Frithuswith

Last updated • 3 min readFrom Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia


Frithuswith
St Frideswide 14th-century window at Christ Church Oxford.jpg
Depiction of Margaret the Virgin and Frideswide in Christ Church, Oxford, 14th-century.
Bornc. 650
upper Thames region
Died19 October 727
Binsey, Oxford
Venerated in Anglicanism
Eastern Orthodox Church
Roman Catholic Church
Major shrine Christ Church, Oxford
Feast 19 October
12 February (translation)
15 May (invention)
Attributes pastoral staff; a fountain; the ox
Patronage Oxford, England; University of Oxford
Frithuswith hiding with swine. From a stained glass in the Lady Chapel At Gloucester Cathedral. Hides in Pig-Sty.JPG
Frithuswith hiding with swine. From a stained glass in the Lady Chapel At Gloucester Cathedral.
St Margaret's Well, Binsey, Oxfordshire. St Margarets well Binsey.jpg
St Margaret's Well, Binsey, Oxfordshire.

Frithuswith, commonly Frideswide (Old English : Friðuswīþ; c. 650 19 October 727), was an English princess and abbess. [1] She is credited as the foundress of a monastery later incorporated into Christ Church, Oxford. [2] She was the daughter of a sub-king of a Mercia named Dida of Eynsham whose lands occupied western Oxfordshire and the upper reaches of the River Thames. [3]

Contents

Life

The earliest narrative of the saint is the Life of Saint Frideswide the Virgin (Latin : Vita sanctae Fritheswithae uirginis) preserved in a manuscript from the early twelfth century, copied in the hand of John of Worcester. A longer adaptation of this work is attributed to Robert of Cricklade, head of the Priory of St Frideswide, Oxford. [3] [4]

The story recounts that Frideswide was born to King Didan and his wife Safrida. She founds a monastery with her father's assistance while still young. Her parents die soon after. Algar, king of Leicester (Æthelbald of Mercia) seeks to marry her in spite of her vow of celibacy. When she refuses him, Algar attempts to abduct her, and Frideswide flees into the wilderness. On fleeing, she finds a ship sent by God which takes her to Bampton, Oxfordshire. Algar searches for her in Oxford, but the people refuse to tell him where she is, and he is struck blind.

Frideswide later seeks greater solitude and migrates to Binsey, Oxfordshire. To avoid having to fetch water from the distant River Thames, she prays to God and a well springs up. The well water has healing properties and many people come to seek it out. A nineteenth-century reconstruction of this well can be found at the Church of Saint Margaret in Binsey. She later returns to Oxford and remains abbess until her death.

Two Middle English adaptations of the Life of Frideswide are included in the South English legendaries . [5] These include several minor variants on the narrative. [6]

The priory

St Frideswide's Priory, a medieval Augustinian house (some of the buildings of which were incorporated into Christ Church, Oxford following the dissolution of the monasteries) is claimed to be the site of her abbey and relics. From early times the abbey appears to have been an important landowner in the area; however, it was destroyed in 1002 during the events of the St. Brice's Day massacre. [2] A shrine was kept at the abbey in Frithuswith's honour; later a monastery was built there for Augustinian canons. [7]

In 1180, the Archbishop of Canterbury Richard of Dover translated Frithuswith's remains to a new shrine in the monastery church, an event that was attended by King Henry II of England. The later history of the monastery was chequered, but it remained sufficiently prominent that Catherine of Aragon visited the shrine during her final pregnancy. [8]

The priory seal, designed in the late 1180s, depicts Frideswide with a lily and a set of wax tablets. [9]

Henry Chichele, the archbishop of Canterbury, officially declared Frideswide the patron saint of Oxford and the University of Oxford in 1440. Her feast day is 19 October, the traditional day of her death; the date of her translation is commemorated on 12 February; and the invention (discovery) of her relics on 15 May. [3]

The shrine was repeatedly vandalized during the Dissolution of the Monasteries and beyond. In 1546 the monastery church became (and still remains) the cathedral church for the diocese of Oxford. Her shrine was reinstated by Queen Mary in 1558, but was later desecrated by James Calfhill, a Calvinist canon of the church, who was intent on suppressing her cult. As a result, Frithuswith's remains were mixed with those of Catherine Dammartin, wife of Peter Martyr Vermigli, and they remain so to this day. [10]

In modern tradition

Frideswide remains the patron saint of Oxford and its university, and there is a revived tradition of pilgrimages to Christ Church. [11] In later art, she is depicted holding the pastoral staff of an abbess with a fountain springing up near her and an ox at her feet. She appears in medieval stained glass, and in Pre-Raphaelite stained glass by Edward Burne-Jones in Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford, in the chapel where her shrine is also located.

