Hwita of Whitchurch Canonicorum

Saint Hwita of Whitchurch Canonicorum (Wite, in Latin Candida) is the patron of the church at Whitchurch Canonicorum in Dorset, England, called the Church of St Candida and Holy Cross. It is one of only two parish churches in the country to have a shrine that contains the relics of their patron saint. Alfred the Great founded a church on the site in the ninth century named Hwitan Cyrican, "White Church", and bequeathed it to his youngest son Æthelweard; in the eleventh century William the Conqueror gave the church to the monks of Saint-⁠Wandrille. The oldest parts of the present building date from the twelfth century. No other details of her life have been kept in our sources. She is a saint of the undivided Church, honoured locally.