Saint Etheldreda

Queen and Abbess
(c. 636–679)

Saint Etheldreda, also known as Saint Audrey, was born around 636, the daughter of Anna, the Christian king of East Anglia, and one of a remarkable family of holy women who have left their mark on the early English Church. From her childhood she showed a deep desire for the consecrated life, and she made a private vow of virginity before any question of marriage arose.

Political circumstances required that she be given in marriage to Tondberct, a prince of the South Gyrwas. She obtained his agreement to respect her vow of chastity, and they lived together for three years in what the Church has called a Josephite marriage. At Tondberct's death, Etheldreda retired to the Isle of Ely, which he had given her as a dowry, and there lived for some years in prayer and seclusion. However, the political needs of her family required a second marriage, and she was given to Egfrith, the young king of Northumbria.

For twelve years she persuaded Egfrith also to respect her vow of chastity, though as he grew older he became unwilling to continue in this arrangement and pressed her to live with him as a true wife. She refused, and finally Egfrith allowed her to take the veil from the hands of Saint Wilfrid of York, who had long been her spiritual director and had supported her resolution. Etheldreda entered the monastery of Coldingham under its abbess, and the following year, in 672, she returned to Ely, where she founded a double monastery of men and women, over which she presided as abbess.

As abbess she led a life of great austerity, wearing rough woollen clothing, eating only one meal a day except on the greatest feasts, and spending much of the night in prayer in the church. She governed her community with wisdom and charity, drawing many souls to the religious life by the power of her example. After seven years as abbess she fell ill of a tumour of the throat and jaw, which she regarded as a just punishment for the vanity she had shown in her youth in wearing necklaces. She died in 679, and her body was found incorrupt when her tomb was opened sixteen years later.

Her shrine at Ely became one of the great places of pilgrimage in medieval England. She is remembered as one of the purest and most radiant figures of the early English Church, and her example of chastity maintained in the midst of the world has encouraged many souls in every century. Her feast is celebrated on June 23rd.