Saint Edburga of Minster-in-Thanet
Abbess
BornEngland
Died(759-12-13)13 December 759
Minster-in-Thanet
Venerated inEastern Orthodox Church
Roman Catholic Church
Church of England
Feast12 December
13 December (in church calendar in some jurisdictions)

Saint Edburga of Minster-in-Thanet (also known as Eadburh and Bugga) was a princess of Wessex,[1] 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. According to Stephen of Ripon, Engyth was a sister of Queen Iurminburh, second wife of King Ecgfrith of Northumbria. 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.[1] She was reputed to be zealous in the pursuit of knowledge.[2] In 716, Edburga became a Benedictine nun at the abbey. She corresponded with Saint Boniface and Lullus.[3]

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.[4]

In 716, Boniface addresses to her a letter containing the famous Vision of the Monk of Wenlock.[5]

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,[6] as well as having a new church (Ss. Peter and Paul) built there, to provide a shrine for the relics of St Mildrith.[1]

References

  1. 1 2 3 "Edburga (Eadburh, Bugga) of Minster", The Oxford Dictionary of Saints (5 rev) (David Farmer, ed.) OUP, 2011 ISBN 9780199596607
  2. ↑ "Eadburg/Eadburga, abbess of Minster in Thanet", Epistolae, Columbia University
  3. ↑ Schieffer, Theodor (1950). "Angelsachsen und Franken: II. Erzbischof Lul und die Anfänge des Mainzer Sprengels". Abhandlungen der Geistes- und Sozialwissenschaftlichen Klass (in German). 20: 1431–1539.
  4. ↑ "The Abbess Bugga Congratulates Boniface on His Success in Frisia (720)", The Correspondence of St. Boniface : Medieval Sourcebook, Fordham University.
  5. ↑ Emerton, Ephraim. The Letters of St. Boniface. Records of Civilization: Sources & Studies 31. New York: Columbia University Press, 1940, pp. 25–31.
  6. ↑ Dunbar, Alice. A Dictionary of Saintly Women, 1904Public Domain This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
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