Pega
{{short description|8th-century Anglo-Saxon anchoress and saint}}
{{About|the Christian saint|the software|Pegasystems}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=February 2015}}
{{Infobox saint
| name = Saint Pega
| image = St Pega, Peakirk - Stained glass window (geograph 2466867).jpg
| imagesize = 200
| alt =
| caption = Stained glass window depicting Saint Pega in Peakirk church
| titles = Anchoress
| birth_date = c. 673
| birth_place = Mercia
| death_date = c. 719
| death_place = Rome
| venerated_in = Catholic Church
Anglican Churches
Eastern Orthodox ChurchJanuary 21 / January 8. https://www.holytrinityorthodox.com/htc/orthodox-calendar/
| major_shrine = Peakirk (partially destroyed)
| feast_day = 8 January
| attributes =
| patronage =
| suppressed_date =
| suppressed_by =
| influences =
| influenced =
| tradition =
| major_works =
}}
Pega (c. 673 – c. 719) is a Christian saint who was an anchoress in the ancient Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Mercia, and the sister of St Guthlac.
Life
File:St Pega, Peakirk - geograph.org.uk - 326208.jpg
The earliest source of information about Pega is in Felix's 8th-century Latin Life of Guthlac, where she is referred to as 'the holy virgin of Christ Pega'.{{Cite book|last=Felix|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/12262183|title=Felix's Life of Saint Guthlac|date=1985|publisher=Cambridge University Press|others=Bertram Colgrave|isbn=0-521-30926-3|location=Cambridge [Cambridgeshire]|pages=161–163|oclc=12262183}} As the sister of Guthlac, Pega would have been the daughter of Penwalh of Mercia and thus belonged to one of Mercia's great noble families.
She lived as an anchoress at what is now Peakirk ("Pega's church") near Peterborough, not far from Guthlac's hermitage at Crowland. When Guthlac realised that his end was near in 714, he summoned Pega, who travelled by boat to her brother's oratory to bury him. One year later, she presided over the translation of his remains into a new sepulchre, when his body was found to be incorrupt. At this time, Pega also used a piece of glutinous salt, which had been previously consecrated by Guthlac, to cure the eyesight of a blind man who had travelled to Crowland from Wisbech.
Henry of Avranches, in his 13th-century poetic life of Guthlac, adds the detail that Guthlac banished Pega from Crowland after the devil assumed her appearance and tempted him to break his fast.{{Cite book|author=Henry of Avranches|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/856879271|title=Saints' lives|date=2014|others=David Townsend|isbn=978-0-674-05128-7|location=Cambridge, Massachusetts|oclc=856879271}}
In the 15th-century Croyland Chronicle, Pseudo-Ingulf claims that Pega inherited Guthlac's psalter and scourge, both of which she later gave to Kenulph, the first abbot of Crowland Abbey.{{Cite book|last1=Ingulf|url=https://archive.org/details/ingulphschronic03petegoog|title=Ingulph's chronicle of the abbey of Croyland with the continuations by Peter of Blois and anonymous writers|last2=Peter|first2=of Blois|last3=Riley|first3=Henry T.|date=1854|publisher=London, H. G. Bohn|others=University of California}}
Death, miracles and legacy
Pega went on pilgrimage to Rome after Guthlac's death and died there on 8 January 719, according to a 12th-century account by Orderic Vitalis. Orderic claims that her remains were kept at a church built in Rome in her honour, and that miracles took place there.{{Cite book|last=Vitalis|first=Orderic|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/21520544|title=The Ecclesiastical History of Orderic Vitalis|date=1990|publisher=Clarendon Press|others=Marjorie Chibnall|isbn=0-19-822243-2|location=Oxford|oclc=21520544}}
The precise location of Pega's hermitage is not known, but it is possible that it was on the site of the 13th-century chapel at St Pega's Hermitage in Peakirk, which is now a private residence.{{Cite journal|last=Lumley Prior|first=Avril|date=2008|title=Fact and/or Folklore? The Case for St Pega of Peakirk|url=http://www.northamptonshirerecordsociety.org.uk/eNpp/NppNo61.pdf|journal=Northamptonshire Past and Present|volume=61|pages=7–17}}{{National Heritage List for England|num=1275188|desc=Hermitage, Peakirk|grade=II}}
Peakirk's Church of England parish church is uniquely dedicated to Pega. There is a local legend that Pega's heart was returned to Peakirk and was kept as a relic in the church contained in a heart stone. Its broken remains can still be seen in the south aisle window.{{Cite web|title=More About St Pega|url=http://www.peakirkvillage.co.uk/st-pegas-church/more-about-st-pega/|website=Peakirk Village|date=2 December 2017 }}
St Pega's Hermitage
File:St. Pega's Hermitage, Peakirk - geograph.org.uk - 4210101.jpg
St Pega's Hermitage is a chapel, now a private home, on what is considered likely to have been the site of St Pega's cell. A {{ca|1300}} chancel was expanded with a 15th-century nave. It was rebuilt and restored over various centuries, with an order of Anglican nuns housed in accommodation built in the 1850s and extended in 1937 for the Community of the Holy Family.{{cite news |title=Sisters at Peakirk Hermitage |url=https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0003302/19370910/141/0009 |access-date=26 January 2023 |work=Peterborough Standard |date=10 September 1937}}
The nuns, after 1980 from the Society of the Precious Blood, left in 2001,{{Historic England research records|num=350087|desc=The Hermitage|access-date=27 January 2023}} after which the property was deconsecrated by the Bishop of Peterborough, Ian Cundy, and sold. It has been converted into a private residence with an atrium linking the chapel, which retains the altar and other historic features, with the convent buildings. The Hermitage is Grade II listed.
References
{{reflist}}
{{Anglo-Saxon saints}}
{{authority control}}
Category:People from Peterborough
Category:8th-century Christian saints
Category:7th-century English people
Category:8th-century English people
Category:Christian female saints of the Middle Ages