ON ST. ARILDA, VIRGIN AND MARTYR, IN THE COUNTY OF GLOUCESTER IN ENGLAND,
BETWEEN THE SEVENTH AND TENTH CENTURIES, AS IT SEEMS.
SYLLOGE.
Arildis, virgin and martyr in the county of Gloucester in England. (S.)
BY V. D. B.
§ Sole. Of the memory of St. Arilda in the more recent fasti; of her cult and translation; of the time when she lived.
Richard Challoner, vicar apostolic of London, in the Supplement of his British Martyrology, celebrates at this day the memory of St. Arilda, St. Arilda is mentioned today by more recent martyrologists, virgin and martyr, illustrious in the glory of miracles. This eulogy lit the way for the writer of the Calendar of the Anglican Church illustrated, published in the year 1851 both at Oxford and at London by John Henry Parker The Calendar of the Anglican Church illustrated, pag. 185.. For my part I would not dare to affirm that this is her genuine feast day, since Challoner himself professes that he at times, in reporting the names of saints, departs from the rule of the days of their cult, because he is ignorant of them A Memorial of ancient British piety, Pref., pag. 7.. But since we have found the natal day of the blessed virgin in no other fasti, nothing remains for us but to follow that more recent guide. He further reports, according to the Itinerary undertaken and written by Leland at the order of Henry VIII, still a Catholic, that St. Arilda, for the sake of preserving chastity, suffered martyrdom at Kington near Thornbury, and that from there her body was translated to the abbey of Gloucester. Moreover he adds from Willis that the church of the place Oldberry or Oldbury in the county of Gloucester was dedicated to God under her patronage. The words of Leland are these: St. Arildis, virgin, suffered martyrdom at Kington near Thornbury. Her body was translated into this monastery (of Gloucester), where it shone with many miracles Itinerary, tom. IV, pag. 76, Thomas Hearne's edit.. Of the same holy martyr Leland afterwards makes mention again, saying that she was beheaded by the hand of Muncius the tyrant, because she refused to use his bed Ibid., tom. VIII, pag. 31..
[2] killed in the duchy of Gloucester, where a church was dedicated to her. But since Kington is a tiny and little known place, it must be accurately indicated in what part of England it lies. Nor is the labor excessive to one who casts his eyes on a map of western England: there namely on the shore of the river Severn (which, flowing down from the North through Gloucester, runs into the sea), he will see first the small village of Oldbury, which Camden Britannia, tom. I, pag. 262, Gough edit. and others contend to be the old Trajectus: and not far from here, toward Thornbury, of which it is a part (tything), lies Kington, as may be seen in the map of the duchy of Gloucester inserted in the Topographical Dictionary of England of Samuel Lewis. In this place, I say, the blessed martyr was slain. Although therefore Oldbury lies adjacent to Kington above the Severn, beware however of thinking that the church of St. Arilda stands there; it is not so. For in the same duchy of Gloucester there lies another Oldbury, commonly called Oldbury on the Hill, between Tetbury and Wickwar, at the beginning of this century holding only 240 inhabitants, and for that reason perhaps long since united to the parish of Didmarton, as the Liber Regis or Thesaurus of ecclesiastical affairs, collected by John Bacon Liber Regis vel Thesaurus rerum ecclesiasticarum, pag. 340. for King Henry VIII before the consummation of the schism, bears witness. The parochial patroness of this church was St. Arilda, whom the same Bacon and Nicholas Carlisle A topographical dictionary of England, under Oldbury on the Hill. call Arild, and Samuel Lewis A topographical dictionary of England, tom. III, pag. 449. falsely Arila: which error was admitted into the above-mentioned Calendar illustrated. Browne Willis, brought forward by Challoner, does not seem to hand down more, since he used only Bacon's book.
[3] Her body was translated into the monastery of Gloucester. Of the translation of the body of St. Arilda to Gloucester there is nothing in the new Monasticon Anglicanum; nor even in the History and Cartulary of the Monastery of St. Peter of Gloucester, which William Henry Hart published in three volumes in the year 1867 at London, according to old manuscripts: so that neither can it be gathered in any way from there in what age the blessed martyr lived. Yet since the monastery of Gloucester was founded about the year 680 on the river Severn, it is clear that the body of St. Arilda came there after those times. A firmer argument is sought from the dedication of the church of Oldbury; for this is proper to England, that out of nearly twelve thousand sacred places very nearly all were dedicated to saints older than the tenth century, and the very few remaining to native saints, canonized by pontifical decree The Calendar of the Anglican Church illustrated, pag. 304 et seqq.. Whence it follows to some extent that the cult of St. Arilda was already strong in the tenth century.