83. SAINT OSYTH, MARTYR-ABBESS OF CHICH
Our holy Mother Osyth was born of a noble English family, being the daughter of King Frideswald (or Frithuwold), the Mercian sub-king of Surrey, and Queen Wilburga, a daughter of King Penda of Mercia. Her parents, together with St. Erkenwald, founded the monastery of Chertsey in Surrey in 675. She was born at Quarendon, near Aylesbury in Buckinghamshire, and her childhood was spent in the care of her maternal aunts, the holy abbesses Edith of Aylesbury and Edburga of Bicester.
There is an old story that St. Edith once sent Osyth to St. Modwenna (it is not known which) in her convent, in order to point out to her a particularly interesting passage that she had discovered. To reach Modwenna, Osyth had to cross a stream by a bridge. The stream was swollen, the wind was high, and she was blown into the water, and remained there for two days before she was discovered. Modwenna was not expecting her, and so was not surprised by her non-appearance. But on the third day, St. Edith, wondering why her pupil had not returned with an answer to her message, went to Modwenna. Distraught, the two abbesses went looking for their charge, and found her lying at the bottom of the stream, holding the book open at the passage she had been told to show to Modwenna. The abbesses prayed, and then commanded her to rise from the water and come to them. This she did, and he dress and the book were quite unharmed.
After the death of St. Edith, Osyth returned to her parents, who gave here in marriage to Sighere, king of the East Saxons, although she had secretly taken a vow of celibacy. Sighere had relapsed into paganism, but promised to return to the Faith after his marriage to Osyth. However, after the marriage ceremony, which took place in London, the capital of the East Saxons, when he wished to consummate the marriage, she refused. And she continued to repel his advances for a long time. One day he was trying to force her when a messenger entered, announcing that a deer of a colour whiter than snow was in front of the palace gates running around freely as if mocking the king and his men. When the king heard this he postponed rushed after the deer with his hunters and soldiers. The blessed virgin saw in this an act of Divine Providence, and, like a sheep snatched from the lion's mouth, she immediately ran to the holy priests (or bishops) Acca and Bedwin, humbly beseeching them to tonsure her so that she could keep her virginity. They looked with favour on her petition and tonsured her. When the king learned this on returning from the hunt, he sorrowed deeply, for he loved her as his own body. However, he did not dare to dissuade her, and allowed her to remain a virgin, giving her the seaside villa of Chich, in the territory of the East Saxons, in the year 653. There she remained for the rest of her life. Later the king was converted to the Christian Faith by Bishop Jarman.
On October 7 in about the year 700, while Osyth was faithfully serving God in Chich, some pagan pirates came and seized her and tried by both blandishments and
threats to force her to worship the idols. But the blessed virgin spat on the blandishments and derided the tortures. Incensed by this, the pirate chief ordered her to be beheaded. On the spot a spring immediately bubbled up which had the power of curing diseases. When the saint had been beheaded she immediately stood up, took her head in both hands and with a firm step carried it to the church of Saints Peter and Paul, which was about three stadia from the place of the beheading. As she was entering the church she accidentally smeared the doorposts with her blood. These blood-stains were visible for centuries thereafter. Her family claimed her body and it was buried for a while in Aylesbury monastery. However, the saint intimated, by visions and other signs, that she chose to rest in her own monastery. So her venerable body was buried at the entrance to the choir of the church in Chich, where God worked many miracles through her intercession.
In the twelfth century, St. Osyth's relics were moved to a new abbey erected in her honour by Augustinian canons. Here they continued to work many miracles. Once the Bishop of London unjustly tried to take away some of the monk's rights along with certain of their lands. The monks took St. Osyth's relics out of the shrine and covered them with a cloth. Bishop Richard was paralyzed until he restored both their rights and their lands to the monks.
St. Osyth straightened a hump-backed woman and made the lame to walk. Once she cured a young woman's withered arm, in gratitude for which the woman vowed to remain a virgin. But then she married, and her feet were bound with an invisible chain. Another woman who had been healed by St. Osyth decided to be a servant of her sanctuary. Unfortunately, a man named Godwin seduced her, and her feet were twisted in the shape of the cross. Godwin asked the clergy to intercede with the saint; but in vain. Only on the day of her death did St. Osyth appear before the woman and unlock her feet.
In the Middle Ages, St. Osyth was the patron saint of people who had lost their keys.
St. Osyth is commemorated on October 7.
Holy Martyr-Abbess Osyth, pray to God for us!
(Sources: A.T. Baker, «An Anglo-French Life of St. Osith», Modern Languages Review, vi, 1911, pp. 476–502; David Farmer, The Oxford Dictionary of Saints, Oxford: The Clarendon Press, 1978, pp. 302–303; Canon James Bentley, Restless Bones; Sir Arthur Bryant, Set in a Silver Sea; Christopher Hohler, «St. Osyth and Aylesbury», Records of Buckinghamshire, XVIII, 1966, part 1, pp. 61–72; Agnes Dunbar, A Dictionary of Saintly Women, 1904, http://www.britannia.com/bios/saints/osith.html)