Mildrith
Urban VI | |
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Major shrine | Minster-in-Thanet St Augustine's Abbey, Canterbury |
Feast | 13 July |
Attributes | Princess's crown, Abbess's crozier, hind |
Saint Mildrith, also Mildthryth, Mildryth and Mildred, (
Life and family
Mildrith was the daughter of King
Her sisters
Mildrith's maternal family had close ties to the
Relic remains
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 Eichstätt, Bavaria, as a refuge from persecution and became a dependent priory. In 1953, a relic of St Mildred was brought there.[8]
Family tree
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]
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References
- ^ a b c St. Augustine's Abbey, The Book of Saints, A&C Black, Ltd., London, 1921
- ^ Hollis 1998, p. 42.
- ^ a b c Rollason (1982) p. 16
- ^ minster-in-thanet.org.uk/abbey accessed 12 October 2014
- ^ Rollason (1982) p.53
- ^ Rollason (1982) p.36
- ^ www.stpeters-stmildreds.org.uk St Mildred's Church website.
- ^ a b Minster Abbey Chronological Table Benedictine Nuns of Minster Abbey. Accessed 11 October 2014
- ^ "Saint Mildred and her Kinsfolk", 1903.
- ^ Family tree is from Rollason, 1982, p.45
Literature
- Brooks, Beda: The world of Saint Mildred, c. 660–730. A study of an Anglo-Saxon nun in the golden age of the English Church, Bath 1996, ISBN 1-898663-08-4.
- Hollis, Stephanie (1998). "The Minster-in-Thanet foundation story". Anglo-Saxon England. 27. Cambridge University Press: 41–64. . Retrieved 18 October 2014.
- Rollason, David W.: The Mildrith legend. A study in early Medieval hagiography in England. Leicester 1982, ISBN 0-7185-1201-4.
Sources
- Love, R. C., "Mildrith, St" in 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: Þá hálgan (aka The Kentish Royal Legend); Caligula 'Life of St Mildrith' (with translation); The Lambeth Palace text of Þá hálgan.
- 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