Osgyth

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Saint Osgyth
dubious – discuss][citation needed
]

Osgyth (or Osyth; died c. 700 AD) was a Mercian noblewoman and prioress, venerated as an English

Chich
which was later named after her.

Life

Born in

Frithuwald, a sub-king of Mercia in Surrey.[2] Her mother was Wilburh, of the royal house of Mercia.[3] Her parents, with St. Erconwald, founded Chertsey Abbey
in 675 AD.

Raised in the care of her maternal aunts,

dynastic marriage with Sighere, King of Essex. She is likely the mother of Offa 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 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

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 a

Celtic cult of heads.[6]
: 123 

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

Veneration

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

Around 1121, his successor,

canons 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 prior William de Corbeil, afterwards Archbishop of Canterbury (died in 1136). Corbeil acquired the other arm for Canterbury.[citation needed
]

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

Osgyth's burial site at

St. Mary the Virgin, Aylesbury became a site of great, though unauthorised,[further explanation needed] pilgrimage; following a papal decree in 1500, the bones were removed from the church and buried in secret. Undeterred, according to the curious 17th-century antiquary John Aubrey (author of the Brief 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." A house in Aylesbury is still called St Osyth's in her honour.[citation needed
]

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]

Her

feast day is 7 October. She is often depicted carrying her own head.[1][9]

References

  1. ^ a b c Drake, Maurice; Drake, Wilfred (1971) [First published 1916]. Saints and Their Emblems. New York: Burt Franklin. pp. 96, 182.
  2. ^
    ISBN 9781-0005-9522-2
    .
  3. ^
    ISBN 9780-8146-2386-2
    .
  4. ^ a b "History". St. Osyth Priory.
  5. ^ Dunbar, Agnes. "A Dictionary of Saintly Women" (1904)Public Domain This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
  6. ^ a b White, Beatrice (1972). "A Persistent Paradox" Folklore, vol. 83 no. 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 between legend and folklore"
  7. ISBN 9780300092769
  8. ^ Egerton Beck, "Two Bulls of Boniface IX for the Abbot of St. Osyth" The English Historical Review 26.101 (January 1911:124-127).
  9. ^ "St. Osyth". Catholic Online: Saints & Angels.

Further reading

External links

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