Arilda of Oldbury

Holy Martyr Arilda of Oldbury (Arild) was a virgin of Gloucestershire in England who met her death defending her chastity. She probably lived in the 5th or 6th century and may have been of Anglo-⁠Saxon or Welsh origin. She is a saint of the undivided Church.

According to the antiquary John Leland, she was slain by a youth named Municus when she refused to be dishonoured. Two churches in Gloucestershire bear her name, one at Oldbury-⁠on-⁠Severn near her traditional home, another, St Arild's, at Oldbury-⁠on-⁠the-⁠Hill; both places were called Aldberie in the Domesday Book of 1086. Leland says Arilda lived at Kington, a hamlet in the parish of Oldbury-⁠on-⁠Severn, where there is a holy well bearing her name; its waters are said to run red with her blood, though a more prosaic explanation is a red alga. There was a shrine to her at St Peter's Abbey, Gloucester, now the cathedral, destroyed after the Dissolution of the Monasteries.

She is commemorated on 30 October, the liturgical date in the Orthodox calendar (the same day number on the old and new calendars).