Aethelflaed of Romsey

Saint Aethelflaed of Romsey (Ælflæd, Æthelflæda) was, in the late tenth century, abbess of Romsey Abbey in England, and she is patron of the abbey church of St Mary and St Ethelflaeda. Her identity is obscure; later stories make her the daughter of the nobleman Æthelwold or of King Edgar. She became abbess about 1003, after Saints Mærwynn and Elwina. She is said to have chanted psalms at night standing in the River Test, and from her youth to have worked miracles: she saw her teacher gathering switches outside through the abbey wall, and light came from her fingers when her lamp went out, so that she could finish her lesson.

She appears in a few monastic calendars of the eleventh and twelfth centuries. Her feast is kept on 23 October (new style, Western calendar). Her tomb is in the St Ethelflaeda Chapel of the abbey church, and a festival is held in her honour. She is a saint of the undivided Church, honoured locally.