Saint Eadburgh of Winchester was born circa 925 in Wessex, England to Edward the Elder (c870-924) and Eadgifu of Kent (c902-968) and died 15 June 960 of unspecified causes.
Biography
Saint Eadburh (or Edburga) was the daughter of King Edward the Elder of England and his third wife, Eadgifu of Kent (c902-968).
House of Wessex
She was a princess of the royal English dynasty House of Wessex, a family originating in the southwest corner of England and gradually increased in power and prestiege. The House became rulers of all the country with the reign of Alfred the Great in 871 and lasting until Edmund Ironside in 1016. This period of the English monarchy is known as the Saxon period.
Convent Life
In the twelfth century, a Latin Life of her was written by Osbert de Clare, who became prior of Westminster in 1136 (and who also wrote a Life of King Edward the Confessor). According to Osbert, at the age of three, Eadburh was given as an oblate to the Queen Mother Ealhswith's foundation of St Mary's Abbey, Winchester (Nunnaminster). There Eadburh was educated and there she remained as a nun and died probably before the age of forty.
There is little contemporary information for her life, but in a Winchester charter dated 939, she was the beneficiary of land at Droxford in Hampshire granted by her half-brother King Athelstan.
Veneration
A cult developed after her death and is first mentioned in the Salisbury Psalter from the early 970s. In 972, some of her remains were transferred to Pershore Abbey in Worcestershire, which is dedicated to SS. Mary, Peter and Paul, and Eadburh. Her feast is celebrated on 15 June. Her cultus continued to flourish to judge by the Lives written in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries.
She was canonized to sainthood by the church in 972. Her feast day (15 June 960) is Venerated in Anglican Communion, Roman Catholic Church, and Orthodox Church.
Siblings
| Name | Birth | Death | Joined with |
| Athelstan (895-939) | 895 Wessex | 27 October 929 Gloucestershire, England | |
| Edith the Poleworth (c896-) | 896 England | Ireland | Sitric Cáech (c890-927) |
| Name | Birth | Death | Joined with |
| Ælfweard of Wessex (904–924) | 904 Wessex, England | 2 August 924 Oxford, Oxfordshire, England | |
| Eadgifu of Wessex (902-aft955) | 902 | 955 | Charles the Simple (879-929) Herbert III de Vermandois (c913-c982) |
| Eadgyth of Wessex (910-946) | 910 | 26 January 946 | Otto I von Sachsen (912-973) |
| Eadhilda of Wessex (-937) | 937 | Hugh the Great (898-956) | |
| Ælfgifu of Wessex (-) | |||
| Eadflæd of Wessex (-) | |||
| Edwin Ætheling (c912-933) | 912 Wessex, England | 933 England | |
| Name | Birth | Death | Joined with |
| Edmund of Wessex (922-946) | 922 England, United Kingdom (Wessex) | 26 May 946 Pucklechurch, Gloucestershire, England, United Kingdom | Ælfgifu of Shaftesbury (-944) Æthelflæd of Damerham (c925-c975) |
| Eadred of Wessex (c924-955) | 923 Wessex, England | 23 November 955 Frome, Somerset, England | |
| Edburga of Winchester (c925-960) | 925 Wessex, England | 15 June 960 | |
References
- Eadburgh of Winchester - Wikipedia