Modwenna of Whitby

Saint Modwenna of Whitby (Modwen) is commemorated in the Orthodox calendar on 7 June, where she is called the successor of Saint Hilda as head of the monastery of Whitby in England, around the year 695 or 699. Other sources link her to the abbey of Burton in Staffordshire, and the two traditions seem to be mingled in her memory.

According to the medieval Life of Saint Modwenna she was an Irish noblewoman and founded an abbey on an island in the river Trent, at Burton. Many miracles are attributed to her at Burton, and the well on the site is held to have healing power to this day. After a time she is said to have gone to Scotland and to have reposed at Longforgan near Dundee, aged one hundred and thirty, and her body was brought back to Burton for burial. Saint Osyth (who reposed in 700) is said to have been raised under her direction.

Other scholars say she has been confused with Saint Monenna (Moninne) of Ireland and with a Scottish saint of the same name, and that the Anglo-⁠Norman text of her Life has little historical value. The church of St Modwen at Burton upon Trent bears her name, as does a chapel at Pillaton Hall. The Orthodox calendar commemorates her on 7 June, by the New Calendar.