Saint Edburga of Minster-in-Thanet (also known as Eadburh and Bugga) was a

princess Princess is a regal rank and the feminine equivalent of prince (from Latin ''princeps'', meaning principal citizen). Most often, the term has been used for the consort of a prince, or for the daughter of a king or prince. Princess as a subst ...

of Wessex, and abbess of

Minster-in-Thanet Minster, also known as Minster-in-Thanet, is a village and civil parish in the Thanet District of Kent, England. It is the site of Minster in Thanet Priory. The village is west of Ramsgate (which is the post town) and to the north east of Cant ...

. She is regarded as a saint.

Life

Edburga was the only daughter of King Centwine and Queen Engyth of

Wessex la, Regnum Occidentalium Saxonum , conventional_long_name = Kingdom of the West Saxons , common_name = Wessex , image_map = Southern British Isles 9th century.svg , map_caption = S ...

. According to Stephen of Ripon, Engyth was a sister of Queen Iurminburh, second wife of King

Ecgfrith of Northumbria Ecgfrith (; ang, Ecgfrið ; 64520 May 685) was the King of Deira from 664 until 670, and then King of Northumbria from 670 until his death in 685. He ruled over Northumbria when it was at the height of its power, but his reign ended with a d ...

. 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."Edburga (Eadburh, Bugga) of Minster", ''The Oxford Dictionary of Saints (5 rev) (David Farmer, ed.) OUP, 2011
She was reputed to be zealous in the pursuit of knowledge. In 716, Edburga became a

Benedictine , image = Medalla San Benito.PNG , caption = Design on the obverse side of the Saint Benedict Medal , abbreviation = OSB , formation = , motto = (English: 'Pray and Work') , foun ...

nun A nun is a woman who vows to dedicate her life to religious service, typically living under vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience in the enclosure of a monastery or convent.''The Oxford English Dictionary'', vol. X, page 599. The term is o ...

at the abbey. She corresponded with

Saint Boniface Boniface, OSB ( la, Bonifatius; 675 – 5 June 754) was an English Benedictines, Benedictine monk and leading figure in the Anglo-Saxon mission to the Germanic parts of the Frankish Empire during the eighth century. He organised significant ...

and

Lullus Saint Lullus (Lull or Lul) (born about 710 AD in Wessex, died 16 October 786 in Hersfeld) was the first permanent archbishop of Mainz, succeeding Saint Boniface, and first abbot of the Benedictine Hersfeld Abbey. He is historiographically consid ...

. 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. In 716, Boniface addresses to her a letter containing the famous ''

Vision of the Monk of Wenlock Boniface, OSB ( la, Bonifatius; 675 – 5 June 754) was an English Benedictine monk and leading figure in the Anglo-Saxon mission to the Germanic parts of the Frankish Empire during the eighth century. He organised significant foundations of ...

''. 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,Dunbar, Alice. ''A Dictionary of Saintly Women'', 1904
/ref> as well as having a new church (saints Peter and Paul) built there, to provide a shrine for the relics of St Mildrith.

References

External links

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Edburga Of Minster-In-Thanet 751 deaths Benedictine abbesses Year of birth missing 8th-century deaths West Saxon saints Kentish saints Anglo-Saxon abbesses 8th-century Christian saints 8th-century English nuns Christian female saints of the Middle Ages People from Minster-in-Thanet