An Anglo-Saxon queen of East Anglia who, preserving her virginity through two marriages, at last received the veil and founded the monastery of Ely, ruling it as abbess in holiness.
Feast Day
June 23
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Etheldreda (Anglo-Saxon Æthelthryth) was a seventh-century princess of East Anglia who, after two royal marriages in which she held to a vow of virginity, withdrew to the monastic life and founded the great double monastery of Ely, over which she ruled as abbess. A daughter of King Anna of East Anglia, she belonged to a notably holy family: her sisters likewise entered religious life and became abbesses.
Her renown rested less on the political prominence of her birth than on her ascetic constancy and on the incorrupt state in which her body was reportedly found at its translation, an event that made Ely one of the foremost centres of veneration in Anglo-Saxon England.
Timeline7 momentsReadHide
c. 636Birth in East AngliaBorn, by tradition at Exning in Suffolk, a daughter of Anna, King of East Anglia, into a family several of whose members entered the monastic life.
c. 652First marriage to TondberctMarried to Tondberct, chief of the South Gyrwe, throughout which union she is said to have maintained her vow of perpetual virginity. He gave her the Isle of Ely and died about 655.
c. 660Second marriage to Ecgfrith of NorthumbriaMarried a second time, to the young Ecgfrith of Northumbria, again preserving her virginity throughout the union according to tradition.
c. 672Reception of the veilWithdrew from the marriage and received the monastic veil, the accounts associating her profession with the monastery of Coldingham.
673Foundation of ElyFounded the monastery of Ely as a double community of men and women and governed it as abbess, living a strict ascetic life.
23 June 679Repose at ElyDied at Ely, by tradition of a tumour of the neck which she regarded as a recompense for youthful vanity in wearing necklaces.
17 October 695Translation of relicsHer body, reported to be found incorrupt, was translated by her sister Seaxburh into a white marble Roman sarcophagus.
Contributions & Legacy
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Marriages and the Monastic Life
Etheldreda's life is framed by the tradition that she preserved her virginity through two marriages contracted for dynastic reasons. The first, about 652, was to Tondberct of the South Gyrwe, who granted her the Isle of Ely and who died after a few years. The second, about 660, was to Ecgfrith of Northumbria, then still a youth.
When, according to the accounts, Ecgfrith pressed for the resumption of marital life after his accession, Etheldreda withdrew and received the veil. In 673 she founded Ely as a double monastery and ruled it as abbess, the sources describing a strict and ascetic regime.
Relics and Shrines
At the translation of her relics in 695, undertaken by her sister and successor Seaxburh, her body was reported to be incorrupt and was placed in a white marble Roman sarcophagus said to have been brought from Grantchester. Ely became a major shrine in consequence, and relics associated with her, including a hand, are kept at the church bearing her name at Ely.
Veneration
Her principal feast is kept on 23 June, the day of her repose, while the translation of 695 is commemorated on 17 October. In later Western tradition she came to be invoked particularly against ailments of the throat and neck.
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