Venerable Æþelburg, Abbess of Faremoutiers

One of the buildings of Faremoutiers Abbey, France

The seventh of July is also the feast of Saint Æþelburg of Faremoutiers. This Æþelburg was an East Anglian girl who was educated at an abbey in north-central Francia, at which she became a nun and later, the third abbess after its foundress, Saint Fara the Burgundian, and her half-sister Saint Sǽþrýð. She was, along with her sister Sǽþrýð, one of the first English royals to enter the cloistered life. She thus set a precedent for Old English royalty who sought another life than the one offered by their high birth.

Æþelburg was the second-youngest daughter of Anna King of the East Angles, and had probably been converted by Saint Felix along with the rest of her family. Her sisters, Sǽþrýð, Seaxburg, Æþelþr‎ýð and Wihtburg, are all also saints. The decision of her father to send her with Sǽþrýð to be educated at Faremoutiers is a bit puzzling. However, Saint Felix being Burgundian himself, he may have had some familial tie or at least a tie of common gæographical origin to Saint Fara in Francia. They may thus have been recommended by Saint Felix.

Faremoutiers was a cloister which then followed the Rule of Saint Columbanus. Æþelburg chose to take the tonsure here alongside her sister, keeping this comparatively-strict ascetic rule. After her half-sister reposed in the Lord and left the abbacy to her, Æþelburg blessed the grounds for, and began building, a church that would be dedicated to all the Apostles within the grounds of Faremoutiers Abbey. It was in this church that she expressed a desire to be buried. Her church was never completed, however, as she met her blessed repose on the seventh of July, 664. However, she was buried on the grounds as she wished.

Seven years afterward, the brothers of Faremoutiers Abbey were faced with a decision, whether to continue building Saint Æþelburg’s church, or whether to exhume her relics and have her translated to a more fitting location. They opted for the latter. Saint Æþelburg’s remains were uncovered, and they were discovered to be incorrupt: though she had been dead and buried seven years, her remains were intact and she appeared merely to be sleeping. The brethren bathed and redressed her body and placed it in a reliquary at St Stephens Church nearby. Venerable Æþelburg, faithful abbess of Faremoutiers, pray unto Christ our God that our souls may be saved!