Saint Edith of Polesworth (Eadgyth) | |
|---|---|
| Born | England |
| Died | 10th century |
| Venerated in | Catholic Church,Anglicanism |
| Majorshrine | Tamworth, Staffordshire, England |
| Feast | 15 July |
Saint Edith of Polesworth (also known asEditha orEadgyth; died ?c. 960s)[1] was an Anglo-Saxonabbess venerated in the Kingdom ofMercia. She is traditionally associated withPolesworth Abbey inWarwickshire and the royal center ofTamworth inStaffordshire. Though widely revered as a saint, her historical identity and period of activity (floruit) remain uncertain.
Later medieval sources offer conflicting accounts of her lineage. Some traditions identify her as a daughter ofKingEdward the Elder (r. 899–924), possibly by his first wifeEcgwynn or second wifeÆlfflæd, while others claim she was the daughter ofKing Egbert of Wessex (r. 802–839). A 12th-century tradition links her to the royal marriage diplomacy ofKing Æthelstan, suggesting she may have been wed toSihtric Cáech, the Norse-Gaelic king ofNorthumbria, before retiring to religious life.
Edith's feast date, and thus probably her death day, was 15 July, and her cult was especially prominent in theMidlands, where several churches bear her name.
Edith (Ealdgyth) is included in the first section of the late Old English saints' list known asSecgan, which locates her burial place at Polesworth.[2] The question of St Edith's historical identity is fraught with difficulties.
The tradition which was written down at the monastery ofBury St Edmunds in the 12th century and was later re-told byRoger of Wendover (d. 1236) andMatthew Paris (d. 1259) asserts that she was a sister of KingÆthelstan, who gave her in marriage toSihtric Cáech, a Hiberno-Scandinavian king of southern Northumbria and Dublin. It then suggests that the marriage was never consummated. When Sihtric broke his side of the agreement by renouncing the Christian religion and died soon thereafter, she returned south and founded a nunnery at Polesworth, not far from the Mercian royal seat atTamworth, spending the rest of her life as a devout nun and virgin.[2][3]
The story appears to take its cue from an earlier source, the D-version of theAnglo-Saxon Chronicle, which confirms that on 30 January 926 KingÆthelstan married his sister to Sihtric (d. 927) and attended the wedding feast at the Mercian royal centre of Tamworth. TheChronicle, however, gives no name. Reporting on the same event in the early part of the 12th century,William of Malmesbury identified her as a daughter ofEdward the Elder andEcgwynn, and therefore a full-blooded sister toÆthelstan, but says that he was unable to discover her name in any of the sources available to him.[4] A variant version of the Bury tradition, which locates her burial place at Tamworth rather than Polesworth, identifies this Edith as a daughter ofÆlfflæd, Edward's second wife, and henceÆthelstan's half-sister.[5][6] However, another late source drawing upon earlier material, the early 13th-centuryChronicle of John of Wallingford, names Sihtric's wifeOrgiue.[3][7]
These late, contradictory statements have garnered a mixed response from modern historians. Some scholars favour Roger's identification or at least the possibility that her name was Eadgyth/Edith.[5][8] Alan Thacker, for instance, states that "given the strong Mercian connections of Æthelstan himself, it is not at all unlikely that such a woman, if repudiated, should have ended her days in a community in the former heartlands of the Mercian royal family. Perhaps, like Æthelstan, she had been brought up at the Mercian court."[5] Barbara Yorke, however, argues that the name Eadgyth is unlikely to belong to two of Edward's daughters at the same time, the other beinga daughter by Ælfflæd.[2]
A slightly earlier if largely legendary source which potentially casts some light on traditions surrounding St Edith is Conchubran'sLife of SaintModwenna, a female hermit who supposedly lived nearBurton-on-Trent. The text, written in the early 11th century, mentions a sister of King Alfred by the name of Ite, a nun who served as the saint's tutor and had a maidservant calledOsid. Although an Irish nun called StIta was active in the 7th century, Ite's name has been interpreted as "almost certainly a garbling of Edith"[5] and that ofOsid a rendering ofOsgyth.[9]
Yorke prefers to identify the historical figure of Edith with an earlier namesake instead. The saint's inclusion inSecgan, grouped as she is with other early saints buried near rivers, may be taken as evidence for the hypothesis that she was a Mercian saint who flourished in the 7th or 8th century.[10] According to Alan Thacker, on the other hand, the entry inSecgan may also be a later addition, along with at least two other items which seem to reflect interests peculiar to Æthelstan's time.[5]
The saint is commemorated in a number of churches around theMidlands, the most notable of these being Polesworth Abbey and theCollegiate Church of Tamworth, which bears her name. Other churches dedicated to St. Edith includeChurch Eaton inStaffordshire,Amington Parish Church (in Tamworth), St Edith's Church inMonks Kirby, Warwickshire as well as a number of churches inLouth, Lincolnshire.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link){{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)