45. SAINTS EDITH AND EDITH OF POLESWORTH

Our holy mother Edith was the daughter of King Egbert of Wessex, the sister of King Aethelwulf of Wessex, and the aunt of King Alfred the Great. Polesworth was one of two towns or estates granted by Aethelwulf to St. Modwenna for the founding of monasteries. Edith became the first abbess. She died on March 15, 871.

Our holy Mother Edith was the eldest daughter of King Edward the Elder and Queen Egwena, and sister of St. Edburga of Winchester and King Athelstan. In 925, according to Roger of Wendover, King Athelstan joined his sister in marriage to the Danish King Sihtric (or Sigfric) of Northumbria, who then converted to Christianity for the love of the beautiful Edith. However, not long after he abandoned both Edith and Christianity and returned to the worship of the idols, dying one year later in apostasy. Edith, «having preserved her chastity, remained strong in good works to the end of her life, at Polesworth, in fasts and vigils, in prayers and in zeal for almsgiving. She departed after the passage of a praiseworthy life from this world on 15 July, at the same place, where to this day Divine miracles do not cease to be performed.»

Some think that these two Ediths were one and the same person. One of them died at Tamworth, where she built a monastery.

Holy Mothers Edith and Edith, pray to God for us!

(Sources: Roger of Wendover, Flores Historiarum; Donald Attwater, The Penguin Dictionary of Saints, London: Penguin, 1965, p. 109; Agnes Dunbar, A Dictionary of Saintly Women, 1904,

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