94. SAINTWENDREDA, HERMITESS OFMARCH

Our holy Mother Wendreda was the sister of Saints Aethelthryth, Sexburga, Ermenhilda and Withburga. She was, it seems, a hermitess – first in Exning, where a holy well is named after her, and then at March in Cambridgeshire. Nothing else is known of her life. However, in the late tenth century Abbot Aelsi of Ely asked King Aethelred for permission «to translate the relics of the holy virgin Wendreda» from March to Ely, to join the relics of her holy sisters. This request was granted. The abbot then enclosed the relics in a shrine made of gold and precious stones.

In 1016 the Danes invaded East Anglia, and King Edmund Ironside marched against them. At the request of the king, the relics of St. Wendreda were carried by four monks to the battlefield. On October 16, the battle of Ashington was joined, and the English were defeated. The four monks were also killed, and the relics of the saint came into the possession of King Canute. He gave them to the Church of Canterbury.

Holy Mother Wendreda, pray to God for us!

(Sources: Liber Eliensis, 76, 77; Trevor Bevis, Fenland Saints and Shrines; David Farmer, The Oxford Dictionary of Saints, Oxford: Clarendon, 1978, p. 400)