Alkelda

Saint Alkelda (Alcelda, Alchhild) is an English saint of whom almost nothing is known and whose existence has been questioned. According to the legend, she was an Anglo-⁠Saxon princess, perhaps also a nun, who was strangled by pagan Viking women during Danish raids around the year 800 at Middleham in Yorkshire. She died on 28 March, around 800. She is the patron of the churches at Giggleswick and Middleham, both of which have holy wells; she is thought also to have been abbess of a monastery at Middleham. In 1389 the lord of Middleham Manor was granted the right to hold a weekly market and a yearly fair on her feast. There is no documentary mention of her until late in the Middle Ages; her name is thought to be a corruption of the Anglo-⁠Saxon word for holy spring. She is a saint of the undivided Church, commemorated on 27 March (new style; 9 April in the old style).