Cuthburh

Saint Cuthburh
Abbess, Queen
Died c. 718
Venerated in Roman Catholic Church
Anglican Communion
Feast 31 August
Cuthburh
Her Abbey, now Wimborne Minster
Queen consort of Northumbria
Abbess of Wimborne Minster
Died c. 718
Spouse Aldfrith of Northumbria
Issue Osred I of Northumbria
House House of Wessex (by birth)
Father Cenred of Wessex
Religion Christianity

Saint Cuthburh or Cuthburg (died circa 718) was the first Abbess of Wimborne Minster. She was the sister of Ine, King of Wessex and was married to the Northumbrian king Aldfrith.

Life

Cuthburh's marriage allied Aldfrith with one of the most powerful kings in Anglo-Saxon England. Aldfrith had at least two sons, but whether Cuthburh was their mother is not recorded.[1]

According to a report by Florence of Worcester, writing long afterwards, at some time before Aldfrith's death in 705 he and Cuthburh "renounced connubial intercourse for the love of God". Following this, Cuthburh entered Abbess Hildelith's nunnery at Barking Abbey.[2] Cuthburh is traditionally associated with the "Cuthburh" mentioned in the dedication of Aldhelm's treatise De virginitate.[3] It is thought that she was in some way related to Aldhelm.[2] After Aldfrith's death, Cuthburh and Cwenburh established a double-monastery in her brother's kingdom of Wessex, at Wimborne, Dorset.[2]

She is described as austere, and she communicated with prelates through a little hatch in the nunnery at Wimborne. Among Saint Boniface's surviving letters is an anonymous account of a vision of Abbess Cuthburh in hell. The feast day associated with her is 31 August.[2] No early hagiography, composed before Norman Conquest, is known to survive.

See also

References

  1. ↑ Kirby, D. P. The Earliest English Kings. London: Unwin Hyman, 1991. ISBN 0-04-445691-3, p. 145.
  2. 1 2 3 4 Mayo, 1860
  3. ↑ Dockray-Miller, Mary. Motherhood and Mothering in Anglo-Saxon England, Springer, 2000, ISBN 9780312299637, p. 29

Sources

  • Farmer, D. H. (1987). The Oxford Dictionary of Saints, (pp. 96). Oxford: Clarendon Press.
  • Lapidge, Michael, "Cuthburg", in M. Lapidge et al., The Blackwell Encyclopedia of Anglo-Saxon England. (Oxford: Blackwell, 1999)
  • Mayo, C.H. (1860). History of Wimborne Minster: The Collegiate Church of Saint Cuthberga and King's Free Chapel at Wimborne, (pp. 4–6). London: Bell and Daldy. archive.org
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