Æbbe was a saint venerated in medieval Oxfordshire.

St Ebbe's church St Ebbe's is a Church of England parish church in central Oxford. The church is within the conservative evangelical tradition and participates in the Anglican Reform movement. It has members from many nations, many of whom are students at Oxford ...

in the southern English city of

Oxford Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the Un ...

had been verifiably dedicated to the saint by 1091. It is believed that she represents a rare southern expression of the cult of the

Northumbria la, Regnum Northanhymbrorum , conventional_long_name = Kingdom of Northumbria , common_name = Northumbria , status = State , status_text = Unified Anglian kingdom (before 876)North: Anglian kingdom (af ...

abbess An abbess (Latin: ''abbatissa''), also known as a mother superior, is the female superior of a community of Catholic nuns in an abbey. Description In the Catholic Church (both the Latin Church and Eastern Catholic), Eastern Orthodox, Coptic ...

and saint,

Æbbe of Coldingham Æbbe, also called Tabbs, (c. 615 – 683) was an Anglian abbess and noblewoman. She was the daughter of Æthelfrith, king of Bernicia from c. 593 to 616. She founded monasteries at Ebchester and St Abb's Head near Coldingham in Scotland. L ...

, to whom the church at

Shelswell Shelswell is a hamlet in Oxfordshire about south of Brackley in neighbouring Northamptonshire. Manor Shelswell's toponym comes from Old English and suggests that the settlement may originally have been the well belonging to ''Scield'', a Sax ...

, also in Oxfordshire, was dedicated. It has also been argued by several historians that Æbbe of Oxford is the same Æbbe as the conjectured abbess-saint who gave her name to nearby Abingdon ("hill of Æbbe").Blair, "Handlist", pp. 502–03

Notes

References

* * Anglo-Saxon abbesses History of Berkshire History of Oxfordshire People from Abingdon-on-Thames People from Oxford Religion in Berkshire Religion in Oxfordshire West Saxon saints {{Saint-stub