Holy Mother Éadburg
Today in the Orthodox Church we celebrate the memory of Éadburg, the learned and holy Benedictine abbess of Minster Abbey at Minster-in-Thanet in Kent and confidant and successor to the Venerable Saint Mildþrýð of the same cloister, who notably kept up a strong friendship and written correspondence with Saint Boniface of Fulda, Apostle to the Germans.
Éadburg was born a West Saxon princess, the only daughter of Centwine of Wessex (evidently a close kinsman of the same Cynegils who was baptised by Saint Berin) and his wife Eangýþ, who later became a nun and raised Éadburg among the Benedictine sisters. It is clear that she received a good education from her mother, for she was not only proficient in writing in Latin, but could also produce poetry in her own tongue. Éadburg herself took the veil when she came of age, and joined the cloister at Thanet. She served under Saint Mildþrýð with great love and attention, and was chosen to take her place when that true blossom of the English people met her holy repose.
As abbess, Éadburg proved to be an effective administrator of her cloister. She managed to secure a renewed royal charter for Minster Abbey. Seeing the buildings therein to be insufficient to house her sisters well, whose number had grown under Saint Mildþrýð’s care, she had a new house for them built, and sought and was given blessing from Saint Cuþberht of Canterbury to build a new abbey church dedicated to Saints Peter and Paul. She then had translated there the incorrupt relics of her saintly predecessor.
It was at this time also that her friendship with Saint Boniface began – when she sent to him in Frisia an altar-cloth and forty shillings, along with her regrets that she could not then spare more. It appears however that the holy Saint Boniface received the gift warmly, in the heartfelt spirit of sisterly love in which it was given. Though there stood a sea between them, there started a friendly correspondence that lasted until they both were elderly. As she was able, Éadburg sent Boniface additional gifts for his mission, including books and liturgical vestments; and Saint Boniface wrote to her to give her comfort when she suffered a long illness. She also took as her pupil one Leobgýþ, a young female cousin of Boniface who would join him in Germany in the service of the Church, and taught her how to write in verse. At one point, in her old age, Éadburg made a pilgrimage to Rome, and there met Boniface of Fulda in person.
Though the hagiographical materials I was able to track down on Saint Éadburg of Thanet are rather terse, we can still see from them – and also from the primary source documents to and about her – the skills and learning she brought to her vocation, as well as some telltale aspects of the personality shining through them. She was well-read – primarily in the Scriptures and the Divine Law which, in the words of her pupil Leobgýþ, she ‘reads without ceasing’. She was a skilled scribe, as shown by the requests from Saint Boniface for copies of manuscripts (such as the Epistles of Saint Peter) in her hand. She could be a shrewd stateswoman when she needed to be, as evidenced by her securing of the royal charter and the relics of Saint Mildþrýð. She cared deeply, maternally, for her sisters in the cloister, losing no time and sparing no effort in seeing to their needs. She clearly possessed a formidable intellect and a keen curiosity about the world, having kept up a Latin correspondence with Saint Boniface and having followed with interest and with care the concerns of the church in frempt lands like Germany. And she even cared for lay sisters like Leobgýþ with motherly concern.
After a long life full of such holy and intellectual labours, Saint Éadburg reposed in peace in 751, and her relics were placed alongside those of her friend and predecessor Saint Mildþrýð in the abbey church. There for a long time afterward, the sick, the infirm and those in pain and distress would visit her shrine and be healed; even in her repose she cared for the least of her countrymen as a loving mother would.
Holy and Venerable Mother Éadburg of Thanet, pray to Christ our God for us sinners!
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