Æthelthryth

Æthelthryth, also Ætheldreda, Æðelþryð, Ethelreda or Etheldreda (English Saint Audrey, dt " Edeltraut "; * to 636 in Exning, Suffolk, † June 23 679 in Ely ) was an Anglo-Saxon saint.

Family

Æthelthryth came from the family of Wuffinger. Her father was Anna, King of East Anglia. Anna was probably married twice. Your mother should Hereswitha, have been a relative of the King Edwin ( 616-633 ) of Northumbria. However, it is disputed whether he was actually married to Hereswitha and / or Sæwara. Her sisters or half-sisters Seaxburg, Æthelburh ( illegitimate), Wihtburh and Sæthryth are also considered sacred. After Liber Eliensis from the 12th century to have been their brothers Ealdwulf and St. Jurmin.

Life

Well in order to consolidate its position wed his daughter Anna Æthelthryth 652 with Tondberht, the princeps Australium Gyruiorum ( Ealdorman the South Gyrwier ) of a small semi-autonomous tribal in the window on the border with Mercia. From Tondberct she received Isle of Ely as a wedding gift, but kept her vow of chastity until his death in 655

As a widow she retired to Ely. In his second marriage, she was married to Ecgfrith 660, the 15 -year-old son of King Oswiu of Northumbria. When he came to power in 670, she became the queen. Ecgfrith urged increasingly to the consummation of the marriage. Æthelthryth turned to be around 672 as a nun in Coludi (now Coldingham, Scotland ), the Priory of Ecgfriths aunt Aebbe added to Bishop Wilfrith of York, who allowed her. 673 she returned to East Anglia and founded the double monastery of Ely Abbey, which she herself presided as abbess. She remained there until her death, and led an ascetic life. The following year ( 674 ), they gave lands to the Bishop Wilfrid of York, so that he could start the new Abbey Hexham. She suffered at the end of her life under a throat ulcer that she perceived as divine punishment that she had worn in her youth collars and chains. Despite treatment by the doctor Cynefrith the disease was fatal. She died on 23 June 679 and was buried in a wooden coffin in the cemetery of the abbey. Her sister was Seaxburg successor as abbess of Ely.

Reception and worship

In the year 695 Seaxburg let the bones Æthelthryths patient transfer to a new sarcophagus of white marble. Here, they found her body incorrupt before. Her grave was a much-visited pilgrimage site. On her grave numerous patients should have healed and even the blind regained their sight. Possessed were healed by touching their clothes.

In the early 8th century, the Venerable Bede wrote a hymn in honor of the virgin Æthelthryth. To 950 written by the cleric Ælfhelm in Ely, a treatise on the wonders of the Holy Æthelthryth that was lost, but was quoted in the Liber Eliensis I, 43-49 from the late 12th century. In the year 1022 the " Feast of the Holy Virgin and Queen " was ( the festiuitatis sanctae Æðeldredae reginae et uirginis; June 23 ) used for dating a document. Gregory of Ely wrote in the early 12th century two Latin Æthelthryth - Lives in prose and verse. The Liber Eliensis with a detailed report to the saints.

Her grave remained until the Reformation, the goal of many pilgrims. In England it is still revered. You will be called for eye diseases. In art she is represented as abbess, with Jesus, peduncle, source, Devil, book, crown and ermine. Her feast day is June 23.

Swell

• Venerable Bede Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum, online in Medieval Source Book (English)
• Janet Fairweather ( translator's ): Liber Eliensis. A History of the Isle of Ely from the Seventh Century to the Twelfth, compiled by a Monk of Ely in the Twelfth Century, Boydell, Woodbridge 2005, ISBN 978-184383015-3. (English) Online ( excerpts)
• Ælfric Grammaticus: The Life of St. Aethelthryth, Online (Old English )
• Anonymous: Anglo-Saxon Chronicle for the years 673 and 679 online at Project Gutenberg (English)