Werburgh
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Werburgh (also known as Werburga) (d. February 3, 699 at Trentham) is an English saint and the patron saint of Chester.
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Werburgh was instrumental in convent reform across England. She eventually succeeded her mother Ermenilda, her grandmother Sexberga, and great-aunt Etheldreda as fourth Abbess of Ely.
She was buried at Hanbury in Staffordshire, and was afterwards translated to Chester, of which church and monastery she became the great patroness (see Chester Cathedral). She is the last abbess whose name is recorded.
The Cult of St Werbergh
| Saint Werburgh of Chester | |
|---|---|
| Born | ?,Staffordshire |
| Died | February 3, 699 |
| Feast | February 3 |
| Patronage | Chester, England |
By the year 708 her brother Cenred had succeeded as king of Mercia; he now decided to move his sister's body to a more conspicuous place within the church at Hanbury. Her body was found to be miraculously intact. This was considered to be a sign of divine favour, and her tomb therefore became an object of veneration and a centre for pilgrimage. Her brother is said to have to have been so affected by this miracle that he decided to abdicate and enter holy orders himself; however, he came from a notably religious family (his mother, grandmother and great-aunt all being abbesses). It is possible that the anecdote about the saint reviving a goose dates from this time.
The shrine of St Werbergh remained at Hanbury for the next 160 years or so but due to the threat from Viking raiders in the 9th century, the shrine was relocated in 875 to the Church of St. Peter and St. Paul which lay within the protection of the city walls of Chester.
The city of Chester therefore became the focus for the cult of Werburga. Sometime later, the Church of St. Peter and St. Paul was re-dedicated to St. Werburgh and St Oswald around the year 975, when a monastery was also built in the names of these two saints.
In 1057 the church was rebuilt and further endowed by Leofric, Earl of Mercia. By this time, St. Werburgh was regarded as the protector and patron saint of the city, after the supposed miraculous withdrawal of the Welsh king Gruffudd ap Llywelyn from a siege of the city.
St. Werburgh remained popular after the Norman conquest. In 1093, the Norman Earl of Chester, Hugh d' Avranches, better known as "Hugh the Fat" to the Welsh, further endowed the abbey and its church. He also established a Benedictine monastery, with specially imported monks from the highly-regarded Bec Abbey in Normandy (that had provided the first two post-Conquest Archbishops of Canterbury - Lanfranc and Anselm). Like many other Anglo-Norman barons, Hugh d'Avranches entered the monastery himself shortly before he died. He was buried therein, and the church eventually grew into Chester Cathedral.
An elaborate shrine was eventually constructed in the fourteenth century but did not survive the reign of Henry VIII. When the abbey was dissolved, the shrine was broken up and the remains of the saint scattered. The various remains of the shrine that survived were collected together in 1876, reassembled, and now remain on display to this day at the Lady Chapel of the cathedral.
The Saint Today
St Werburgh remains the patron saint of Chester. Her feast day is February 3.
Many churches in England and overseas are still dedicated to her.
A suburb of Bristol, in the South West of England, just north of the city centre, is named St Werburghs.
External links
- [Life of St Werbergh]
- [St Werberga and her royal and saintly relatives at Ely]
- [Reference to Earl Hugh building the abbey church]
- [Steve Howe's 'Chester: a Virtual stroll Around the Walls']
- [Early British Kingdoms: St. Werburga of Chester, Abbess of Ely]
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