Ælthelfreda
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Ælthelfreda (also Ælthelthryth or Ælthelflæd) may have been the
abbess An abbess (Latin: ''abbatissa'') is the female superior of a community of nuns in an abbey. Description In the Catholic Church (both the Latin Church and Eastern Catholic), Eastern Orthodox, Coptic, Lutheran and Anglican abbeys, the mod ...
of
Shaftesbury Shaftesbury () is a town and civil parish in Dorset, England. It is on the A30 road, west of Salisbury, Wiltshire, Salisbury and north-northeast of Dorchester, Dorset, Dorchester, near the border with Wiltshire. It is the only significant hi ...
at the beginning of the
second millennium File:2nd millennium montage.png, From top left, clockwise: in 1492, Christopher Columbus reaches the New World, opening the European colonization of the Americas; the American Revolution, one of the late 1700s Enlightenment-inspired Atlantic Revo ...
. During her time as abbess, the relics of
Edward the Martyr Edward the Martyr ( – 18 March 978) was King of the English from 8 July 975 until he was killed in 978. He was the eldest son of King Edgar (r. 959–975). On Edgar's death, the succession to the throne was contested between Edward's sup ...
, held in Shaftesbury, seem to have been translated from a place north of the principal altar to another spot within the sanctuary of the abbey's church. The translation was recorded to have occurred on 20 June 1001. This translation may have been done in response to Viking raids, which made the Anglo-Saxons believe that they needed to bestow greater honours on the relics of saints to gain God's favour; after the translation took place, the Vikings who were in
Devon Devon ( ; historically also known as Devonshire , ) is a ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by the Bristol Channel to the north, Somerset and Dorset to the east, the English Channel to the south, and Cornwall to the west ...
stayed where they were, and then returned to their base on the Isle of Wight. Shaftesbury was one of several late Saxon churches established in Wessex around this time, along with Winchester Nunnaminster, Romsey, Wherwell, Amesbury and Wilton. In 1001 Ælthelred gave Bradford-on-Avon in wiltshire to the Shaftesbury nuns, to serve as a refuge for them and for the relics.


References

Abbesses of Shaftesbury Viking Age in the United Kingdom Anglo-Saxon abbesses West Saxon people {{England-reli-bio-stub