Baring-Gould’s sources: Salisbury and Hereford Kalendars, Reformed Anglican Kalendar. Roman Martyrology on June 23; Oct. 17 is the festival of the translation of the relics of S. Etheldreda in 695. The relics were again translated on Sept 16, 1106. On June 23, also, thfe York, Sarum and Hereford Kalendars, and Benedictine Mythologies. Authorities: — Bede and the “Hist. Eliensis.” The following is taken chiefly from Montalembert’s “Monks of the West.”] S. Etheldreda was of the family of the Uffings, the royal race of East Anglia. Her father, King Anna, married a Northumbrian princess, sister of the Abbess Hilda, and grand-niece of Edwin, first Christian king of Northumbria. Like all princesses whose history has fallen into the region S. Etheldreda.
…of legends, the chroniclers boast of her precocious piety, the fervour and stainless purity of her early years. Nevertheless, she loved ornament; and on her deathbed still remembered the weight of the necklaces and jewels with which her delicate throat had been loaded. These ornaments gave additional brilliancy to her great beauty, which excited, it is said, the passion of all the neighbouring princes. The most ardent of these, Tombert, Prince of the Gyrwians, a Saxon colony established in the marshy country which separates East Anglia from Mercia [the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of the English Midlands], asked her in marriage, and obtained her from her father, two years before the death of that king on the field of battle. Etheldreda, however, having resolved to follow the example of the Blessed Virgin Mary, and to consecrate herself wholly to God, resisted to the utmost the will of her father, and succeeded in preventing the consummation of her marriage during the three years that she passed with the tender and generous Tombert. He died, and the young widow supposed herself for ever delivered from the matrimonial yoke, and free to give herself up to Christ. But it was not so. Egfrid, the son and heir of the great king of Northumbria [the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of northern England and south-east Scotland], the most powerful prince of the Anglo-Saxon nation, became in his turn enamoured of her. Her resistance was as vain as in the first instance. The entreaties of her uncle, who had succeeded her father as King of East Anglia, and those of all her relatives, compelled her to a second marriage (a.d. 659), which no doubt seemed to them a new and precious pledge of alliance between the two kingdoms. The impassioned Egfrid bestowed on her, in full sovereignty, considerable possessions, of which the vast territory of Hexham, which she afterwards gave to Wilfrid, formed part.
When Wilfrid became Bishop of York, he acquired at once a great influence over the king, and the queen was not slow to show him still greater confidence and affection. But what must have been the surprise and irritation of the young king, whom the powerful testimony of his contemporary Bede [English monk and historian (d. 735)] represents as very pious and highly beloved by God, when he found that Etheldreda persisted, as in her former marriage, in keeping her virginity for God. Like the terrible Clothair, the husband of S. Radegund, a century previous, he found that he had married, not a woman, but a nun. Several years thus passed, the refusals of Etheldreda serving only to increase his passion. He then determined to apply to Wilfrid, well knowing what was the empire of the bishop over the conscience of Etheldreda, as well as over her heart, since he was the man for whom she had the greatest affection. But Wilfrid encouraged her in her resistance, while at first pretending to second the views of the king, in order to preserve his favour. In his secret conferences with her, he promised her heaven as the reward of her perseverance. She made to him the vow of chastity, and he then counselled « her to ask from the king a formal separation, that she might consecrate herself to God in a monastery. Egfrid at first refused this absolutely; but after long disputes, after twelve years of so strange and stormy a union — vanquished by the prayers and tears of her whom he ever loved with so faithful a passion— he suffered a kind of consent to be tom from him to the departure of his unconquerable wife. That Wilfrid's conduct in the matter was blamable was felt even by his most devoted admirers. His disciple, Eddi, maintains a prudent and complete silence as to the intervention of his master in the matter, thinking to hush it up. Had the undisguised affection borne him by the beautiful queen kindled an answering flame in his cold breast, which he dis* guised to himself under the name of zeal for religion ? Perhaps it was so; but if so it never passed further than breaking her ties to her husband, that she might be irrevocably sealed to the virginal life in a convent. Furnished with S. Etheldreda.
Egfrid’s tardy permission, Etheldreda fled to Coldingham, to the great seaside monastery governed by Ebba, aunt to the king, and sister of his predecessors Oswald and Oswy. Wilfrid followed her to give her the veil and black robe, which should from thenceforth cut her off from her husband, and from the pursuit of any other earthly admirer (a.d. 671). Egfrid soon followed her to her retreat, unable to endure her absence, and the sacrifice she had imposed on him. He came with the furious determination of reclaiming her, and asserting his rights. The Abbess Ebba saw that she could not resist the violence of her nephew \ she advised the queen therefore to flee. Etheldreda accordingly left Coldingham on foot, disguised in the dress of a poor woman, and accompanied by two nuns. She passed Whitby on its stormy clifl above the German ocean, and sought not refuge with her aunt, S. Hilda \ for she knew with what aversion that great saint regarded Wilfrid, and how little she was likely to sympathize with her in her rupture of the marriage tie by his advice. She passed southward, through a thousand difficulties and adventures, towards the river which separated Northumbria from the rest of England, and having, happily, crossed that stream, she paused on the confines of her own country, East Anglia, in an estate which her first husband had given to her as her jointure.
