Wendreda

Saint Wendreda, also called Wendreth, was an Anglo-⁠Saxon virgin, nun and healer, of March in Cambridgeshire, probably of the seventh century. The Church remembers her as patron of the town of March.

An uncertain tradition makes her a daughter of Anna, the Christian king of the East Angles, and thus a sister of Saints Etheldreda of Ely, Sexburga and Ethelburga. She may have grown up at Exning near Newmarket. Three of Anna's daughters married kings, but she chose the monastic life and was a herbalist and healer of people and animals. She settled in the wetlands of the Fens and, according to one source, founded a nunnery at March, where she spent the rest of her life. She became famous as a healer, and miraculous powers were attributed to her.

Her relics were taken to Ely, where they lay in a golden shrine until 1016, when Edmund Ironside bought them and carried them into battle against the Danes; at Assandun Canute captured them and later gave them to Canterbury Cathedral. In 1343 they were brought back to March, but their present resting place is usually said to be unknown. The only church dedicated to her is at March, notable for its oak roof with one hundred and eighteen angels with outstretched wings. At Exning a spring associated with her, also called St Mindred's Well, is now called St Wendreda's Well. She is a saint of the undivided Church, commemorated on 22 January (new style).