Saint Mildrith, also Mildthryth, Mildryth and Mildred, () (born c. 660, died after 732), was a 7th- and 8th-century

Anglo-Saxon The Anglo-Saxons, in some contexts simply called Saxons or the English, were a Cultural identity, cultural group who spoke Old English and inhabited much of what is now England and south-eastern Scotland in the Early Middle Ages. They traced t ...

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 the Abbey at

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 Ca ...

, Kent. She was declared a saint after her death, and, in 1030, her remains were moved to Canterbury.

Life and family

Mildrith was the daughter of King

Merewalh Merewalh (sometimes given as Merwal or Merewald was a sub-king of the Magonsæte, a western cadet kingdom of Mercia thought to have been located in Herefordshire and Shropshire. Merewalh is thought to have lived in the mid to late 7th century, havin ...

of Magonsaete, an area similar to the present day

Herefordshire Herefordshire ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the West Midlands (region), West Midlands of England, bordered by Shropshire to the north, Worcestershire to the east, Gloucestershire to the south-east, and the Welsh ...

, a sub-kingdom of

Mercia Mercia (, was one of the principal kingdoms founded at the end of Sub-Roman Britain; the area was settled by Anglo-Saxons in an era called the Heptarchy. It was centred on the River Trent and its tributaries, in a region now known as the Midlan ...

. Her mother was

Domne Eafe Domne Eafe (; floruit late 7th century), also ''Domneva'', ''Domne Éue'', ''Æbbe'', ''Ebba'', was, according to the Kentish royal legend, a granddaughter of King Eadbald of Kent and the foundress of the double monastery of Minster in Thane ...

(also sometimes named as Saint Eormenburga),St. Augustine's Abbey, ''The Book of Saints'', A&C Black, Ltd., London, 1921
/ref> herself a great-granddaughter of

Æthelberht of Kent Æthelberht (; also Æthelbert, Aethelberht, Aethelbert or Ethelbert; ; 550 – 24 February 616) was Kings of Kent, King of Kingdom of Kent, Kent from about 589 until his death. The eighth-century monk Bede, in his ''Ecclesiastical Hist ...

, and as such appearing in the so-called

Kentish Royal Legend The Kentish Royal Legend is a diverse group of Medieval texts which describe a wide circle of members of the royal family of Kent from the 7th to 8th centuries AD. Key elements include the descendants of Æthelberht of Kent over the next four ge ...

. Her sisters Milburga of Much Wenlock and

Mildgyth Saint Mildgyth (or Mildgytha) () (died 676) was the youngest daughter of Merewalh, king of Mercia and Saint Eormenburh. She was the youngest sister of Saint Mildburh of Wenlock and Saint Mildrith. The three sisters have been likened to the th ...

were also considered saints, and Mildrith, along with her extended family, features in the Kentish Royal Legend, also known as the "Mildrith Legend". In the 11th century,

Goscelin Goscelin of Saint-Bertin (or Goscelin of Canterbury, born c. 1040, died in or after 1106) was a Benedictine hagiographical writer. He was a Fleming or Brabantian by birth and became a monk of St Bertin's at Saint-Omer before travelling to Engla ...

wrote a

hagiography A hagiography (; ) is a biography of a saint or an ecclesiastical leader, as well as, by extension, an adulatory and idealized biography of a preacher, priest, founder, saint, monk, nun or icon in any of the world's religions. Early Christian ...

of Mildrith, the ''Vita Mildrethae''.Rollason (1982) p. 16 Another work, the ''Nova Legenda Anglie'' of 1516, gives an extensive account of her life. Mildrith's maternal family had close ties to the

Merovingian The Merovingian dynasty () was the ruling family of the Franks from around the middle of the 5th century until Pepin the Short in 751. They first appear as "Kings of the Franks" in the Roman army of northern Gaul. By 509 they had united all the ...

rulers of

Gaul Gaul () was a region of Western Europe first clearly described by the Roman people, Romans, encompassing present-day France, Belgium, Luxembourg, and parts of Switzerland, the Netherlands, Germany, and Northern Italy. It covered an area of . Ac ...

, and Mildrith is said to have been educated at the prestigious Merovingian royal

abbey of Chelles Chelles Abbey () was a Frankish monastery founded around 657/660 during the early medieval period. It was intended initially as a monastery for women; then its reputation for great learning grew, and when men wanted to follow the monastic life, a ...

. She entered the abbey of

, which her mother had established, and became abbess there by 694. A number of dedications to Mildrith exist in the

Pas-de-Calais The Pas-de-Calais (, ' strait of Calais'; ; ) is a department in northern France named after the French designation of the Strait of Dover, which it borders. It has the most communes of all the departments of France, with 890, and is the ...

, including at

Millam Millam () is a commune in the Nord department in northern France. A chapel dedicated to the Mercian Saint Mildrith (Mildred), Abbess of Minster-in-Thanet, who is said to have stayed there, exists in Millam, but is privately owned and not easil ...

, thereby suggesting that ties to Gaul were maintained. Mildrith died at Minster-in-Thanet some time after 732 and was buried there in the Abbey Church of St Mary.

