Saint Etheldreda of Ely

Saint Etheldreda, also known in England as Audrey, was an Anglo-Saxon princess and queen of Northumbria, and later a nun and abbess of the monastery of Ely, which she herself founded. The Church commemorates her on June 23. Most of what we know about her comes from Saint Bede the Venerable, in his Ecclesiastical History of the English People.

She was the daughter of Anna, king of the East Angles. The year of her birth is not known. She was first given in marriage to Tonbert, prince of the South Gyrwe, who died soon after the wedding. According to later tradition, she received land at Ely from him as a wedding gift. She then married Egfrid, son of King Oswy of Northumbria, who later succeeded his father on the throne.

Bede, who questioned the bishop Saint Wilfrid about this, writes that although she lived with Egfrid for twelve years, she preserved her virginity. Wilfrid assured him that he was a reliable witness to it, because the king had promised him lands and much money if he could persuade the queen to consummate the marriage. Etheldreda long begged her husband to let her leave the cares of the world and serve Christ alone in a monastery. When she had obtained his consent with difficulty, she entered the monastery of Coldingham, governed by Abbess Ebba, the king’s aunt, and received the religious veil from Wilfrid’s hands.

A year later she became abbess at Ely, in the land of the East Angles from which she came; she began building the monastery there in 673. According to Bede, she became the virgin mother of many virgins consecrated to God, and monks also lived in her community. From the time she entered the monastery she wore only woolen garments, rarely took a warm bath, usually ate once a day, and prayed in the church from Matins until daybreak.

According to some accounts that Bede records, she foretold the pestilence of which she was to die and the number of members of her community whom it would carry off. She died in 679, seven years after becoming abbess, suffering from a large swelling on her neck. She used to say that she rightly suffered in her neck, on which in her youth she had worn the needless weight of jewels. As she had wished, she was buried in a wooden coffin among her community.

She was succeeded by her sister Sexburga, widow of Erconbert, king of Kent. Sixteen years after the burial, Sexburga had Etheldreda’s remains moved into the church. Bede, citing witnesses, among them Wilfrid and the physician Cynefrid, writes that the body was found free of corruption, and that the incision the physician had made during her illness had healed. Her tomb at Ely was a place of pilgrimage for centuries.

Etheldreda lived long before canonization processes existed; her cult arose soon after her death. Bede mentions healings through her relics and the veneration shown to her body in his own day, and he composed a hymn in her honor, which he included in his History. The Roman Martyrology commemorates her as an abbess who by her example and admonitions was a mother to many virgins.