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Osgyth</span>

Osgyth was a Mercian noblewoman and prioress, venerated as an English saint since the 8th century, from soon after her death. She is primarily commemorated in the village of St Osyth, in Essex, near Colchester. Alternative spellings of her name include Sythe, Othith and Ositha. Born of a noble family, she became a nun and founded a priory near Chich which was later named after her.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Elizabeth de Montfort, Baroness Montagu</span> English noblewoman (died 1354)

Lady Elizabeth de Montfort, Baroness Montagu was an English noblewoman.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Binsey, Oxfordshire</span> Village in Oxfordshire, England

Binsey is a small village on the west side of Oxford, in Oxfordshire, England. It lies on the banks of the River Thames about 1.5 miles (2.4 km) northwest of the centre of Oxford, on the opposite side of the river from Port Meadow and about 1 mile (1.6 km) southwest of the ruins of Godstow Abbey.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Godstow</span> Hamlet in Oxfordshire, UK

Godstow is a hamlet about 2.5 miles (4 km) northwest of the centre of Oxford. It lies on the banks of the River Thames between the villages of Wolvercote to the east and Wytham to the west. The ruins of Godstow Abbey, also known as Godstow Nunnery, are here. A bridge spans the Thames and the Trout Inn is at the foot of the bridge across the river from the abbey ruins. There is also a weir and Godstow lock.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Osney Abbey</span> Abbey in Oxford, England

Osney Abbey or Oseney Abbey, later Osney Cathedral, was a house of Augustinian canons at Osney in Oxfordshire. The site is south of the modern Botley Road, down Mill Street by Osney Cemetery, next to the railway line just south of Oxford station. It was founded as a priory in 1129, becoming an abbey around 1154. It was dissolved in 1539 but was created a cathedral, the last abbot Robert King becoming the first Bishop of Oxford. The see was transferred to the new foundation of Christ Church in 1545 and the building fell into ruin. It was one of the four renowned monastic houses of medieval Oxford, along with St Frideswide's Priory, Rewley and Godstow.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Woodeaton</span> Human settlement in England

Woodeaton or Wood Eaton is a village and civil parish about 4 miles (6.4 km) northeast of Oxford, England. It also has a special needs school called Woodeaton Manor School.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mildrith</span>

Saint Mildrith, also Mildthryth, Mildryth and Mildred,, was a 7th- and 8th-century Anglo-Saxon abbess of the Abbey at Minster-in-Thanet, Kent. She was declared a saint after her death, and, in 1030, her remains were moved to Canterbury.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">St Frideswide's Priory</span> Former house of Augustinian canons

St Frideswide's Priory was established as a priory of Augustinian canons regular in Oxford in 1122. The priory was established by Gwymund, chaplain to Henry I of England. Among its most illustrious priors were the writers Robert of Cricklade and Philip of Oxford.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Beorhthelm of Stafford</span>

Beorhthelm was an Anglo-Saxon saint about whom the only evidence is legendary. He is said to have had a hermitage on the island of Bethnei, which later became the town of Stafford. Later he went to a more hilly area, possibly near Ilam, where he died. Beorhthelm (Bertram) of Stafford is venerated as a saint in the Eastern Orthodox Church and Catholic Church, with a feast day on 10 August.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Piddington, Oxfordshire</span> Human settlement in England

Piddington is a village and civil parish about 4.5 miles (7 km) southeast of Bicester in Oxfordshire, England. It lies close to the border with Buckinghamshire. Its toponym has been attributed to the Old English Pyda's tun. The 2011 Census recorded the parish's population as 370.

Saint Eanswith, also spelled Eanswythe or Eanswide, was an Anglo-Saxon princess, who is said to have founded Folkestone Priory, one of the first Christian monastic communities for women in Britain. Her possible remains were the subject of research, published in 2020.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Domne Eafe</span> Granddaughter of King Eadbald of Kent

Domne Eafe, 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 Thanet Priory at Minster-in-Thanet during the reign of her cousin King Ecgberht of Kent. A 1000-year-old confusion with her sister Eormenburg means she is often now known by that name. Married to Merewalh of Mercia, she had at least four children. When her two brothers, Æthelred and Æthelberht, were murdered she obtained the land in Thanet to build an abbey, from a repentant King Ecgberht. Her three daughters all went on to become abbesses and saints, the most famous of which, Mildrith, ended up with a shrine in St Augustine's Abbey, Canterbury.

