95. SAINTWERBURGA, ABBESS OF CHESTER
Our holy Mother Werburga was the daughter of King Wulfhere, first Christian king of Mercia and his wife, St. Ermenhilda. At a young age she was dedicated by the queen, her mother, as a chaste virgin to Christ. And, says an early chronicler, «thinking scorn of her royal wooers, and recoiling from the pompous splendour and pride of all worldly glory, as a violet, she bloomed in the beauty of unsullied youth, and as a lily, adorned the Garden of the Lord in the brightness of her virginal purity.» On the death of her father, in about 673, she and her mother became nuns in Ely. There she remained under her mother's direction until her uncle, Aethelred, who had succeeded her father on the throne of Mercia, placed her in charge of all the convents in his kingdom.
St. Werburga is especially associated with the convents of Hanbury in Staffordshire and Threckingham in Lincolnshire. But it was on her father's royal estate at Weedon, in Northamptonshire, that the most famous incident in her life took place. Goscelin tells the story:
«When the royal virgin was spending some time in her house at this same Weedon, a huge flock of wild geese. ravaged the fields, as is their wont. A domestic servant, a countryman, told his mistress of the damage that was being done. Then with great faith she told him to bring them all and shut them up just as one does with animals who eat other peoplés corn. «Off you go,» she said, »and bring all the birds in here.» The man went, greatly amazed and wondering whether this command was nonsense or madness. For how could a person, unfamiliar to the geese and of whom they would be suspicious, compel so many winged creatures to walk into captivity, when they could fly off and escape? «How,» he said, »am I to direct the birds towards this place, when they will fly into the air at my first approach?» Then the virgin, reiterating her demand, said, «Go, the sooner the better, and bring all the geese into my custody in accordance with my order.» He was afraid to neglect even a useless command of his saintly mistress, and went behind all the geese and said to them, »Off you go then to our mistress.» He drove them all in front of him as if they were a tame flock. Not one bird from all that gathering raise a wing, but like wingless chicks or as if they their wings cut off, they moved on foot, walking with bowed heads as if ashamed of their bad behaviour. So they assembled within the courtyard of their judge, trembling and subdued as if found guilty. They were shut up as captives, or more precisely, they were preserved to be the object of her kindness.
«The daughter of light passed that night, as she was accustomed, in hymns and prayer to God. In the morning all the visitors made a din in shrill tones to their mistress, as if they were asking for pardon and permission to leave. But she, as she was most kind to every creature of God, ordered that they be pardoned and set free. She sternly forbade them ever again to return there. But one of her servants had gone out and stolen one of them, and then carried it off and hidden it.
«When the geese all raised their wings and flew off into the air, they rested and looked around, and reckoned up the loss to their company and found that one was missing. Immediately the whole host gathered above the virgin's house and bewailed with a great din the harm done to their fellow-creature. Their forces spread out everywhere and completely covered the sky, and it seemed that they were pleading in these human words for the compassionate Werburga to give her judgement: «Why, mistress, when your clemency released all of us, is one of us held captive? And can this iniquity be concealed in your holy house, and this detestable theft flourish under your innocence?» So at the noise and complaint of the great host the divine virgin went out and understood its cause, just as if it had been put in the above words. Straightway the theft was investigated and the culprit himself admitted it. The holy peacemaker took the bird back and reunited it with its tribe, and ordered it to be off immediately on the conditions previously given.
«She then rejoiced with them, by saying in a kindly spirit, »Birds of the air, bless the Lord.» Without a moment's delay the whole flock flew away and not a single creature of that kind has ever been found on the land of the blessed Werburga, as is well known.»
Goscelin continues: «But Werburgás great humility, and also her eminence before God, are confirmed by other signs in this same place of Weedon. She had a herdsman, a man of pious nature and holy living – as far as was possible in a life of subjection to a human master. He is remembered in that area for the renown of his meritorious deeds, and is revered as a saint on his own day. It once chanced that his mistress» bailiff was beating him most cruelly with the whip, and he was bearing it all with great tranquillity in God's name. Then the blessed compassion of the virgin could not bear that he should suffer, and throwing herself down at the wicked slave- master's feet, she cried with a prayer and a rebuke: "For the love of God, spare him! Why are you tearing this innocent man to pieces? He is more acceptable, I believe, before the Most High Judge than all of us». And when he was prevailed upon all too slowly – either out of violent rage or out of pride – immediately his brutal blows and savage glances were diverted by the celestial indignation on to his own back. Thus at last he himself, as indeed was more incumbent upon him – fell at his mistress» feet and the pardon which he had denied to the innocent man he begged with tears for his own offence. And immediately, through the kind intervention of the saint, he was returned to his former state. But the celebrated man of God, Alnoth, lies buried at Stowe, one league from Bugbrook. Robbers martyred him as he led an anchorités life in a wood, and so destroyed one who by miracles and by common acclaim was acceptable to God.»
St. Werburga had the gifts of healing and prophecy. And, foreseeing the day of her death, she ordered that her nuns at Hanbury, on hearing of her death, should come and take her body. Then, on February 3, in one of the years between 700 and 707, she died in her convent at Threckingham.
However, the people of Threckingham did not want the holy body to be removed from their midst. So they placed it in the church, bolted the gates and kept a guard over it. But then, by the Providence of God, a heavy sleep fell upon them just as a large band of the people of Hanbury together with some priests arrived. Moreover, at that moment all the bolts and bars of the monastery fell to the ground. So the people of Hanbury were able to take the holy body to their own monastery and bury it there with great joy and thanksgiving.
Many miracles were wrought at St. Werburgás tomb: sight was restored to the blind, hearing to the deaf, speech to the mute, and lepers and other sick people were healed. About nine years after her burial King Ceolred of Mercia ordered that her remains be raised from the tomb. Then it was found that the holy virgin's body was completely incorrupt: «Her clothes were seen in all respects radiant and undefiled just as when they had been put on first; when her veil was reverently drawn aside, her face was seen to be unmarred, her cheeks rosy as in the first bloom of youth.»
In the tenth century (or 875, according to another source), for fear of the Danes the relics of St. Werburga were translated from Hanbury to Chester and placed in the church on the site of the present cathedral. Later in that century, as the pagan Danes approached the city, the incorrupt relics of the saint suddenly disintegrated, «lest the enemy, not believing in the miracles of God, and knowing no gratitude for the blessings she had bestowed, should lay impious hands upon her.»
St. Werburga is commemorated on February 3.
Holy Mother Werburga, pray to God for us!
(Sources: Liber Eliensis; The Life of St. Werburg by Goscelin the Monk, Chester Cathedral, 1974; «The Martyrdom of SS. Wulfhade and Rufine», Latin version in R. Hyett Warner, The Life and Legends of St. Chad, Leach & Son, 1871; Fr. Andrew Phillips, Orthodox Christianity and the English Tradition, English Orthodox Trust, 1995, chapter 82; David Farmer, The Oxford Dictionary of Saints, Oxford: Clarendon, 1978, p. 401)