Saint Mildburh (alternatively Milburga or Milburgh) (died 23 February 727) was the
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 ...
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, Coptic ...
of
Wenlock Priory
Wenlock Priory, or St Milburga's Priory, is a ruined 12th-century monastery, located in Much Wenlock, Shropshire, at . Roger de Montgomery re-founded the Priory as a Cluniac house between 1079 and 1082, on the site of an earlier 7th-century mon ...
. Her feast day is 23 February.
Life
![St Milburga's Priory, Much Wenlock - geograph](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2f/St_Milburga%27s_Priory%2C_Much_Wenlock_-_geograph.org.uk_-_1652411.jpg)
Mildburh was a daughter of
Merewalh Merewalh (sometimes given as Merwal or Merewald was a sub-king of the Magonsæte, a western cadet kingdom of Mercia thought to have been located in Herefordshire and Shropshire. Merewalh is thought to have lived in the mid to late 7th century, havin ...
, King of the
Mercia
la, Merciorum regnum
, conventional_long_name=Kingdom of Mercia
, common_name=Mercia
, status=Kingdom
, status_text=Independent kingdom (527–879)Client state of Wessex ()
, life_span=527–918
, era=Heptarchy
, event_start=
, date_start=
, ye ...
n sub-kingdom of
Magonsaete, and
Domne Eafe
Domne Eafe (; floruit late 7th century), also ''Domneva'', ''Domne Éue'', ''Æbbe'', ''Ebba'', was, according to the Kentish royal legend, a granddaughter of King Eadbald of Kent and the foundress of the double monastery of Minster in Thanet Pr ...
. She was the older sister of Saint
Mildrith
Saint Mildrith, also Mildthryth, Mildryth and Mildred, ( ang, Mildþrȳð) (born c. 660, died after 732), was a 7th and 8th-century Anglo-Saxon abbess of the Abbey at Minster-in-Thanet, Kent. She was declared a saint after her death, and later he ...
and Saint
Mildgytha
Saint Mildgyth (or Mildgytha) ( ang, Mildgȳð) (died 676) was the youngest daughter of Merewalh, king of Mercia and Saint Domne Eafe, Eormenburh. She was the youngest sister of Mildburh, Saint Mildburh of Wenlock and Mildthryth, Saint Mildrith. ...
. The three sisters have been likened to the three theological virtues: Milburh to faith, Mildgytha to hope, and Mildrith to charity.
[O.S.B., "Saint Mildred and her Kinsfolk", ''Virgin Saints of the Benedictine Order'', Catholic Truth Society, London, 1903]
/ref>
Mildburh was sought in marriage by a neighboring prince, who resolved to have her for his wife, even at the cost of violence. Mildburh's escape took her across a river. The prince, in hot pursuit, was forced to desist when the river miraculously became so swollen that he was unable to ford.[
Mildburh entered the Benedictine monastery of Wenlock, Shropshire (now known as ]Much Wenlock
Much Wenlock is a market town and parish in Shropshire, England, situated on the A458 road between Shrewsbury and Bridgnorth. Nearby, to the northeast, is the Ironbridge Gorge, and the new town of Telford. The civil parish includes the villag ...
). The nunnery was founded with endowments by her father and her uncle, Wulfhere of Mercia,["St. Milburga", Diocese of Shrewsbury]
/ref> under the direction of a French Abbess, Liobinde of Chelles. Milburga eventually succeeded her in this office,
and was installed as abbess by St Theodore.
Educated in France, Mildburh was noted for her humility, and, according to popular stories, was endowed with the gift of healing and restored sight to the blind. She organised the evangelisation and pastoral care of south Shropshire.[
She is said to have had a mysterious power over birds; they would avoid damaging the local crops when she asked them to. She was also associated with ]miracles
A miracle is an event that is inexplicable by natural or scientific lawsOne dictionary define"Miracle"as: "A surprising and welcome event that is not explicable by natural or scientific laws and is therefore considered to be the work of a divin ...
