St. Mary's Abbey, also known as the ''Nunnaminster'', was 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 ...

nunnery A convent is a community of monks, nuns, religious brothers or, sisters or priests. Alternatively, ''convent'' means the building used by the community. The word is particularly used in the Catholic Church, Lutheran churches, and the Anglican C ...

Winchester Winchester is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city in Hampshire, England. The city lies at the heart of the wider City of Winchester, a local government Districts of England, district, at the western end of the South Downs Nation ...

, Hampshire, England. It was founded between 899 and 902 by Alfred the Great's widow Ealhswith, who was described as the 'builder' of the Nunnaminster in the New Minster Liber Vitae. The first buildings were completed by their son, Edward the Elder. Among the house's early members was Edward's daughter Edburga of Winchester, Edburga. Sometime after 963 Bishop Æthelwold of Winchester, Æthelwold re-founded the monastery and re-endowed it, imposing the stricter Benedictine rule. According to Æthelwold's hagiographer, Wulfstan the Cantor, Æthelwold made a woman called Æthelthryth abbess of the Nunnaminster. Æthelwold may also have translated the relics of Edburga, now recognized as a saint, to a more prominent shrine within the Nunnaminster; however, this event is only attested in Osbert of Clare's much later ''Vita S. Edburgae''. The house stood between High Street and Colebroke Street and was known as ''Nunnaminster''. According to the Domesday Book the abbess held Liss (England), Lyss, Froyle, Leckford Abbess, Long Stoke, Timsbury, Hampshire, Timsbury, and Ovington, Hampshire, Ovington in Hampshire; Coleshill, Oxfordshire, Coleshill in Berkshire; and Urchfont and All Cannings in Wiltshire. The Nunnery was rebuilt again after the Norman conquest, perhaps by AD 1100, by which time it was known as St Mary's Abbey."The Nunnaminster in Winchester", City of Winchester
/ref> During The Anarchy the monastery was burnt in the great fire of Winchester in 1141. The house became impoverished during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, but thanks to various grants and concessions it recovered its position and was in a healthy state at the time of the suppression. The house was suppressed as part of the Dissolution of the Monasteries in November 1539, with pensions granted to the abbess, prioress and nuns. Considerable remains of the buildings survived into the seventeenth century, but only certain watercourses survive into the present.

Burials

*Eadburh of Winchester, though in 972 some of her remains were transferred to Pershore Abbey

References

External links

''A History of the County of Hampshire: Volume 2'', The Victoria County History 1973
{{DEFAULTSORT:Saint Marys Abbey Winchester 1539 disestablishments in England Christian monasteries established in the 9th century Anglo-Saxon monastic houses, Winchester History of Hampshire Abbeys in Hampshire Benedictine nunneries in England 9th-century establishments in England