ON ST. ETHELDRITHA OR ALFREDA, VIRGIN RECLUSE,
IN THE MONASTERY OF CROYLAND IN ENGLAND.
About the year 834.
HISTORICAL COMMENTARY.
The Saint's cult, Acts, the burning of her relics.
Etheldritha, virgin recluse in England (S.)
BY THE AUTHOR P. B.
This is not that St. Etheldreda or Etheldritha, abbess of Ely, whom we gave on the day 23 June; but another less famous and more than a whole century younger, daughter of Offa king of the Mercians and of Quendreda. The Martyrologists vary greatly Bromton calls her Althrida, and says she was, according to some, named Alfrida; but in Ingulf in the history of Croyland she is constantly called Etheldritha. That she was held for a Saint after death, will be clear from those things which the same Ingulf will narrate below about her sepulcher: but in what month and on what day her memory was once celebrated, I confess I am ignorant after much investigation. On this day she is reported with the title of Blessed by d'Achery and Mabillon in the Acts of the Saints of the Order of St. Benedict, century 4, part 1, page 565; where it is said: Wion marks the day of her death on the third of the Nones of August, and after him Thomas (rather Edward) Maihew. We do not find this in Wion; he treats indeed of this holy Alfreda in the Wood of Life book 4, chapter 28; but of the day of death he keeps a deep silence. Maihew indicates that her birthday was unknown to him, when on this day he thus writes: In the monastery of Croyland, the COMMEMORATION of Bl. Etheldritha the virgin, who is named Alfreda by some: for he had admonished the reader, in tome 1 in the preface page 172, in these words: The reader must be admonished, that of certain Saints even of great name we could in no way attain the certain birthdays; but these too we have set on the days most convenient UNDER THE NAME OF COMMEMORATION among the rest. This same day meanwhile Arthur du Monstier marks with her eulogy in the Gynaeceum, led, as it appears, by the example of Maihew alone.
[2] What impelled Menard, that he should celebrate her on the day 4 August, in assigning the celebrity of this Saint. is obscure; but here too he had Bucelin as a follower. Castellanus in the Universal Martyrology thought she should be placed on the 23rd day of October; I believe, because he understood of her the annunciation of Greven, noted on that day thus: Of queen Ethelfreda: which indeed can be understood of our Saint; since it is the same name, Alfrida, Alfreda, Elfreda, Ethelfreda; she could also be called queen, as betrothed as bride to king Ethelbert. Ferrari in the general Catalogue of the Saints who are not in the Roman Martyrology thus exhibits her on the 26th day of December: In England, of St. Ethelfreda the virgin: but in the notes he subjoins this: From the English Martyrology. Of her Polydore Virgil book 4 of the English History, Arnold Wion book 4 of the Wood of Life. Would that he had more diligently noted what that English Martyrology (one, or several?) is, or of what credit or place. For I fear that it is not of great authority, which, besides Ferrari, if anyone has seen, certainly no one, that I know, has followed. Wilson finally in his English Martyrology, in the edition of the year 1608, because then the anniversary veneration of this Saint had both ceased to be observed, and appeared nowhere noted, placed her on the 12th day of December; but under the title of commemoration, and with an asterisk added; which in his preface he said he would do
as often as he had not attained the certain birthdays of the Saints. But when he afterward learned that that same day 12 December was truly the birthday of this Virgin, we do not know: yet he seems to have learned it from somewhere, since in the year 1640 in the second edition of his Martyrology, corrected and augmented, without any indication of ambiguity he has thus on that day: In the island of Croyland, in the county of Lincoln, the deposition (no longer commemoration) of St. Elfreda the virgin, daughter of Offa king of the Mercians, etc. For the rest, since we can here settle nothing certain, we too propose St. Etheldritha on this day, not because we think it her birthday (for there is no reason for suspecting it); but because we think the readers will look for her eulogies among us on that same day on which they now know them already reported in a most widespread and most read work, the Acts, I say, of the Saints of the Benedictine Order.