, such as the creation of a spring and the miraculous growth of barley. One story relates that one morning she overslept and woke to find the sun shining on her. Her veil slipped but instead of falling to the ground was suspended on a sunbeam until she collected it.[
She died on 23 February 727. Her ]feast day
The calendar of saints is the traditional Christian method of organizing a liturgical year by associating each day with one or more saints and referring to the day as the feast day or feast of said saint. The word "feast" in this context d ...
is thus 23 February.[
There is evidence that Saint Mildburh was syncretized with a ]pagan
Paganism (from classical Latin ''pāgānus'' "rural", "rustic", later "civilian") is a term first used in the fourth century by early Christians for people in the Roman Empire who practiced polytheism, or ethnic religions other than Judaism. ...
goddess
A goddess is a female deity. In many known cultures, goddesses are often linked with literal or metaphorical pregnancy or imagined feminine roles associated with how women and girls are perceived or expected to behave. This includes themes of s ...
. According to medievalist Pamela Berger, "this saint was chosen to fill the role of grain protectress in Shropshire
Shropshire (; alternatively Salop; abbreviated in print only as Shrops; demonym Salopian ) is a landlocked historic county in the West Midlands region of England. It is bordered by Wales to the west and the English counties of Cheshire to th ...
when the ancient pagan protectress could no longer be venerated."
Norman discovery
Her tomb was long venerated until her abbey was destroyed by invading Danes. After the Norman Conquest
The Norman Conquest (or the Conquest) was the 11th-century invasion and occupation of England by an army made up of thousands of Norman, Breton, Flemish, and French troops, all led by the Duke of Normandy, later styled William the Conque ...
Cluniac monks built a monastery on the site – the ruins at Much Wenlock are those of the later house.[
The Cluniac monks arrived at Wenlock from France, and on discovering what they believed to be the bones of Mildburh, began, in 1101, a process of establishing her relics as a pilgrimage destination for lepers. This was unpopular with the local English people, but successfully attracted people from France and Wales. It also encouraged a spate of written accounts of her life and miracles. A document entitled ''Miracula Inventionis Beatae Mylburge Virginis'' was produced at about this time, and possibly soon afterwards the well-known hagiographer ]Goscelin
Goscelin of Saint-Bertin (or Goscelin of Canterbury, born c. 1040, died in or after 1106) was a Benedictine hagiographical writer. He was a Fleming or Brabantian by birth and became a monk of St Bertin's at Saint-Omer before travelling to Englan ...
wrote his ''Vita Mildburga'' into which he incorporated a pre-existing account called 'Mildburh's Testimony', which purports to be a first-person account of her life.
She is named in some of the genealogies of the Kentish Royal Legend
The Kentish Royal Legend is a diverse group of Medieval texts which describe a wide circle of members of the royal family of Kent from the 7th to 8th centuries AD. Key elements include the descendants of Æthelberht of Kent over the next four ge ...
, which appear to draw on Anglo Saxon material, but have no surviving manuscript copies that pre-date the 11th century. She is also one of the 89 saints listed with their locations in the 11th-century text written 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 settlement of Britain, Anglo ...
, known as the ''Secgan'', or ''On the Resting-Places of the Saints
''On the Resting-Places of the Saints'' is a heading given to two early medieval pieces of writing, also known as ''Þá hálgan'' and the ''Secgan'', which exist in various manuscript forms in both Old English and Latin, the earliest surviving m ...
''.[*]
Notes
External links
*
Milburga at Patron Saints Index
23 February saints
at ''SaintPatrickDC.org''
{{authority control
Year of birth missing
715 deaths
Anglo-Saxon royalty
Mercian saints
Anglo-Saxon nuns
8th-century Christian saints
People from Much Wenlock
Benedictine nuns
Female saints of medieval England
8th-century English nuns
Medieval English saints
House of Icel
7th-century English nuns