St. Etheldreda became the most popular of Anglo-Saxon women saints. She lived in the early era of the Germanic invasion of Britain. It was a rough age, but she.
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After many painful scenes, an unwilling consent was wrung from the King, no sooner given than repented.
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However, before he could give orders to the contrary, Etheldreda had fled to Coldingham beyond the Tweed, where Egfrith's aunt, St. Aebbe the Elder , was abbess. Egfrith found life intolerable without Etheldreda, and determined to bring her back with or without her consent. Aebbe heartily sympathised with Etheldreda but, seeing that, should Egfrith insist on reclaiming his wife, resistance would be impossible, advised her to escape from Coldingham in the disguise of a beggar.
Etheldreda did this, attended by two nuns of Coldingham, SS. She did not go to her own aunt's sister, St. Hilda , at Whitby, as she would have opposed anything advised by Wilfred, but decided to go back to her own lands at Ely.
Etheldreda of Ely
Many stories are told of her adventures on the journey, and they have often been the subject of sculpture and painted glass in the English monastic churches. On the first day of her flight, Etheldreda was all but overtaken by her husband.
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She arrived at a headland, Colbert's Head, jutting into the sea, and her pious intention was protected by the tide, which at once rose to an unusual height around the rock, making the place inaccessible to her pursuers. Egfrith resolved to wait till the ebbing waters should leave the path open to him, but instead of going down in a few hours, the waters remained at high tide for seven days. The baffled pursuer then realised that a power greater than his had taken Etheldreda, and her vow, under his protection.
So he gave up the idea of compelling her to come back to him and returned home. Later, as she travelled, one very hot day, Etheldreda was overpowered with fatigue. She stuck her staff into the ground and lay down to rest on the open plain.
Æthelthryth
When she awoke, the staff had put forth leaves and branches, and it afterwards became a mighty oak tree, larger than any other for many miles around. At length, after many days of weary walking, the saint arrived on her own lands in Ely. Here, there was a piece of good, firm, rich land, supporting six hundred families and surrounded to a great distance by fens, forming a more formidable rampart than walls or plain water would have done.
Here, in AD , Etheldreda built a large double monastery. Wilfred, who never lost sight of his old friend, made her abbess and gave the veil to her first nuns.
Venerable Etheldreda, Abbess of Ely / leondumoulin.nl
He obtained special privileges for her, from the Pope, and often visited her and helped her with advice and suggestions useful in the management of her large establishment. Etheldreda ruled over her monastery for seven years, setting a great example of piety and abstinence and all other monastic virtues.
Though such a great lady, and so delicately reared, she never wore any linen, but only rough woollen clothing. She denied herself the use of the warm bath, a luxury much in use among the English in her time. Only permitting herself this indulgence at the four great festivals of the year and, even then, she only used the bath that had already served the other nuns.
Many of her old friends, relations and courtiers followed her and her example. For hither they came to live under her rule or to place their daughters in her care. Hither also came many holy men and priests to take her for their spiritual guide.
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Among the kindred princesses who were attracted by Etheldreda's good qualities and the fame of her holiness, was her sister, St. Sexburga , Queen of Kent, who, leaving her own foundation of Minster-in-Sheppey, came and put herself under the rule of Etheldreda. At her death, on 23rd June AD , she succeeded her as abbess. Etheldreda died of a quinsy, which she regarded as a punishment for her former love of dress and, in particular, for having worn jewels on her neck.
An incision was made into her throat, by a surgeon who afterwards swore to the healing of the wound after death. Hence her patronage of sufferers of throat complaints. Etheldreda is one of the most popular of English saints, and there are more dedications in her name in England than in that of any female saint of the early Anglo-Saxon Church. Her feast day is the anniversary of her death, 23rd June. After the English Reformation , the palace was used by the Spanish ambassadors, enabling Roman Catholic worship to continue in the church.
St Etheldreda's Church, Hatfield is 13th century and was originally Saxon. It was named for Saint Etheldreda because it was adjacent to the Palace of the Bishops of Ely who held her as their patron saint. Etheldreda's Church in White Notley , Essex, is a Church of England parish church, of Saxon construction, built on the site of a Roman temple, with a large quantity of Roman brick in its fabric.
The church has a small Mediaeval English stained glass window, depicting St. Etheldreda, which is set in a stone frame made from a very early Insular Christian Roman Chi Rho grave marker. Audrey, which is the origin of the word tawdry , which derived from the fact that her admirers bought modestly concealing lace goods at an annual fair held in her name in Ely. By the 17th century, this lacework had become seen as old-fashioned, or cheap and of poor quality, at a time when the Puritans of eastern England looked down on any form of lacy dressiness.
A modern fictional account has been written by Moyra Caldecott. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. For other people, see Ethelreda given name. Retrieved 18 August Archived from the original on 17 June Retrieved 27 November Portrait of the Quantocks. Saints of Anglo-Saxon England.