Saints Kyneburga, Kyneswide and Tibba | |
|---|---|
| Abbesses | |
| Died | 7th century |
| Venerated in | Catholic Church Anglican Church Eastern Orthodox Church |
| Canonized | Pre-Congregation |
| Feast | 6 March |
Kyneburga, Kyneswide and Tibba were female members of theroyal family ofMercia in 7th-centuryEngland. They are venerated as saints.
Kyneburga (d. c. 680) (also called Cyneburh in Old English); the name being also rendered asKinborough and in occasional use as a Christian name[1]) andKyneswide (Cyneswitha) were sisters, the daughters ofKing Penda of Mercia (who remained true toAnglo-Saxon paganism). She was eldest daughter of Penda. Although her father was an opponent of Christianity, she and all her siblings converted.Bede wrote that Penda tolerated the preaching ofChristianity inMercia itself, despite his own beliefs:
This was begun two years before the death of King Penda.[2] Their mother was Queen Cyneswise. Tibba is believed to have been arelative.
Kyneburga marriedAlhfrith of Deira, co-regent ofNorthumbria (who attended theSynod of Whitby in 664),[3] and later founded anabbey for bothmonks andnuns inCastor, in theSoke of Peterborough.[4] She became the firstabbess and was later joined by Kyneswide and Tibba. Kyneswide succeeded Kyneburga as abbess and she was later succeeded byTibba. She was buried in her church, but the remains of Kyneburga and Kyneswide weretranslated, before 972,[5] to Peterborough Abbey, nowPeterborough Cathedral.
Kyneburga had been one of the signatories, together with her brotherWulfhere, of the founding charter of Burh Abbey, dated 664, perWilliam Dugdale'sMonasticon.[6] (Burh Abbey was later dedicated to St Peter, becoming "Peterborough"). She was much esteemed as a saint by the monks of Peterborough, and features as one of the saints remembered annually on 6 March in several ancient Peterborough-produced Kalendars,[7] (a section of a psalter).[8][9]
She died on 15 September AD 680 and was buried at Castor where she soon became revered as asaint. In 963her body was moved toPeterborough, with those of her sister, Cuneswitha, and their kins woman, Tibba. Her remains were translated toThorney Abbey some time later. Her feast day is celebrated on 6 March.[10]
She is remembered in a chapel at Peterborough Cathedral, the 12th-century St Kyneburga's parish church in Castor, Lady Conyburrow's Way (a ridge in a field near Castor), Kimberwell spring,Bedfordshire, the villages ofKimberley, Norfolk andWest Yorkshire.[11]
There was another lady by the name of Kyneburg, the wife ofOswald of Northumbria.[12] She was the first abbess at Gloucester.
The only church in the world to be consecrated to St Kyneburgha can be found in the village of Castor & Ailsworth. Consecrated in 1124, its 900th anniversary was commemorated in 2024 with a specially commissioned operetta. Commissioned by incumbent Rector David Ridgeway, the libretto was written by Ian Winfrey and score by Jon Graham.
The premiere of the operetta was staged in the church in October 2024. Originally staged by Director Monique Bointon-Smith and conducted by Kate Wishart, the sisters’ roles were originated by Liz Williams (Kyneburgha), Susannah Sutton (Kyneswide) and Emily Roberts (Tibba)
Tibba, patron saint offalconers, is believed to have lived atRyhall, Rutland, in the 7th century. She was buried there, but in the 11th century her relics were translated to Peterborough Abbey, by Abbot Ælfsige (1006–1042).[13][14] According to legend, St Tibba was a niece ofKing Penda.[15] The remains of a smallhermitage associated with the saint can be seen on the west side of the north aisle of theChurch of St John the Evangelist, Ryhall.
There was at Ryhall a shrine and aholy well dedicated to Saint Tibba. Robert Charles Hope placed the location on the brow of Tibbal's Hill (Tibb's-well-hill), "upon the hill going fromTolethorpe toBelmsford Bridge".[16]
Eabba, a cousin of Tibba, lived with her. Hope suggests the holy well dedicated to her was just north of Tibba's, on the other side of a ford of theRiver Gwash and the name "St. Eabba's-well-ford was corrupted to Stableford when a bridge was later built there. St. Eabba's well came to be called by local shepherds 'Jacob's well'".[16] Barrie Cox inThe Place-Names of Rutland suggests 'St Eabba's well ford' ispopular etymology.[17] (For the relationship between St Tibba and St Ebba ("Domne Eafe"), see e.g. Rollason, D.W.,The Mildrith Legend A Study in Early Medieval Hagiography in England, Leicester University Press, 1982, p. 77)
Originally buried atCastor and Ryhall, theirrelics were bought in the 10th century by Peterborough Abbey under the direction of Abbot Aelfsige of Peterborough, as part of apolicy of relic acquisition by the abbey. Their relics at the abbey were lost or destroyed in theReformation.