Edburga of Minster-in-Thanet

Saint Edburga of Minster-in-Thanet
Abbess
Born	England
Died	(759-12-13)13 December 759 Minster-in-Thanet
Venerated in	Eastern Orthodox Church Roman Catholic Church Church of England
Feast	19 November

Saint Edburga of Minster-in-Thanet (also known as Eadburh and Bugga) was a princess of Wessex,^[1] and abbess of Minster-in-Thanet. She is regarded as a saint.

Life

Edburga was the only daughter of King Centwine and Queen Engyth of Wessex. According to Stephen of Ripon, Engyth was a sister of Queen Iurminburh, second wife of King Ecgfrith of Northumbria. Centwine was not a Christian, but towards the end of his reign, converted and became a monk.

Edburga was a friend and student of Saint Mildrith, abbess of Minster-in-Thanet.^[1] She was reputed to be zealous in the pursuit of knowledge.^[2] In 716, Edburga became a Benedictine nun at the abbey. She corresponded with Saint Boniface and Lullus.^[3]

Between 718 and 720 her mother wrote to Boniface and soon after, in 720, Edburga herself wrote to him, sending him fifty shillings and an altar cloth.^[4]

In 716, Boniface addresses to her a letter containing the famous Vision of the Monk of Wenlock.^[5]

She succeeded Mildrith as the abbess around 733, and presided over about seventy nuns. During her time as an abbess she was able to secure royal charters for the abbey,^[6] as well as having a new church (Ss. Peter and Paul) built there, to provide a shrine for the relics of St Mildrith.^[1]

References

1. "Edburga (Eadburh, Bugga) of Minster", The Oxford Dictionary of Saints (5 rev) (David Farmer, ed.) OUP, 2011 ISBN 9780199596607
2. "Eadburg/Eadburga, abbess of Minster in Thanet", Epistolae, Columbia University
3. Schieffer, Theodor (1950). "Angelsachsen und Franken: II. Erzbischof Lul und die Anfänge des Mainzer Sprengels". Abhandlungen der Geistes- und Sozialwissenschaftlichen Klass (in German). 20: 1431–1539.
4. "The Abbess Bugga Congratulates Boniface on His Success in Frisia (720)", The Correspondence of St. Boniface : Medieval Sourcebook, Fordham University.
5. Emerton, Ephraim. The Letters of St. Boniface. Records of Civilization: Sources & Studies 31. New York: Columbia University Press, 1940, pp. 25–31.
6. Dunbar, Alice. A Dictionary of Saintly Women, 1904 This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.

• Stephen, Leslie, ed. (1888). "Eadburga (d.751)" . Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 16. London: Smith, Elder & Co.

External links

• Eadburg 4 / Bugga 1 at Prosopography of Anglo-Saxon England
• Catholic Forum