Baring-Gould’s sources: Roman Martyrology. Sarum Kalendar, and proper office and lessons in the Breviary. Not in the York, Hereford, or Durham Kalendars. The Lubeck-Cologne Martyrology, Greven, Wyon; Wilson in his Anglican Martyrology of 1608, on Sept. 16, in his later edition of 1640, on Sept. 15; why changed does not transpire, as S. Edith died on Sept. 16, as stated in her life. Also on Nov. 3, the feast of the elevation of her body. Authority: — The Life of S. Edith attributed to Gotschlin, the French monk, brought to England by Edward the Confessor. He died in 1098.] S. Edith of Wilton, far more famous than S. Edith of Polesworth, with whom she is sometimes confounded, was the daughter of Edgar, son of Edmund, and brother of Edwy.
Edgar reigned over Mercia [the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of the English Midlands] during his brother's life, but on the death of Edwy he obtained the sovereignty over the whole people of the English, and reigned between 959-975. He carried off the young Wilfreda from Wilton Abbey, where she was being educated. The story of this unforflying from her ravisher, took refuge in Wilton Abbey, where she assumed the veil, and there brought up her daughter Edith, who was thus trained from her mother's breast in a convent, and may be said never to have known the world. She received the veil from the hands of S. Ethelwald, or Efhelwold, Bishop of Winchester (963-984). Edith wore gay clothing — nuns in those days in England seem not to have had an uniform — and was reproved for it by the bishop, Ethclwald. “ My father,” said the maiden, “ the mind may be as modest and God-fearing under fine clothes as under a serge habit. The God I love looks to the heart and not to the dress.”
As soon as she was fifteen, her father thought she was quite old enough to be an abbess, so lie gave her authority over Winchester, Barking, and another religious house. But the little girl could not bear to be torn from her mother, who was now abbess of Wilton, and she remained under her somewhat longer.
On the death of Edgar, Edward, his son, succeeded him. Thereupon S. Edith dreamt that one of her eyes fell out. On waking she told the nuns that her dream foretold the death of Edward, who was murdered at Corfe Castle in 978. Edith erected a church under the dedication of S. Dionysius. S. Dunstan was at the consecration, and when he noticed how continuously S. Edith crossed herself, he caught hold of her right thumb and said, “ Never shall this thumb decay.”
S. Edith died at Wilton on the 1 6 th of September, about the year 984, in the twenty-third year of her age. At the moment when she was dying a nun went to the door of the church, when, looking in, she saw angels standing in ranks and singing sweetly. Then one with a shining face came up to her and said, “ Go back; the angels await the good maiden.”
There was a noble lady at Winchester who had earnestly besought S. Edith to stand as godmother to her child, should she have one, and Edith had promised to do so. Three years after the death of the saintly virgin a little girl was born to the lady. The child was brought to the cathedral to be baptized, and S. Alphege, then Bishop of Winchester, performed the ceremony. As he took the taper and said, “Maiden, receive the lamp, with which (hou shalt enter into the marriage of the Lord,” he looked up and saw before him Edith, in all the bloom of Paradise, holding the infant on her arm, and extending her delicate hand to receive the candle. He placed the light in her hand, and S. Edith of Wilton.
she remained visible till after the baptism, when she vanished clean away. Her body was laid in the church of S. Dionysius, at Wilton, but was taken up by S. Dunstan on November 3, a.d. 987, and the thumb was found incorrupt. It was enshrined separately, and long exposed to the veneration of pilgrims.
