Leominster abbey was an Anglo-Saxon monastery established at

Leominster Leominster ( ) is a market town in Herefordshire, England, at the confluence of the River Lugg and its tributary the River Kenwater. The town is north of Hereford and south of Ludlow in Shropshire. With a population of 11,700, Leominster i ...

in the county of Hereford,

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

. The name of the town refers to its minster, a settlement of clergy living a communal life. The monastery, perhaps founded in the seventh century, was originally a male house. After being destroyed by Danes, it was rebuilt as a

Benedictine , image = Medalla San Benito.PNG , caption = Design on the obverse side of the Saint Benedict Medal , abbreviation = OSB , formation = , motto = (English: 'Pray and Work') , foun ...

abbey An abbey is a type of monastery used by members of a religious order under the governance of an abbot or abbess. Abbeys provide a complex of buildings and land for religious activities, work, and housing of Christian monks and nuns. The con ...

for

nun A nun is a woman who vows to dedicate her life to religious service, typically living under vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience in the enclosure of a monastery or convent.''The Oxford English Dictionary'', vol. X, page 599. The term is o ...

s (see Leominster nunnery). In 1046 the

abbess An abbess (Latin: ''abbatissa''), also known as a mother superior, is the female superior of a community of Catholic nuns in an abbey. Description In the Catholic Church (both the Latin Church and Eastern Catholic), Eastern Orthodox, Copt ...

, Eadgifu, was abducted by

Sweyn Godwinson Sweyn Godwinson ( ang, Swegen Godƿinson) ( 1020 – 1052), also spelled Swein, was the eldest son of Earl Godwin of Wessex, and brother of Harold II of England. Early life In 1043 Sweyn was raised to an earldom which included Gloucestershi ...

. Knowles, David; Brooke C. N. L.; and London, Vera C. M. ''The Heads of Religious Houses: England and Wales 940-1216'' Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 1972 p. 214 Eadgifu is only abbess known by name. The convent was probably dissolved or suppressed not long after this incident.` ReadingAbbey

In the 12th century

Henry I Henry I may refer to: 876–1366 * Henry I the Fowler, King of Germany (876–936) * Henry I, Duke of Bavaria (died 955) * Henry I of Austria, Margrave of Austria (died 1018) * Henry I of France (1008–1060) * Henry I the Long, Margrave of the ...

incorporated land at Leominster into the foundation of

Reading Abbey Reading Abbey is a large, ruined abbey in the centre of the town of Reading, in the English county of Berkshire. It was founded by Henry I in 1121 "for the salvation of my soul, and the souls of King William, my father, and of King William, m ...

. Catholic Encyclopedia Online accessed 12 December 2007 Reading Abbey in turn founded a Benedictine

priory A priory is a monastery of men or women under religious vows that is headed by a prior or prioress. Priories may be houses of mendicant friars or nuns (such as the Dominicans, Augustinians, Franciscans, and Carmelites), or monasteries of ...

of which the Priory Church survives at . Whether the priory was built on the site of the original Anglo-Saxon monastery is not clear. However, archaeological evidence of Saxon activity has been uncovered at the priory. The Galba Prayer Books, used at Leominster Abbey during the early 11th century, were probably mostly copied by a female scribe after 1016, whom medieval scholar and historian Katie Ann-Marie Bugyis calls "one of the most prolific contributors to the compilation" and most likely worked at the request of her abbess. This scribe wrote in

Old English Old English (, ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the early Middle Ages. It was brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlers in the mid-5th c ...

and

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

. Bugyis speculates that the female scribe, like Edith of Wilton, created the Galba book for her own use, but that her fellow nuns later made their own contributions to it, either in direct collaboration with her or after her death, and that eventually it became a way to train those who used it in their own prayer practices.

References

External links

"Saxon Rule", ''Herefordshire Through Time''

Leominster Priory (official website)
Benedictine nunneries in England Monasteries in Herefordshire Christian monasteries established in the 7th century {{Herefordshire-struct-stub

References

Further reading

External links