Wulfhilda of Barking

Saint Wulfhilda (Wulfhild, Wulfreda) of Barking was an Anglo-⁠Saxon abbess of Barking Abbey in the second half of the tenth century, born around 940 and died around 996 (the record gives 1000). The English source says that she is venerated as a saint in the Catholic Church; it shows no Orthodox glorification. The record gives 10 December as the day of commemoration, which the sources do not show.

She was the daughter of a Wessex nobleman named Wulfhelm. She was raised and educated by the Benedictine nuns of Wilton Abbey and joined their community on coming of age. The Russian source says that King Edgar, captivated by her beauty, sought a meeting with her and tried to entice her with gifts and offers, but she rejected his advances and fled from the room through an underground passage; later the king became infatuated with her cousin Wulfrida, whom he abducted from the convent and made his mistress. Around 970 the king appointed her abbess of Barking Abbey, according to the English source most likely to repent of his lustful pursuit of her. Under Wulfhilda's leadership the monastery flourished and greatly expanded; she herself donated 20 villages to the abbey and established another monastery, at Horton in Kent.

According to Goscelin of Saint-⁠Bertin, the nuns at Barking laid complaints against their abbess Wulfhilda, and Queen Ælfthryth deposed her, only to reinstate her twenty years later. Her fall may have been the result of jealousy, since Ælfthryth's husband Edgar may have had a romantic interest in Wulfhilda. Wulfhilda remained for twenty years in exile at Horton Priory, assisted by a group of sisters from Barking. She returned after Ælfthryth had driven Barking to near financial ruin and after the community received a vision from their founder, Saint Æthelburh, directing them to allow Wulfhilda to return. The Russian source says that after Edgar's death Queen Elfrida deprived her of all offices, but under Æthelred II she was restored to the position of abbess.

Goscelin also described her service to her followers, which he compared to the qualities of a humble, attentive and nurturing mother: drawing water, gathering wood, kindling fires, preparing provisions, distributing clothes and bathing her sisters. He praised her hands, in his description of her regular and secret practice of sitting before the doors of the abbey church and distributing alms to the poor as they passed by. He also praised her protégée and successor, Leofflæd, for following Wulfhilda's teachings and example of compassion. He dedicated his life of Wulfhilda to Bishop Maurice of London, Barking Abbey's diocesan at the time, and appealed to him to defend and accept the nuns who kept her memory alive, citing the role of women's testimony throughout the history of the Christian Church. She died and was buried at the abbey with two other saints, Hildelith and Ethelberga. According to Goscelin, her veneration was widespread and long-⁠lasting.