Venerable
Cuthswith
An Anglo-Saxon venerable mother; few details of her life survive.
Uncertain source. We are looking to verify this information as soon as we can.
- Era
- 8th century
- Order
- Venerables
Life
Cuthswith was abbess of Inkberrow (then Penintanham) in the late seventh and early eighth centuries. She may have been related to the Mercian or Hwiccian royal families. She was at first based at Bath. By a charter of 693 to 699, King Oshere gave her fifteen hides of land for a monastery at Inkberrow, in the diocese of Worcester; between 704 and 709 she received five more. She was almost certainly the owner of a fifth-century manuscript of Jerome's Commentary on Ecclesiastes, in which was written in Old English 'a book of Cuthswith the abbess', around 700. The sources show no canonization.