a sæcular illustration of Saint Wulfþrýð of Wilton
Icon of the Synaxis of the Saints of Barking; Saint Wulfhild is on the far left
Wulfþrýð was the elder of the two cousins, having been born in the year 937. She was educated at Wilton Abbey, and lived there with the nuns. At the age of twenty-three, when she was either a novice or a nun, she was kidnaped by (or willingly eloped with) the then-not-so-saintly Saint Éadgár King of Wessex.
First, however, Éadgár seems to have been hard in pursuit of her younger cousin, Saint Wulfhild (born c. 940). Wulfhild, however, was then also already a novice at Wilton and dead-set in her determination to become a nun. Éadgár contrived to have her aunt, Abbess Wenflæd of Wherwell, invite her to her own abbey. It was, however, a trap: Wenflæd had already made a deal with Éadgár to deliver Wulfhild into the hands of his men, and he kept her at Wherwell under guard. However, Wulfhild managed to escape through the drains. Éadgár pursued her back to Wilton and found her there, but she had already sought sanctuary in the altar, and the amorous young prince was forced to relinquish his claim on her.
But Éadgár found in her elder kinswoman Wulfþrýð, who was as stated before also at Wilton, an equally-fair and far more willing lover. He took her to his manor at Kemsing in the North Downs where she became his kept woman. The affaire resulted in Wulfþrýð’s pregnancy, and while she was still in Kent she gave birth to a daughter, Éadgýð. Soon after their daughter’s birth, Wulfþrýð – stricken with compunction for the souls of herself, her husband and daughter – returned willingly to Wilton. It appears she remained good friends with Éadgár even after her return to the monastic life. Éadgár – who also seems to have repented – acknowledged Éadgýð as a legitimate daughter and penned a charter to Wulfþrýð for her support; he also willingly undertook seven years of fasting penance for having seduced her, during which time he also would not wear or even touch his own crown. Later, when Wulfþrýð had become Abbess of Wilton, she successfully pled before her former lover for clemency on behalf of a thief pursued by his bailiff, who had sought sanctuary within the abbey.
Both women were the beneficiaries of Éadgár’s public penance. Saints Wulfþrýð and Éadgýð both were well cared-for at Wilton, which received generous support and endowments from Éadgár King for the rest of his life. Holy Mother Wulfþrýð cared deeply for their daughter, who in turn embraced the monastic life, complete with its prayer and abstinence and radical kenotic giving, with both arms. Saint Éadgýð is commemorated next week so I will treat her in greater depth then; but suffice it to say that despite her death at a tragically young age, she is nevertheless one of England’s great ‘social justice’ saints, with her emphasis on caring for the poor and needy. Wulfhild, who was then a nun at Horton in Dorset, was made abbess – with Éadgár’s blessing and more likely than not at his insistence – of the newly-renovated Abbey at Barking to which Saint Dúnstán had contributed so much. In her pursuit of holiness she joined such venerable abbesses and holy mothers of the Church as Saint Hildalíþ and Saint Æþelburg sister of Saint Eorcenwald.
Sadly for England, Éadgár remarried. The third wife he chose, Ælfþrýð, was blessed with Wulfþrýð’s outward fairness but all too little of her inward beauty, for she had the heart of a venomous snake. She bore to him the future king Æþelræd Unrǽd. However, she also connived to have Éadgár’s elder son Saint Éadweard murdered. She also bore a certain spiteful jealousy toward Éadgár’s former wife and her kinswoman. She connived with several unscrupulous nuns of Barking to have Saint Wulfhild was stripped of her abbacy and thrown out of the house of God. Wulfhild spent the next twenty years at Horton, and would later be reinstated as abbess of Barking by Æþelræd King. The final seven years of her life, Saint Wulfhild served as abbess of both Barking and Horton.
As for the older cousin, Wulfþrýð, she served as Abbess of Wilton until her death, several years after her saintly daughter’s. Éadgýð, for the wonders she wrought in life and for the visions of her which the nuns of Wilton received, quickly was recognised as a saint and became the patroness of Wilton; she was publicly venerated and her cultus promoted by several kings starting with Æþelræd Unrǽd. Wulfþrýð herself continued her daughter’s work and managed the affairs of Wilton with great success. She too was venerated as a saint after her death, and was buried in front of the altar inside the Wilton Abbey Church.
Holy mothers Wulfþrýð and Wulfhild, you who rejected worldly power and ease for lives of devotion, for the sake of us your wayward children, pray unto Christ our God to save our souls!
Saint Mary’s Church in Wilton
Barking Abbey in London
No comments:
Post a Comment