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Æthelburh of Barking

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Saint

Æthelburg
Statue of Saint Ethelburga (Nathaniel Hitch, 1890s) at All Hallows-by-the-Tower, London[1]
Abbess of Barking
Diedlate 7th century
Barking Abbey
Feast11 October

Saint Æthelburh or Ethelburga[a] (died after 685) was the founder and first abbess of Barking Abbey and sister of Saint Earconwald, Bishop of London.

Life

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The main source for Æthelburh's life is Bede's Ecclesiastical History of the English People (Book IV, Chapters 6 to 10).[3] Bede's account, which includes the founding of Barking Abbey, early miracles there, and Æthelburh's death, is itself based on a "little book" (libellus), likely a Life of Saint Ethelburga written at Barking Abbey and now lost.[4] Bede describes Æthelburh as "upright in life and constantly planning for the needs of her community," and says that, upon her death, "no one who knew her ought to doubt that an entrance into the heavenly country was open to her."[3]

Some time before he became Bishop of London in 675, Æthelburh's brother Earconwald founded a double monastery at Barking for her and a monastery at Chertsey for himself. Barking Abbey's traditional founding date is 666,[5] though Bede implies Æthelburh was already the head of the monastery during the plague of 664,[3][6] and charter evidence may suggest a founding c. 660–664.[7]

Around 675,[8] Æthelburh founded the church of All Hallows Berkyngechirche (now known as All Hallows Barking or All Hallows by the Tower) in the City of London on land given to her by Earconwald.[citation needed]

manuscript image of a Saxon saint
Saint Earconwald, Bishop of London, founder of Barking Abbey, and Æthelburh's brother.

In the Hodilred Charter[9] (dated most plausibly to 685–687 or 691–693), Æthelburh was granted 40 hides of land to expand Barking Abbey.[10] She is also the recipient of the Earconwald Charter[11] (dated 687)[12] of disputed authenticity.[7]

The year of Æthelburh's death is uncertain, though she is believed to have died on 11 October. Bede does not provide a year, instead thematically positioning Æthelburh's story after the discussion of her brother Earconwald's appointment as Bishop of London in 675. He begins his narrative of events at Barking Abbey by calling back to his earlier description of the plague of 664.[3] Florence of Worcester (1100s) mentions Æthelburh's death under 664[b] and again under 675, perhaps following Bede.[13] If the Hodilred Charter is genuine, Æthelburh's death must fall after 685. If she was still alive in 693, it is possible that Earconwald died while visiting her at Barking Abbey.

Æthelburh was succeeded as abbess by Saint Hildelith, who certainly held the position by 709,[c] was recruited by Earconwald to teach Æthelburh, and lived "to an extreme old age."[3] Æthelburh was buried at Barking Abbey, likely in the nuns' cemetery.[d]

Relics and miracles

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Æthelburh's relics were translated within Barking Abbey several times over the centuries, including by Hildelith,[3] Abbess Ælfgifu (c. 1066–c. 1086),[15] and Abbess Mabel de Bosham (1215–1247).[16] At the time of the monastery's dissolution by Henry VIII in 1539, Æthelburh's relics occupied the central position in the abbey's saints' chapel, alongside Hildelith and Saint Wulfhilda.[17] A trio of modern grave slabs at Abbey Green remember the three saints.[18]

The following miracles are attributed to or associated with Æthelburh. The primary sources are Bede's Ecclesiastical History of the English People and Goscelin of Saint-Bertin's Life of Ethelburga, commissioned by Abbess Ælfgifu and completed c. 1087.[19]

