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.

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

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. In 716, Edburga became a Benedictine nun at the abbey.

She corresponded with Saint Boniface and Lullus.[1] 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.[2] In 716, Boniface addresses to her a letter containing the famous Vision of the Monk of Wenlock.[3]

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

References
  1. 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.
  2. "The Abbess Bugga Congratulates Boniface on His Success in Frisia (720)", The Correspondence of St. Boniface : Medieval Sourcebook, Fordham University
  3. Emerton, Ephraim. The Letters of St. Boniface. Records of Civilization: Sources & Studies 31. New York: Columbia University Press, 1940, 25–31.
  4. Dunbar, Alice. A Dictionary of Saintly Women, 1904 This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
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