Cuthburh

{{Infobox saint

|name=Cuthburh

|honorific_prefix=Saint

|birth_date=

|death_date= 31 August 725

|feast_day=31 August

|venerated_in=Catholic Church
Anglican Communion
Eastern Orthodox Church

|image=

|imagesize=200px

|caption=

|birth_place=

|death_place=

|titles=Abbess, Queen

|beatified_date=

|beatified_place=

|beatified_by=

|canonized_date=

|canonized_place=

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|attributes=

|patronage=

|major_shrine=Wimborne Minster

|suppressed_date=

|issues=

}}

{{Infobox royalty

| name = Cuthburh

| title = Queen consort of Northumbria
Abbess of Wimborne Minster

| image = File:Wimborne Minster - geograph.org.uk - 3947668.jpg

| caption = Her Abbey, now Wimborne Minster

| spouse = Aldfrith of Northumbria

| issue = Osred I of Northumbria

| full name =

| house = House of Wessex (by birth)

| father = Cenred of Wessex

| mother =

| birth_date =

| birth_place =

| death_date = 31 August 725

| religion = Christianity}}

Saint Cuthburh or Cuthburg, Cuthburga ({{langx|ang|Cūþburh}}; died 31 August 725) was the first Abbess of Wimborne Minster.{{Cite web|url=https://www.catholic.org/saints/saint.php?saint_id=961|title=St. Cuthburga - Saints & Angels}}{{Cite web|url=http://earlybritishkingdoms.com/adversaries/bios/cuthburga.html|title=EBK: St. Cuthburga, Abbess of Wimborne}}{{Cite web|url=https://www.thyateira.org.uk/cuthburga/|title=Archdiocese of Thyateira and Great Britain}} She was the sister of Ine, King of Wessex and was married to the Northumbrian king Aldfrith.

Life

Cuthburh was the daughter of Cenred of Wessex. In addition to her brother Ine, she also had a brother Ingild, who was an ancestor of Alfred the Great, and a sister Cwenburh. Her marriage to Aldfrith allied him with Ine, one of the most powerful kings in Anglo-Saxon England. Cuthburh was Aldfrith's only known wife. Aldfrith had at least two sons, Osred and Offa, it is believed Cuthburh was the mother of Osred, Offa it is not certain.Kirby, D. P. The Earliest English Kings. London: Unwin Hyman, 1991. {{ISBN| 0-04-445691-3}}, p. 145. It is also believed they were the parents of a daughter Osana, who would later be known as Saint Osana.{{Cite web|url=http://earlybritishkingdoms.com/adversaries/bios/cuthburga.html|title=EBK: St. Cuthburga, Abbess of Wimborne}}{{Cite web|url=https://www.thyateira.org.uk/cuthburga/|title=Archdiocese of Thyateira and Great Britain}}

According to a report by Florence of Worcester, written long afterwards, at some time before Aldfrith's death in 705 he and Cuthburh "renounced connubial intercourse for the love of God". Following this, Cuthburh entered Abbess Hildelith's nunnery at Barking Abbey. Cuthburh is traditionally associated with the "Cuthburh" mentioned in the dedication of Aldhelm's treatise De virginitate.[https://books.google.com/books?id=aF7NCwAAQBAJ&dq=Cuthburh&pg=PA29 Dockray-Miller, Mary. Motherhood and Mothering in Anglo-Saxon England, Springer, 2000], {{ISBN|9780312299637}}, p. 29 It is thought that she was in some way related to Aldhelm. After Aldfrith's death, around 705, Cuthburh and Cwenburh established a double-monastery in her brother's kingdom of Wessex, at Wimborne, Dorset.

She is described as austere, and she communicated with prelates through a little hatch in the nunnery at Wimborne. Among Saint Boniface's surviving letters is an anonymous account of a vision of Abbess Cuthburh in Hell.Bonifacius, Ephraim Emerton, and Austin P. Evans. The Letters of Saint Boniface. New York: Columbia University Press, 1940. P. 190.

Cuthburh died on 31 August 725 at Wimborne and is said to be buried under the wall of the chancel.{{Cite web|url=http://earlybritishkingdoms.com/adversaries/bios/cuthburga.html|title=EBK: St. Cuthburga, Abbess of Wimborne}}

In 1538, Wimborne Minster being in need of repair, the guardians of the church wrote Thomas Cromwell for permission to melt down the silver reliquary containing Cuthburh's head. As a few years later, the tower collapsed, it is surmised that the reliquary was confiscated to the King's use. It is not mentioned what then happened to her head.[https://books.google.com/books?id=UCtJAQAAMAAJ&dq=St.+Cuthburh&pg=RA1-PA415 "Wimborne Minster", The Saturday Review, October 1, 1881, p. 415, John W. Parker and Son]

The feast day associated with her is 31 August.Mayo, 1860

References

Sources

Farmer, D. H. (1987). The Oxford Dictionary of Saints, p. 96. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Lapidge, Michael, "Cuthburg", in M. Lapidge et al., The Blackwell Encyclopedia of Anglo-Saxon England. (Oxford: Blackwell, 1999)
Mayo, C.H. (1860). History of Wimborne Minster: The Collegiate Church of Saint Cuthberga and King's Free Chapel at Wimborne, (pp. 4–6). London: Bell and Daldy. [https://archive.org/stream/historywimborne00mayogoog#page/n20/mode/2up/search/cuthberga archive.org]