  • While building Barking Abbey, a beam was found to be too short, and Æthelburh and Earconwald miraculously lengthened it to the correct dimensions.[20]
  • During the plague of 664, Æthelburh asked where the nuns should be buried, and in response a light that "seemed to exceed the utmost brightness of daylight" came down from the heavens "like a great sheet" and illuminated the area where the cemetery should be placed.[3] Goscelin adds a lightning strike.[15]
  • A few days before Æthelburh's death, Tortgyth, a nun of Barking, saw a figure being drawn up to heaven by "cords brighter than gold."[3]
  • A disabled nun of Barking prayed before Æthelburh's relics, entreated her for mercy and deliverance, and died twelve days later.[3]
  • The day before Tortgyth died, Æthelburh appeared to her in a vision and held a conversation with her.[3]
  • A thegn's wife prayed before the relics of the saints at the abbey's cemetery and was healed of her blindness.[3]
  • During the translation of Æthelburh's relics by Hildelith, "a brightness of heavenly light" and "a fragrancy of wonderful sweetness" of flowers and spices were perceived.[3][15]
  • During a Danish raid in the time of King Ethelred the Unready, Æthelburh enlisted a wolf, a bear, and a lion to defend Barking Abbey. When the raiders prayed and asked to leave in peace, the beasts allowed them passage into the monastery, where they left gifts rather than taking spoils.[15]
  • During another Danish raid, the intruders attempted to destroy the church and its treasures and were struck by "divine displeasure" that rendered them mad, blind, or assaulted by other "torments and calamities."[21][7]
  • When Abbess Ælfgifu sought to translate the relics of Æthelburh, Hildelith, and Wulfhilda, Æthelburh appeared to the monastery's steward "with shining countenance" and gave her approval for the translation.[15]
  • Ælfgifu, while lying in prayer beside Æthelburh's tomb, felt the tomb move of its own volition. The tomb then opened and Æthelburh rose from it, "white as snow and of natural size." Æthelburh chastised Ælfgifu for not completing her translation in a timely fashion, transformed into a little girl, and rested in Ælfgifu's embrace as, around them, other shrines and reliquaries appeared.[15]
  • In the time of Abbess Alviva, a London girl with a limp prayed daily at Æthelburh's tomb and received a vision of Æthelburh asking her to also pray to Earconwald. The girl did so, fell asleep beside Æthelburh's tomb, had a vision of Earconwald, and was healed.[19]
  • A priest stole a book from Barking Abbey and, upon returning to England by ship eight years later, encountered a great storm that "threatened immediate death." When the priest confessed his crime to Æthelburh and promised to return the book, the storm immediately ceased.[21][7]

Legacy

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Modern stained glass window of Ethelburga. She is wearing a nun's habit and striding through a cloister, her gaze uplifted towards a source of radiant light.
Modern stained glass window of Saint Æthelburh at St Ethelburga's Centre for Reconciliation and Peace (east window). Designed in 2002 by Helen Whittaker.[22]

The church of St Ethelburga the Virgin in the City of London is dedicated to her. It survived the Great Fire of 1666 and the Blitz but was extensively damaged in an IRA attack in 1993; however, it has been restored and is now a centre for international reconciliation.[23]

An area near Battersea Park and Albert Bridge was also named after her (Ethelburga Street, the Ethelburga Estate, and Ethelburga Primary School in 1968-2000).[24]

Other churches dedicated to Æthelburh include the Grade II listed St Ethelburga's at Great Givendale, near Pocklington in the East Riding of Yorkshire,[25] as well as the Church of St Mary and St Ethelburga with St Erconwald in Barking, a short distance from the original site of the abbey.[26]

Æthelburh is remembered on her 11 October feast day in the Roman Catholic Church, the Church of England,[27] and the Orthodox Church.[28]

See also

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Notes

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  1. ^ In Old English, also Æðelburh, Æþelburge, Æþelburhge, and Aethelburge.[2]
  2. ^ This date would seem unlikely since the earliest proposed year for the founding of Barking Abbey is 660 and Bede says that the nun Tortgyth, who had a premonition of Æthelburh's death, had lived at the abbey "for many years" at the time of her vision.
  3. ^ Aldhelm, who died in 709, dedicated his De Virginitate to her and the other nuns of Barking Abbey.[14]
  4. ^ Bede says that, after Æthelburh's death, her body was "carried into the church, till it should be buried," implying her burial place was not inside the church. He also relates a miracle that occurred when a petitioner prayed before "the relics of the saints" at the abbey's cemetery.