Æbbe was a saint venerated in medieval Oxfordshire. St Ebbe's church in the southern English city of Oxford had been verifiably dedicated to the saint by 1091. It is believed that she represents a rare southern expression of the cult of the Northumbrian abbess and saint, Æbbe of Coldingham, to whom the church at Shelswell, also in Oxfordshire, was dedicated.

Repton Abbey was an Anglo-Saxon Benedictine abbey in Derbyshire, England. Founded in the 7th century, the abbey was a double monastery, a community of both monks and nuns. The abbey is noted for its connections to various saints and Mercian royalty; two of the thirty-seven Mercian Kings were buried within the abbey's crypt. The abbey was abandoned in 873, when Repton was overrun by the invading Great Heathen Army.

Osburh was a Saint in Coventry, probably Anglo-Saxon but see below. Nothing about her life has survived to the present day. Her mortal remains were enshrined at Coventry. Close to the Forest of Arden, Coventry was at that time a tiny settlement.

Dida of Eynsham was a 7th-century sub-king of the Mercian territory around Oxford, near the Chilterns. Little is known of his life, although he is mentioned briefly in the various Anglo-Saxon chronicles, and he has been purported, since ancient times, to be the father of St Frideswide, patron saint of Oxford.

Robert of Cricklade was a medieval English writer and prior of St Frideswide's Priory in Oxford. He was a native of Cricklade and taught before becoming a cleric. He wrote several theological works as well as a lost biography of Thomas Becket, the murdered Archbishop of Canterbury.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Oxfordshire Day</span>

Oxfordshire Day is celebrated on 19 October to promote the historic English county of Oxfordshire. It is also the principal feast day of the patron saint of the city and university of Oxford, St Frideswide.

Philip of Oxford was an Augustinian canon and head of the Priory of St Frideswide, Oxford.

Catherine Dammartin was a nun in Metz who left her convent, adopted evangelical views, and married Peter Martyr Vermigli. She is buried with Frideswide, the patron saint of Oxford.

References

  1. Blair, John. "Frithuswith [St Frithuswith, Frideswide] (d. 727)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/10183.(Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
  2. 1 2 Blair, John (1988). "St Frideswide's monastery: problems and possibilities" (PDF). Oxoniensia. 53: 221–258.
  3. 1 2 3 Blair, John (1987). "Saint Frideswide reconsidered" (PDF). Oxoniensia. 52: 71–127.
  4. White, Carolinne, ed. (1 February 2024). "Two Twelfth-Century Lives of St Frideswide". The Cambridge Anthology of British Medieval Latin. Cambridge University Press. pp. 142–149. doi:10.1017/9781316890738.015. ISBN   978-1-316-89073-8.
  5. Reames, Sherry (2003). Middle English legends of women saints. Kalamazoo, Mich.: Medieval Institute Publications. doi:10.2307/j.ctv13vdhm0. ISBN   978-1-58044-046-2. JSTOR   j.ctv13vdhm0.
  6. Thompson, Anne B. (1994). "Shaping a saint's life: Frideswide of Oxford". Medium Ævum. 63 (1): 34–52. doi:10.2307/43629614. JSTOR   43629614.
  7. Mayr-Harting, Henry (1985). "Functions of a twelfth-century shrine: the miracles of St Frideswide". In Mayr-Harting, Henry; Moore, R. I. (eds.). Studies in medieval history presented to R. H. C. Davis. London: Hambledon Press. pp. 193–206. doi:10.5040/9781472599131.ch-014. ISBN   978-0-907628-68-2.
  8. Highfield, J. R. L. (1988). "Catherine of Aragon's visit to the shrine of St. Frideswide" (PDF). Oxoniensia. 53: 274–275. Retrieved 1 October 2018.
  9. Heslop, T.A. (1988). "The late 12th-century seal of St. Frideswide's priory" (PDF). Oxoniensia. 53: 271–274.
  10. Kesselring, K. J. (20 July 2021). "The Case of Catherine Dammartin: Friends, Fellows, and the Survival of Celibacy in England's Protestant Universities". Renaissance and Reformation. 44 (1): 87–108. doi:10.33137/rr.v44i1.37043. S2CID   238798382.
  11. Garner, Lori Ann (2022). "'If tradition can be trusted': Pilgrimage, place, and the legend(s) of Saint Frideswide". Modern Language Review. 117 (4): 581–607. doi:10.1353/mlr.2022.0115. ISSN   2222-4319. S2CID   252669922.