This long and fatiguing journey of the queen, disguised, and flying from her husband to bury herself in a cloister, touched deeply the imagination of the English people; and miraculous stories founded on it passed from mouth to mouth for ages. Pious pilgrimages were made to Colbert’s Head, the promontory washed by the sea, on which, in the first stage of her journey, pursued by Egfrid, she took refuge with her companions, and round which the tide rose so high as to render it inaccessible for seven consecutive days, until the king, discouraged, abandoned the pursuit. And pilgrims pointed out to each other the spot where, travelling on foot on a day of great heat, she fell asleep from fatigue on the open plain. Its position was marked by a majestic ash, the largest tree in the district, which was believed to have been the travelling staff which the royal wayfarer had thrust into the ground while she slept, and which she found at her waking already covered with verdure; an emblem of the great monastery in the shade of which she was destined to pass the rest of her days, and to shelter, among others, her friend and adviser, Wilfrid. The lands she possessed in right of her first husband were very extensive, since they supported nearly six hundred families. Their position was almost that of an island, surrounded by fens, which could only be crossed in boats. This island was called Ely, or the Island of Eels. Etheldreda built a monastery there, which grew into speedy greatness, and where many Anglo-Saxon virgins joined her, among whom were a number of princesses of her family, having at their head her sister, Ermenilda, the Queen of Mercia. Mothers confided their daughters to her to educate. Even men, and among them many priests, selected her for their guide and mistress in the spiritual life. Many of the officials of her household followed her example when she quitted the throne and the world to devote herself to God.
The chief of these was Owen or Ovinus, her major-domo, an East Anglian lord, a man of faith and of amiable disposition, who had been attached to her from her cradle, had accompanied her from East Anglia to Northumbria, and had no desire to remain in the world after her and without her. He abandoned his honours and possessions, and, putting on a poor man’s dress, went with a mattock and axe on his shoulder, and knocked at the door of the monastery where Abbot Ceadda lived, at Lastingham, on the Yorkshire wolds. 5. Etheldreda.
" I come here,” he said, “ to seek, not rest, as some do, but work. I am not worth much for meditation or study, but I will do as much manual labour as you like; and while the bishop reads in his cell I will take care of the work outside.” S. Cedd died in 672; and Owen then probably returned to his mistress at Ely, there to end his days; the stump of a cross, with the inscription, stating that Owen raised it for the good of his soul, has been recently disinterred, and is placed in the south aisle of the nave of Ely Cathedral. Owen is numbered among the saints, and commemorated on March 4. S. Etheldreda speedily found herself at the head of one of those remarkable double monasteries of men and women, which were not uncommon in Saxon times, but which did not maintain their character.
She gave her disciples, men and women, during the seven years she passed at their head, an example of all monastic virtues, and especially of zeal in fasting and prayer. Few details exist of this period of her life; but the holiness of that life must have left deep traces in the memory of the Anglo-Saxon Christians to have enabled it to triumph over time and human forgetfulness beyond that of any other woman of the race. Among her austerities, the greatest wonder was that so great a lady should wear nothing but woollen instead of linen garments; and the odour of sanctity was thought especially to envelop her because she took a hot bath only on the vigils of four great feasts of the year, and even then only after she had with her own hands washed the rest of the community.
Wilfrid never gave up his care of Etheldreda. No sooner was she arrived at Ely than he followed her thither. He instituted her abbess, veiled her nuns, and regulated all that concerned the government and interests, temporal or spiritual, of the new community. He paid her indeed as many visits as he could manage, and never ceased to give consolation and enlightment to her from the depths of his ardent affection and spiritual enthusiasm.
As might have been expected, Egfrid, who had formerly respected and favoured Wilfrid, now regarded him with undisguised dislike and disgust. He never pardoned him for having separated him from his tenderly loved wife, and in 678, with the consent of Archbishop Theodore of Canterbury, S. Hilda, and all the great saints and bishops of the time, deprived Wilfrid and divided his diocese into three. Etheldreda was wont to continue in church at prayer from matins till daybreak, and she seldom ate more than once a day, excepting on great festivals.
She was taken to our Lord, in the midst of her flock, seven years after she had been made abbess; and, as she had ordered, was buried among them, in such a manner as she had died, in a wooden coffin.1 She died young, June 23, 679, a victim to one of the contagious diseases which were then so frequent.