References

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  1. ^ Ward-Jackson, Philip (2003). Public Sculpture of the City of London. Public Sculpture of Britain. Vol. 7. Liverpool: Liverpool University Press. p. 6.
  2. ^ Wormald, Francis, ed. (1934). English Kalendars before A.D. 1100. Vol. 1. London: Henry Bradshaw Society (Harrison and Sons).
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Bede. Ecclesiastical History of the English People.
  4. ^ Whitelock, Dorothy (1975). Some Anglo-Saxon Bishops of London. London: University College London.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  5. ^ Chertsey Register (British Library, MS Cotton Vitellius A.XIII, fol. 10)
  6. ^ "Barking". Kemble. University of Cambridge. Retrieved 12 June 2025.
  7. ^ a b c d Brown, Jennifer N.; Bussell, Donna Alfano (2012). Barking Abbey and Medieval Literary Culture: Authorship and Authority in a Female Community. York Medieval Press. ISBN 9781903153437.
  8. ^ "History & Education". All Hallows by the Tower. Retrieved 25 July 2025.
  9. ^ "S 1171". The Electronic Sawyer. Retrieved 22 July 2025.
  10. ^ Whitelock, Dorothy (1955). English Historical Documents, c. 500-1042. London: Eyre & Spottiswoode.
  11. ^ "S 1246". The Electronic Sawyer. Retrieved 25 July 2025.
  12. ^ Hart, C. (1953). The Early Charters of Barking Abbey. Colchester.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  13. ^ The Chronicle of Florence of Worcester. Translated by Forester, Thomas. London: Henry G. Bohn. 1854.
  14. ^ Aldhelm: The Prose Works. Translated by Lapidge, Michael; Herren, Michael. 1979.
  15. ^ a b c d e f "Goscelin of St Bertin". Guidance for Women in Twelfth-Century Convents. Library of Medieval Women. Translated by Morton, Vera. 2003. pp. 139–156.
  16. ^ Slocum, Kay Brainerd (2010). "Ritual and Ceremony at Barking Abbey". Magistra. 16 (2): 94–110.
  17. ^ Clapham, Alfred W. (1911). "The Benedictine Abbey of Barking: A Sketch of its Architectural History and an Account of Recent Excavations on its Site" (PDF). Transactions of the Essex Archaeological Society. 12 (2): 69–87.
  18. ^ "Barking Abbey". St Margaret’s Barking. 10 March 2022. Retrieved 25 July 2025.
  19. ^ a b Whatley, E. Gordon (1989). The Saint of London: The Life and Miracles of St. Erkenwald. Medieval and Renaissance Texts & Studies. Vol. 58. ISBN 0866980423.
  20. ^ John of Tynemouth; Capgrave, John (1516). Horstman, Carl (ed.). Nova Legenda Anglie. Vol. 1. Oxford: The Clarendon Press (published 1901).
  21. ^ a b Goscelin (1965). Colker, M. L. (ed.). "Texts of Jocelyn of Canterbury which Relate to the History of Barking Abbey". Studia monastica. 7: 383–460.
  22. ^ "St Ethelburga's Centre for Reconciliation and Peace, London". Barley Studio: Design & Mastery in Stained Glass. Retrieved 24 July 2025.
  23. ^ "Who We Are".
  24. ^ Ethelburga Street, SW11 theundergroundmap.com
  25. ^ Historic England. "Church of Saint Ethelburgh (1346278)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 26 December 2015.
  26. ^ "St Mary and St Ethelburga with St Erconwald". Catholic Church, Barking. Retrieved 25 July 2025.
  27. ^ "The Calendar". The Church of England. Retrieved 8 April 2021.
  28. ^ "Ορθόδοξος Συναξαριστής :: Αρχική σελίδα".
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