Relic remains

Mildrith's successor as abbess, Eadburg (also styled

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. Life Edburga was the only daughter of King Centwine and Queen Engyth of Wessex. Acco ...

, a correspondent of

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

), built a new abbey church, also at Minster-in-Thanet, dedicated to Ss Peter and Paul, and translated Mildrith's remains there not later than 748. The shrine within the abbey became a popular place of local pilgrimage, with Mildrith becoming a much-loved local patron saint. The last abbess of Minster in Thanet was Leofruna, who was captured by Danes in 1011. The abbey was abandoned and the church downgraded to a parish church. Mildrith's remains, despite fierce local opposition, were

translated Translation is the communication of the meaning of a source-language text by means of an equivalent target-language text. The English language draws a terminological distinction (which does not exist in every language) between ''transla ...

St Augustine's Abbey St Augustine's Abbey (founded as the Monastery of Ss Peter and Paul and changed after its founder St Augustine of Canterbury's death) was a Benedictine monastery in Canterbury, Kent, England. The abbey was founded in 598 and functioned as a mon ...

Canterbury Canterbury (, ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and UNESCO World Heritage Site, in the county of Kent, England; it was a county borough until 1974. It lies on the River Stour, Kent, River Stour. The city has a mild oceanic climat ...

in 1030, an event commemorated on 18 May. St Mildred's Church, Canterbury, within the town walls, dates back to this time. Some of her relics were given, in the 11th century, to a church at

Deventer Deventer (; Sallaans dialect, Sallands: ) is a List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city and Municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality in the Salland historical region of the Provinces of the Netherlands, province of Overijssel, ...

, Netherlands. In 1881 the feast day of St Mildred was officially reinstated by

Pope Leo XIII Pope Leo XIII (; born Gioacchino Vincenzo Raffaele Luigi Pecci; 2March 181020July 1903) was head of the Catholic Church from 20 February 1878 until his death in July 1903. He had the fourth-longest reign of any pope, behind those of Peter the Ap ...

.Minster Abbey Chronological Table
Benedictine Nuns of Minster Abbey. Accessed 11 October 2014 In 1882, following a refounding of a Benedictine monastery at Minster in Thanet, the nuns petitioned the Archbishop of Utrecht, who granted their return to Thanet. It became a private house until 1937, when it was purchased by Benedictine nuns from St Walburga's Abbey in

Eichstätt Eichstätt () is a town in the federal state of Bavaria, Germany, and capital of the district of Eichstätt. It is located on the Altmühl river and has a population of around 13,000. Eichstätt is also the seat of the Roman Catholic Dioce ...

, Bavaria, as a refuge from persecution and became a dependent priory. In 1953, a relic of St Mildred was brought there.

Family tree

The family tree of this part of the royal family of Kent in the 7th century is derived from the later Old English and Latin accounts. Eadbold became king in 616 A.D, succeeded by Eorcantberht in 640 A.D. (possibly co-ruling with his brother Eormenred, Mildrith's grandfather). Ecgberht came to the throne in 664 and died in 673 A.D.Family tree is from Rollason, 1982, p.45

References

Literature

* Brooks, Beda: The world of Saint Mildred, c. 660–730. A study of an Anglo-Saxon nun in the golden age of the English Church, Bath 1996, . * * Rollason, David W.: The Mildrith legend. A study in early Medieval hagiography in England. Leicester 1982, .

Sources

* Love, R. C., "Mildrith, St" in

Michael Lapidge Michael Lapidge, FBA (born 8 February 1942) is a scholar in the field of Medieval Latin literature, particularly that composed in Anglo-Saxon England during the period 600–1100 AD; he is an emeritus Fellow of Clare College, Cambridge, a Fellow ...

et al., ''The Blackwell Encyclopedia of Anglo-Saxon England.'' Oxford: Blackwell, 1999. * Rollason, D. W., ''The Mildrith Legend: a study in early medieval hagiography in England'' (series "Studies in the Early History of Britain", Leicester University Press) 1982. (This includes the full Latin text of the 13th-century Bodley 285 Text and the ''Vita Mildrethae'' of Goscelin of Canterbury.)
Introduction and primary texts of three Anglo-Saxon ''Lives of St Mildreth'', dated between 725 and 974
in Old English: Þá hálgan (aka The Kentish Royal Legend); Caligula 'Life of St Mildrith' (with translation); The Lambeth Palace text of Þá hálgan.
O.S.B., "Saint Mildred and her Kinsfolk"
''Virgin Saints of the Benedictine Order'', Catholic Truth Society, London, 1903
''Nova Legenda Anglie''
(first published in 1516. This ed. 1901.) The entry for De Sancta Mildreda is in Vol. II p. 193–197

External links

* {{Authority control Mercian saints Kentish saints Anglo-Saxon royalty Anglo-Saxon abbesses 7th-century births 8th-century deaths 8th-century Christian saints People from Minster-in-Thanet Female saints of medieval England 7th-century English nuns 7th-century Christian nuns 8th-century English nuns 8th-century Christian nuns Iclingas Medieval English saints English Roman Catholic saints History of Catholicism in England