Edburga of Minster-in-Thanet
Saint Edburga of Minster-in-Thanet (also known as Eadburh and Bugga) was a princess of Wessex, and abbess of Minster-in-Thanet. She is regarded as a saint.
Saint Edburga of Minster-in-Thanet | |
---|---|
Abbess | |
Born | England |
Died | Minster-in-Thanet | 13 December 759
Venerated in | Orthodox Church Roman Catholic Church Church of England |
Feast | 12 December, 13 December in Church calendar in some jurisdictions |
Life
Edburga was the only daughter of King Centwine and Queen Engyth of Wessex. According to Stephen of Ripon, Engyth was a sister of Queen Iurminburh, second wife of King Ecgfrith of Northumbria. Centwine was not a Christian, but towards the end of his reign, converted and became a monk.
Edburga was a friend and student of Saint Mildrith, abbess of Minster-in-Thanet. In 716, Edburga became a Benedictine nun at the abbey.
She corresponded with Saint Boniface and Lullus.[1] Between 718 and 720 her mother wrote to Boniface and soon after, in 720, Edburga herself wrote to him, sending him fifty shillings and an altar cloth.[2] In 716, Boniface addresses to her a letter containing the famous Vision of the Monk of Wenlock.[3]
She succeeded Mildrith as the abbess around 733, and presided over about seventy nuns. During her time as an abbess she was able to secure royal charters for the abbey,[4] as well as having a new church (saints Peter and Paul) built there, to provide a shrine for the relics of St Mildrith.
References
- Schieffer, Theodor (1950). "Angelsachsen und Franken: II. Erzbischof Lul und die Anfänge des Mainzer Sprengels". Abhandlungen der Geistes- und Sozialwissenschaftlichen Klass (in German). 20: 1431–1539.
- "The Abbess Bugga Congratulates Boniface on His Success in Frisia (720)", The Correspondence of St. Boniface : Medieval Sourcebook, Fordham University
- Emerton, Ephraim. The Letters of St. Boniface. Records of Civilization: Sources & Studies 31. New York: Columbia University Press, 1940, 25–31.
- Dunbar, Alice. A Dictionary of Saintly Women, 1904
This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
- Stephen, Leslie, ed. (1888). . Dictionary of National Biography. 16. London: Smith, Elder & Co.