Holy Mother Éanswíþ, Venerable Abbess of Folkestone

Saint Éanswíþ of Folkestone

Possibly the first woman (alongside her aunt, Saint Æþelburg of Lyminge) to lead a religious community in England, and the granddaughter of the saintly royal couple Æþelberht and Berhte of Kent, today the Holy Orthodox Church commemorates Saint Éanswíþ of Folkestone, the spiritual mother of Kent.

Despite his parents’ conversion, Éanswíþ’s father Éadbald was still a Teutonic heathen when he came to the throne. It would take him several years to be converted by Saint Laurence, Archbishop of Canterbury. Upon his conversion, he put aside his first wife – who was also his stepmother – and married instead Emma of Austrasia, a Frankish Christian. Éanswíþ was the first-born of this union.

From childhood, Éanswíþ desired to lead a holy life of virginity in devotion to Christ. No doubt she was influenced by the company she kept, of holy men and women – Saint Æþelburg and Saint Laurence, but also Saint Mellitus and Saint Justus. Her aunt Æþelburg had married a heathen Northumbrian prince, Éadwine; and Éadbald hoped to make a match for his own daughter of equal political advantage. Unlike Æþelburg, however, Éanswíþ did not enter willingly into such a match. Indeed, she refused to marry at all. Despite her father’s consistent entreaties, God strengthened her in her refusal. Eventually, her father relented to let her become a nun, and with his blessing and support she founded Folkestone Abbey in 630. Nowadays there is an Abbey church which bears her name, but which was then dedicated to the Apostles Peter and Paul. Folkestone Priory drew holy women from both England and Francia; they gave themselves to constant prayer and repentance, as well as songs of praise to the Lord.

Saint Éanswíþ spent all of her remaining days on Earth in this house of God together with her sisters in God, and devoted herself not only to study of Scripture and prayer and the copying of manuscripts, but also to manual labour and works of material mercy for the sick, the poor and the homeless. As with all of the early men of God who came to English shores, and in particular the holy mothers of the English Church, material aid to the needy was one of her highest priorities.

In life, Saint Éanswíþ was able to work wonders; and several such wonders are attributed to her by her hagiographers. She healed a blind woman by the power of her prayers to God; and she also healed a madman of his mental illness in the same way. When Folkestone suffered a dearth of fresh water, her prayers produced a holy spring which met all the priory’s needs; at her asking, God even made the water to flow uphill for a mile to where the abbey was. She was even able to speak with animals and birds, who listened to her. She asked the birds to stop stealing wheat from the abbey fields, and they did as she bade them.

Her life on earth was sadly short. She reposed on the thirteenth of September in the year 640, after ten years in the priory. Although her life is ill-attested in contemporary documents, it is clear that she already had a local cultus by the year 867. In that year, the heathen Danish invaders attacked the priory at Folkestone and destroyed it; however, her relics had been moved inland to protect them. The site of the original priory was claimed by the sea, and the current church was built some miles inland in 1138.

The shrine to Saint Éanswíþ was destroyed in the anti-monastic violence and persecutions of the English Reformation; however Saint Éanswíþ’s relics had been hidden in an alabaster-lined leaden reliquary in the church walls, as workmen discovered on the 17^th of June, 1885. At first, the reliquary was brought out for public veneration on the saint’s feast day, but the practice halted when several more puritan-minded parishioners complained that the rector was ‘worshipping’ the relics. Still, some of the parishioners at Saint Mary’s and Saint Eanswythe’s still offer candles and flowers for the feast, at the brass door behind which the reliquary is ensconced. An Orthodox iconographer gifted the parish church an icon (shown above) of the Holy Mother of Kent.

With gladsome voices and hymns of praise
Let us extol the venerable Éanswíþ,
Who, setting aside rich princely apparel,
Gladly put on the mean and lowly habit of a nun;
And, in place of the idle pursuits of the royal court,
Set herself boldly to acquire all the virtues.
Wherefore, having pleased Christ by her charity and love,
She ever intercedeth with Him to have mercy on our souls!