[3] Her parents, betrothed, and holiness in the world; That her Acts were ever written separately, no one hands down: and so they must be sought from various authors, especially Ingulf, who flourished in the eleventh century, abbot of Croyland, and John Bromton, abbot of Jervaulx, who wrote in the following century; those few things indeed, but which suffice to make a conjecture about the rest. Bromton, in the part which regards this, we have already given on the day 20 May, where of St. Ethelbert, king of the East Angles, page 241 and following. He asserts there num. 3, that Etheldritha was the daughter of Offa, king of the Mercians, and indeed the only and legitimate one (either because the other daughter of the same king, Edburga, was not legitimate, or because already from the year 787, according to Florence of Worcester and the Saxon Chronicle published by Gibson, she had been given to Brihtric, king of the West Saxons). He narrates presently, that the holy man, whom we have already mentioned, Ethelbert, sought her in marriage; whence by his virtue you may gather that she was exceptional, as one who pleased a man who from tender age had learned to regard nothing so much in all things as integrity and holiness of life. What of this, that the same writer affirms that, already then full of the divine spirit, she foretold the future? For, the said death of St. Ethelbert—who, about to lead his bride home honorably, had of his own accord come by himself to Offa—a detestable death, and to be ascribed chiefly to the wicked arts of the impious Quendreda, being recorded, he thus proceeds in the same place num. 8: Hearing therefore of the prince's fall so unforeseen (Althrida the virgin revealing it to the soldiers of king Ethelbert returned to their own homes), the same Virgin, filled with a prophetic spirit, foretold the future to her mother, as by a divine threatening: and first of her son Egfrid, not going to live through three years, and his kingdom not to be established: of the queen herself too, going soon to die a foul death, and not to live beyond three months, and before her death to be seized by demons, and to gnaw with her own teeth her tongue (with which she had persuaded so great a crime to Offa, at first abhorring it) . All which, as they had been foretold, afterward came to pass.
[4] There is added the arduous kind of life, which the young and truly royal Virgin could not presently choose for herself, her withdrawal to the monastery of Croyland, unless already long since taught both to despise the delights and pomp of the court, and to occupy her whole mind assiduously with divine things. The virgin Althrida therefore, says Bromton in the same place, who is also, according to some, called Alfrida, devoting the chastity of her body to God, took care finally to transfer herself to the marshes of Croyland, as to a wilderness: where, wholly given to contemplation and devotion, clad in a full-length tunic, she remained in all holiness of life, choosing rather to be abject in the house of the Lord, than to dwell in the tabernacles of sinners. So he. But the Life of St. Ethelbert in Capgrave, folio 138 verso, more clearly intimates, that not long after the death of her betrothed the counsel of seeking a chaste solitude was deferred by Alfrida, but was in a manner conceived at the very sight of the sacred corpse: so that there appears no cause why both matters should not be referred to the same year; whether you determine that to have been, with the Worcester writer, the year of Christ 793, or, with the Saxon chronicles published by Wheloc and Gibson, the year 792. Of the Croyland monastery of the Benedictines consult the Acts of St. Guthlac on the day 11 April. But she seems to have betaken herself to that monastery beyond the rest for this reason, as after Maihew observes Mabillon in this place, that that place was at that time held most famous on account of the frequent miracles of St. Guthlac; then because that monastery had been built by Ethelbald, king of the Mercians, predecessor and kinsman of Offa her father, not many years before.
[5] But how strenuously, how constantly she exercised herself in this arena, and a solitary cell there; Ingulf indicates in the Frankfurt edition of the year 1601, page 855, when he calls her the most holy virgin Etheldrita, daughter of Offa, once king of the Mercians, betrothed of the holy martyr Ethelbert, once king of East Anglia (in whose name now the episcopal see of Hereford is dedicated); but then, for the love of Christ her spouse, a recluse in the southern part of the church of Croyland over against the high altar in a certain part of a cell. He treats of the year of Christ about 825, when to her Witlaf, at once raised to the throne of Mercia by his own men, at once before he could gather an army, sought for death or bonds by the captains of Egbert king of the West Saxons, fled as to a sanctuary, and by the industry of the lord abbot Siward was for the space of four months hidden in the cell of the most holy virgin Etheldritha, no other being aware, keeping safe hiding-places there; until, the said venerable abbot Siward mediating, he was reconciled with the said king of the West Saxons, and, an annual payment of tribute being promised, was permitted to return peacefully to his kingdom.
[6] Happy hiding-places indeed; whose memory he himself, where she lived most holily, as long as he lived, could not efface from his heart. But what he there beheld in our Virgin through those four months, how deeply impressed on his mind he thence carried the image of her holiness, he wished afterward attested rather by deed and affection than by words. And first indeed by a most ample diploma, which Ingulf there exhibits complete, he enriched that monastery, chiefly for the sake of Etheldritha. Lo for thee the beginning: Withlaf, by divine disposition king of the Mercians, to all worshippers of Christ inhabiting the whole of Mercia, everlasting salvation. To preach and publish the great works of God is by no means shameful to me, but truly seems honorable and glorious. Whence I openly confess to the Lord, who dwells on high, regarding humble things in heaven and on earth, that for a time he was angry with me, his fury is turned away, and he has consoled me, humbling in his anger the sinner even to the earth, drawing down even to the dust, and again in his mercy raising up the needy from the dust, and lifting the poor from the dung, that I may sit with princes and hold a throne of glory. In the day therefore of good things let me not be unmindful of evils; I will be mindful of Rahab and of Babylon knowing me; not of Rahab the harlot, but of Etheldritha the most holy virgin, my kinswoman, a recluse at Croyland for the love of her Spouse, the immaculate Lamb, and in the time of my tribulation most diligently hiding me in her cell for the space of four months from the face of the enemy and the persecutor: I will be mindful also of Babylon, not the tower of confusion, but the most holy church of Croyland, which, an earthly tower * ascending to heaven by vigils and prayers, psalms and readings, disciplines and afflictions, tears and sobs, alms and innumerable other devotions and works of piety, brings for the sinful world most strong violence to the kingdom of heaven day and night, etc.
