthelthryth
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Saint Etheldreda | |
|---|---|
| Abbess | |
| Born | c. 636, Exning, Suffolk |
| Died | 23 June 679, Ely, Cambridgeshire |
| Venerated in | Roman Catholicism; Anglican Communion |
| Major shrine | St Etheldreda's Church, Ely Place, Holborn, London; Originally Ely Cathedral (now destroyed) |
| Feast | 23 June |
| Attributes | Abbess holding a model of Ely Cathedral |
| Patronage | Throat complaints |
 Saints Portal |
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Æthelthryth (c. 636-23 June 679) is the proper name for the popular Anglo-Saxon saint almost universally known as Etheldreda or by the pet form of Audrey (or variations). She was an East Anglian princess, a Fenland queen and Abbess of Ely in the English county of Cambridgeshire.
She was probably born at Exning, near Newmarket in Suffolk, one of four daughters of Anna, King of East Anglia (kd. 654), all of whom eventually retired from the world and founded abbeys.
Etheldreda made an early first marriage (ca 652) to Tondberct, chief of the South Gyrvians, or "fenmen" (gyr, Old English "fen") (d. 655). However, she managed to persuade her husband to respect a vow of perpetual virginity she had made before her marriage. Upon his death in 655, she retired to the Isle of Ely, given to her as her "morning gift" by Tondberct.
She then married Ecgfrith, King of Northumbria (645-) in 660 again for political reasons. However, she took the veil shortly after Ecgfrith's accession to the throne, allegedly with his permission and later regretted by him. This step possibly led to his long quarrel with Wilfrid archbishop of York. One account holds that while Ecgfrith initially agreed that she should continue to be chaste, in about 672, he wished to consummate their marriage and even attempted to bribe Wilfrid to use his influence on the queen to convince her. This failing, the king tried to take his Queen from the cloister by force. Whereupon, she fled to Ely for refuge with two faithful nuns, and managed to evade capture in part by the miraculous rising of the tide. The Northumbrian king remarried a second wife, Eormenburg, and expelled Wilfrid from his kingdom in 678.
According to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, Etheldreda (or Aethelthryth, alias Audrey) founded the monastery at Ely in 673; the monastery was later destroyed in the Danish invasion of 870. Bede tells how after her death, her bones were disinterred by her sister and successor, Abbess Seaxburh of Ely, formerly queen of Kent, and buried in a white, marble coffin from Cambridge.
Etheldreda's sister, niece, and great-niece, all royal princesses and two of them widowed queens (of Kent and Mercia), followed her as abbesses of Ely.
In Ely Place, Holborn, London, there is a church dedicated to St. Etheldreda. It was originally part of the palace of the Bishops of Ely. After the Reformation, the palace was used by the Spanish Ambassadors, enabling Roman Catholic worship to continue in the church.
[edit] Tawdry
The common version of Etheldreda's name was St. Awdrey, which is the origin of the word tawdry. Her admirers bought modestly concealing lace goods at an annual fair held in her name in Ely. Fashion being what it is, as years passed, it came to be seen as old-fashioned or cheap and poor quality goods. This was particularly so in the seventeenth century when some Puritans in eastern England viewed any form of lacy dressiness with a jaundiced eye.
[edit] External links
- Richard John King, 1862. Handbook of the Cathedrals of England (Oxford) (On-line text)
- Article from The Catholic Encyclopedia
- The Life of St. Aethelthryth by Ælfric
