Cuthburh

Saint Cuthburh (Cuthburga, died 31 August 725, according to the Russian source about 718) was the first abbess of Wimborne in England, sister of King Ine of Wessex and wife of King Aldfrith of Northumbria. She is commemorated on 31 August. Our sources present her as a saint of Anglo-⁠Saxon England, without formal Orthodox veneration.

Life

She was the daughter of Cenred of Wessex, with two brothers, Ine and Ingeld, and a sister, Cwenburh. Ingeld was an ancestor of Alfred the Great. Her marriage to Aldfrith allied him with Ine, one of the most powerful rulers in Anglo-⁠Saxon England. She is the only recorded wife of Aldfrith, who had at least two sons, Osred and Offa; she is usually considered the mother of Osred, while her maternity of Offa is uncertain; they are also thought to have had a daughter, Osana, later venerated as a saint. According to Florence of Worcester, written much later, before the death of Aldfrith, in 705, he and Cuthburh "renounced connubial intercourse for the love of God". Cuthburh then entered the nunnery of Abbess Hildelith at Barking. She is considered the "Cuthburh" of the dedication of Aldhelm's treatise De virginitate and thought to have been related to him. After Aldfrith's death, about 705, Cuthburh and Cwenburh established a double monastery in her brother's kingdom of Wessex, at Wimborne, in Dorset.

She is described as austere and communicated with prelates through a little hatch in the nunnery at Wimborne. Among the surviving letters of Saint Boniface is an anonymous account of a vision of Abbess Cuthburh in Hell. She died on 31 August 725 at Wimborne and is said to be buried under the wall of the chancel. In 1538, when Wimborne Minster was in need of repair, the guardians of the church wrote to Thomas Cromwell for permission to melt down the silver reliquary containing Cuthburh's head; a few years later the tower collapsed, so it is surmised that the reliquary was taken for the King's use. It is not said what then happened to her head. No sources relating to her survive from before the Norman conquest.