[7] as king Withlaf too testifies, Then in the same place toward the end: This chirograph, once promised to the lord abbot Sigward, my father, and to Etheldritha the most holy virgin, a recluse there for the love of Christ, indeed my kinswoman in the flesh, but (which is more) my most dear sister in Christ, in the presence of my lords Egbert king of the West Saxons and Athelwulf his son … I have confirmed with the sign of the holy cross. There follow many subscriptions of those present, of which this is the last: I Withlaf, by the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ king of the Mercians, to the honor of holy mother Church and the exaltation of divine worship, in the year of the Incarnation of the same our Savior eight hundred and thirty-three, on the feast of St. Augustine confessor, doctor, and apostle of our nation (he was venerated on the day 26 May, as now), offer these few things; and would offer more; nay would promise my body at my death to so holy a monastery, had I not before devoted my burial to Ripon; nevertheless my spirit shall remain with you for ever. So was he then affected toward the holiness of this Virgin, even while living, perceived by him; so did he not fear to commend her by an instrument drawn up and sealed in a most noble assembly to the memory of perpetual posterity already then.
[8] who as a fugitive had lain hidden in her cell for 4 months. But how greatly the same king esteemed her virtues, he then betrayed more luminously, when somewhat later he heard that Etheldrita had reached the bounds of a laborious life: for when he first learned of the death of the most holy virgin Etheldritha, says Ingulf page 858, he was consternated with so great grief, that, lying long in bed, all his people already dreaded him near death. At length, by the favor of God's grace, recovering somewhat, and approaching her sepulcher (for she had been entombed at the head of the holy man Tatwin, once the guide and steersman of the holy father Guthlac into the said island), as though suffering an ecstasy, he poured, his spirit recovered, so many tears upon the tomb; as though he had lost his wife, and son, or the whole family by a sudden misfortune; until the lord Siward (whom, as his father, he always most tenderly venerated), rebuking him more severely, led him unwilling and struggling from the tomb to his chamber. Not long after he entombed his son Wimund, dead of a long dysentery, at the right side of the Virgin. His wife Celfreda too, consequently dying within the space of one year, he buried at the left side of the same Virgin with royal apparatus and inconsolable tears.
[9] In what year St. Etheldritha died is not established: yet this is clear from what has been said, She died after 40 years passed in that cell. The relics perished. that she survived at least down to the year 833 and about the month of June, and did not reach the year in which Withlaf ceased to live, either of Christ 838 according to Florence of Worcester, or 839, as our Alford counts. The solitude therefore in which she had shut herself up in the year of Christ 792 or the following, she constantly inhabited for at least forty years. Her relics perished in the year of the Lord's Incarnation eight hundred and seventy, in the month of September, when the Danes rushing into the monastery burned it, violated with no kind of sacrilege omitted. And so, all the monks being slain by the interrogators, says Ingulf page 866, and the treasures of the monastery by no means yet found, the Danes broke with knives and mattocks all the sarcophagi of the Saints, who rested in high marble tombs around the tomb of the holy father Guthlac at his right and left: namely at the right of St. Cissa, priest and anchorite,
and the tomb of St. Bettelm, man of God and once minister of St. Guthlac, the tomb also of St. Tatwin, once guide to Croyland and steersman of St. Guthlac, the tomb also of the most holy virgin Etheldritha, and also the tombs of Celfreda, once queen, and of Wimund, son of king Withlaf, the barbarians breaking them, when they did not find the hoped-for treasures, too indignant, all the bodies of the Saints, miserably drawn together into one heap, fire being applied, on the third day of their coming, together with the church and all the buildings of the monastery, namely on the seventh of the Kalends of September (rather October, as is evident from the preceding words in the same place), most mournfully burned.
[10] She was numbered among the Saints from the ninth century. For the rest, from this and the preceding number you see, that our Etheldrita after death is called by Ingulf not only Saint, as Guthlac and others, but even Most Holy: such therefore she was reckoned at least from the eleventh century among the people of Croyland; nay even from the ninth: for hence those tears of certain Brethren, when, after that Danish disaster, which they had forestalled by flight, returning to the monastery, they first learned from Brother Turgar, among the other losses, that the bodies too of the mentioned Saints, consumed by the flames, had utterly perished: But hearing from the same (the words are Ingulf's page 867) in what places both their abbot, and the other elders and their confreres, lay slain, and how all the sepulchers of the Saints were drawn together, and all the monuments and their sacred volumes with the bodies of the Saints burned, they were all consternated with inestimable grief, and lamentation and weeping was made very long.
Notesread: corrosura* (to be gnawed away).
perhaps: quae de terra, ut turris* (which from earth, as a tower).