She had predicted her own death, as well as the number of those brothers and sisters of her community who would follow her to the grave. Three days before her death she was obliged to submit to a painful operation in the throat. “ God/* she said, “ has sent me this suffering to expiate the frivolity of my youth, the time when I remember to have worn with so much pleasure necklaces of pearls and gold on the neck now so swollen and burned by illness.,, At the last moment, surrounded by the brothers and sisters of the numerous community in tears, she spoke to them at length, imploring them never to let their hearts rest on the earth, but to taste beforehand, by their earnest desires, that joy in the love of Christ which it would not be given to them to know perfectly here below.
Sixteen years after her death, in 695, her sister, who had •S'. Austrude. succeeded her as Abbess of Ely, wished to place her in a mausoleum of white marble, richly carved, which she took from the ruins of Granchester, an old Roman city near Cambridge. On this occasion it was seen that her body had preserved all its freshness; she seemed to be asleep. The surgeon who had opened the tumours in her neck, and who was present at this exhumation, recognised the wound he had made.
S. AUSTRUDE, V. Abss. (8th cent.) [Parisian Martyrology of Cardinal de Noailles, Gallican and Benedictine [monks following the Rule of St. Benedict] Martyrologies. Authority: — A Life by a contemporary. There is a second Life, written in the 12th century, but it is merely a rewriting of the first Life, with an account of miracles wrought after her death.] S. Salaberga (Sept. 22) and Blandisius Basus were the parents of three daughters, Saretrude, Ebana, and Austrude (or Anstrude), and of two sons, Eustace, who died young, and Baldwin, deacon of Laon and martyr, venerated on January 7. S. Austrude was bom about a.d. 645. At the age ot twelve her hand was sought in marriage by a noble named Landran, who brought gold and embroidered dresses to her parents, in hopes of inducing them to give him their daughter. But Austrude had already resolved to devote herself wholly to God; and when the faithful Landran found that the beautiful girl would not accept him he sought not for another bride, but devoted himself also, and his goods, to the service of religion, and became a clerk. When Salaberga was left a widow, and entered a nunnery, Austrude followed her, and on the death of her mother, at the age of twenty, Austrude was made abbess of the nunnery at Laon. The murder of her brother Baldwin, whom she passionately loved, affected Austrude deeply. It does not appear very clearly why Baldwin was assassinated, but it seems to have been on account of some ecclesiastical claims put forward by the bishop, which some of the nobles resented. Those who had killed Baldwin complained to Ebroin, mayor of the palace, of the conduct of S. Austrude, as agitating in favour of the party opposed to the pretentions of Ebroin. And it is quite possible that there may have been truth in the accusation. A struggle was going on at the time between the ecclesiastics and the nobles as to who should dominate France. S. Leger, bishop of Autun, stood at the head of the first party, Ebroin was the dauntless advocate of lay supremacy. S. Leger had succeeded in flinging Ebroin from his position, and in setting himself in his place. Ebroin had been forced into a monastery, separated from his wife, and constrained to take the irrevocable vows; but escaped, set up Thierry III. as king, besieged the haughty bishop, and put him to death. Some of the great saints of the period were On the side of Ebroin, as S. Praejectus of Auvergne, S. Reol of Rheims, S. Agilbert of Paris, S. Ouen of Rouen. A council of bishops sat in judgment on S. Leger at Marli, near Paris: it is difficult to believe that they were not consenting to his death. Ebroin came to Laon with Thierry III. to enforce his authority, which the bishops and others disputed. The town was entered by their troops; at night Ebroin invaded the abbey, and ordered the Abbess Austrude to be brought before him. He angrily charged her with having been in league with those who opposed him, and dragged her forth to convey her to prison. As he reached the outside of the convent, the nuns burst into song, a chanted psalm, the Ex urgat Dcus, doubtlessly, and a splendid meteor shot across the sky, leaving a trail of light athwart the vault. The ignorant and superstitious mayor of the palace was frightened, and released the abbess.
•S. Nothelm. She was not left unmolested for long. Next day, a certain Chariveus rushed into the abbey after her with his sword drawn. She fled to the church, and dung to the altar. He did not dare to sprinkle the holy floor with her blood, and retired.
Two years after, the city was distracted by the strife of two parties, headed respectively by Ebrohard, who held the castle, and Gislehard, who held the town. Ebrohard set fire to the town, to drive Gislehard from it, and going to the abbey, forced his way in, and insisted on all the keys being given him, that he might search the cells for his enemy, who was in concealment. He could not find him, and on leaving the gates was assassinated under the convent walls. The next trouble that came upon Austrude was from the bishop, Madelgar, who wanted to usurp the income of the nunnery for his own use. Austrude appealed against him by means of her kinsman Ulfold, to King Pepin, who graciously listened to her complaint, and sent his son Grimoald to Laon, with peremptory orders to the bishop to cease from troubling Austrude.
The saintly abbess rose before daybreak, and completed all the offices with great devotion. She never ate before nones or vespers. She visited the sick daily, and ministered to their necessities with her own hands. *