Saints Tancred, Torthred, & Tova | |
|---|---|
| Hermits, Martyrs | |
| Died | circa 869 or 870 England |
| Venerated in | Catholic Church Anglican Communion Western Orthodoxy |
| Canonized | Pre-Congregation |
| Major shrine | Thorney Abbey (destroyed) |
| Feast | 30 September 9 or 10 April |
Saints Tancred, Torthred, and Tova were three Anglo-Saxon siblings who were saints, hermits and martyrs of the ninth century. [1] Their feast day was celebrated on 30 September at Thorney and Deeping. [2] [3]
The brothers Tancred and Torthred, with their sister Tova, lived at Thorney, Cambridgeshire, [4] at the time little more than a collection of hermit cells in the Fens, rather than a monastic institution. [5] They, like many hermits at Thorney, [6] were killed by the Danes in 870. [7]
Nothing other than their martyrdom is known of them.
The story of their martyrdom rests on the chronicle of Pseudo-Ingulf , [8] an often unreliable document which includes sources older than the 12th century. They were, however, venerated in Thorney Abbey by the year 1000, as witnessed by R.P.S., [9] C.S.P. [10] and William of Malmesbury, [11] and were among the many saints whose bodies were translated by Ethelwold. The first record of their existence dates from 973, when they were installed in the abbey at Thorney. [12]
Saint Torthred of Thorney was a saint and hermit of the ninth century in Anglo-Saxon England. [13] According to Pseudo-Ingulf he was martyred with many of his brother monks by pagan Danish raiders in 869. [14] His feast day is sometimes celebrated on 9 April [15] or 10 April, [16] and there is some conjecture that Torthred (and possibly Tova) did not die in the 869 raids but instead lived his last years at Cerne in Dorset, [17] in a similar way to Eadwold of Cerne.