Cuthburga

Cuthburga , Old English Cūþburh or Cūðburh , transliterated Cuthburh, Cuthburgh or Cuthburg , Latinized in addition to Cuthburga also Cuthburgis and Cuthberga (* around 670 ; † around 725 ), was an Anglo-Saxon noblewoman and abbess who was venerated as a saint shortly after her death .

Lore

Not much is known about Cuthburga's life, the written tradition only began in the period after the Norman conquest of England , more than 300 years after her death. One of their biographers was Florentius of Worcester .

biography

Cuthburga was the daughter of Prince Cenred , a 2nd cousin of Caedwalla , King of Wessex . Her brothers were Ine , who was King of Wessex from 688 to 726 after Caedwalla's renunciation and conversion to the Christian faith, and Ingild, an ancestor of Alfred the Great . She also had three sisters: Cwenburga, Edburga and Tata.

Around the year 695, Cuthburga married Aldfrith , King of Northumbria (r. 686–705), and a year later gave birth to a son named Osred , who later also became King of Northumbria (r. 706–716). Other sons named Offa († 750) and Osric († 729) are also mentioned. Possibly there was also a daughter named Osanna (around 698 - around 750), who was later also venerated as a saint. A few years later, Aldfrith and Cuthburga separated - as it is said, for religious reasons. Aldfrith died in 705.

At the same time as her sister Cwenburga, who was later also venerated as a saint, Cuthburga then took the veil in the nunnery of Barking Abbey near London, which was famous for its high standard of education. Either on her own initiative or on the initiative of her brother Ine , a nunnery was founded around the year 705 in the lonely forest of Wimborne, today's Wimborne Minster , and she became its first abbess. Her sister also entered this Benedictine monastery as a nun , which soon trumped Barking Monastery due to the prevailing discipline and education. Saints Walpurga , Lioba and Thekla received their religious and secular training in Wimborne before they went to St. Boniface followed on a missionary trip to what is now southern Germany.

According to tradition, Cuthburga died on August 31, 725 (the year 718 is also mentioned). Her grave is said to be under the pulpit of the former monastery church of Wimborne.

Afterlife

In the letters of St. Boniface finds himself a vision of Cuthburga in hell.

literature

• Patricia H. Coulstock: The Collegiate Church of Wimborne Minster - Studies in the History of Medieval Religion. Boydell Press, Woddbridge 1993, ISBN 978-0-85115-339-1 .
• Reinhold Rau (arrangement): Letters from Boniface. Willibald's Life of Boniface. Along with some contemporary documents . Revised using the translations by Michael Tangl and Philipp Hedwig Külb . Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, Darmstadt, 2nd edition 1988, ISBN 3-534-01415-4 .

Web links

• St. Cuthburga, biography (English)

Remarks

1. ↑ The latter is sometimes written with the initial K , as a (rare) female first name and religious name, also as Guthburga and Gutburga .
2. ^ The Chronicle of Florence of Worcester , engl. Edition from 1834 ( digitized version)