Their story
Adapted in modern English from Baring-Gould (1897) · original text below · little is known
Earcongotha was the daughter of Ercombert, King of Kent, and great-granddaughter of the first Christian Anglo-Saxon king. She became a nun at Faremoutier in France, where many English princesses were trained, and Bede (the English monk-historian, d. 735) praises her virtue. She became abbess there.
Warned that she would soon die, she went round the infirmary cells asking her sick sisters to pray for her,. According to the account, the monks in the other half of the double monastery heard a sound like a great crowd and, going out, found themselves in a flood of light as her soul rose to heaven.
Early life
Selected sentences from the original account, unaltered.
Thin entry · the 1897 book gives only 162 words. We have not filled the gap with invented detail.
Earcongotha , great granddaughter of the first Christian king of the Anglo-Saxons, and daughter of Ercombert, King of Kent, was a nun in the French community of Faremoutier, where so many of the English princesses were trained.
How they teach us to live
Drawn from themes in the original account
Build up the community you belong to. This life was lived with and for a community.
Look after people who are sick or suffering. The sick come up again and again in this story.
Pray a little every day. Prayer runs all through this account.
Learn from the kind of life it was. Building a community where women could live the Gospel together.