33. SAINT CUTHBURGA, ABBESS OFWIMBORNE

Our holy Mother Cuthburga was the sister of King Ina of Wessex, a great king who in about 726 went to Rome with his wife Ethelburga, ending his days as a monk. Cuthburga was given in marriage to King Aldfrith of Northumbria in about 688. There are different accounts of this marriage. Some say that it was short and was never consummated; others – that it was long and produced a son, who was about eight years old when his father died. In any case, with the approval of her husband, Cuthburga retired from the world and went first to the monastery of Barking, near London, which was ruled at that time by St. Hildelitha. In 705 King Aldfrith died, whereupon Cuthburga journeyed back to her native Wessex and asked her brother, King Ina, for some land on which to found a monastery. In the year 713 she founded the monastery of Wimborne. She was reported to have been a beautiful woman, kind to others but severe to herself and assiduous in fasting and prayer. She reposed in about 725 and was buried in the church at Wimborne, where her coffin can still be seen.

St. Cuthburga is commemorated on August 31.

Holy Mother Cuthburga, pray to God for us!

(Sources: William of Malmesbury, Gesta Regum Anglorum; Margaret Gallyon, The Early Church in Wessex and Mercia, Lavenham: Terence Dalton, 1980, ch. 4; David Farmer, The Oxford Dictionary of Saints, Oxford; The Clarendon Press, 1978, p. 96; Christine Oliver, The Saxon Saints of Wimborne, Wimborne)