Frideswide
Encyclopedia
English people
The English are a nation and ethnic group native to England, who speak English. The English identity is of early mediaeval origin, when they were known in Old English as the Anglecynn. England is now a country of the United Kingdom, and the majority of English people in England are British Citizens...
princess and abbess
Abbess
An abbess is the female superior, or mother superior, of a community of nuns, often an abbey....
who is credited with establishing Christ Church
Christ Church, Oxford
Christ Church or house of Christ, and thus sometimes known as The House), is one of the largest constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England...
in Oxford
Oxford
The city of Oxford is the county town of Oxfordshire, England. The city, made prominent by its medieval university, has a population of just under 165,000, with 153,900 living within the district boundary. It lies about 50 miles north-west of London. The rivers Cherwell and Thames run through...
.
Life
Two twelfth-century Latin lives (edited by John Blair) underlie two Middle English accounts of the Life of Saint Frithuswith included in the South English LegendarySouth English Legendary
The South English Legendary is a Middle English hagiographic manuscript, best preserved in MS Harley 2277 and CCCC 145, which contain 92 narrative lives, extremely varied in length, usually including one of two prologues and often including a life of Christ and/or temporal items...
which differ slightly in their story. Frithuswith was born to Didan (an Anglo-Saxon
Anglo-Saxon
Anglo-Saxon may refer to:* Anglo-Saxons, a group that invaded Britain** Old English, their language** Anglo-Saxon England, their history, one of various ships* White Anglo-Saxon Protestant, an ethnicity* Anglo-Saxon economy, modern macroeconomic term...
sub-king) and his wife Safrida around AD
Anno Domini
and Before Christ are designations used to label or number years used with the Julian and Gregorian calendars....
650. With the help of her father, Frithuswith founded a priory
Priory
A priory is a house of men or women under religious vows that is headed by a prior or prioress. Priories may be houses of mendicant friars or religious sisters , or monasteries of monks or nuns .The Benedictines and their offshoots , the Premonstratensians, and the...
(St Frideswide's Priory) while still young, but even though Fritheswith was bound to celibacy, Algar (that is, Ælfgār), a Mercia
Mercia
Mercia was one of the kingdoms of the Anglo-Saxon Heptarchy. It was centred on the valley of the River Trent and its tributaries in the region now known as the English Midlands...
n king, sought to marry her. When Frithuswith refused him, Algar tried to abduct her.
According to the longer tale in the South English Legendary, Fritheswith flees to Oxford. There she finds a ship sent by God which takes her to Bampton
Bampton
- England :* Bampton, Cumbria* Bampton, Devon** Bampton railway station**Bampton * Bampton, Oxfordshire- Other :*Bampton Island, former name of Parama Island, Papua New Guinea*Bampton Reefs, Chesterfield Islands, New Caledonia- People :...
. Meanwhile the King searches for her in Oxford, but the people refuse to tell him where she is. When he has searched the whole town but cannot find her, he becomes blind
Blindness
Blindness is the condition of lacking visual perception due to physiological or neurological factors.Various scales have been developed to describe the extent of vision loss and define blindness...
. In the shorter version, Frithuswith hides in a forest outside Oxford, but when Algar comes to look for her, she sneaks back into the town. The king follows her, but just outside the Oxford city gates he falls off his horse and breaks his neck.
In the longer life, the nuns in Binsey complain of having to fetch water from the distant River Thames
River Thames
The River Thames flows through southern England. It is the longest river entirely in England and the second longest in the United Kingdom. While it is best known because its lower reaches flow through central London, the river flows alongside several other towns and cities, including Oxford,...
, so Frideswide prays to God and a well springs up. The well water has healing properties and many people come to seek it out. This well can still be found today at the Church of St Margaret
Margaret the Virgin
Margaret the Virgin, also known as Margaret of Antioch , virgin and martyr, is celebrated as a saint by the Roman Catholic and Anglican Churches on July 20; and on July 17 in the Orthodox Church. Her historical existence has been questioned; she was declared apocryphal by Pope Gelasius I in 494,...
in Binsey, a few miles upriver from Oxford.
The priory
St Frideswide's Priory, a medieval AugustinianAugustinians
The term Augustinians, named after Saint Augustine of Hippo , applies to two separate and unrelated types of Catholic religious orders:...
house which became Christ Church, Oxford
Christ Church, Oxford
Christ Church or house of Christ, and thus sometimes known as The House), is one of the largest constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England...
following the dissolution of the monasteries
Dissolution of the Monasteries
The Dissolution of the Monasteries, sometimes referred to as the Suppression of the Monasteries, was the set of administrative and legal processes between 1536 and 1541 by which Henry VIII disbanded monasteries, priories, convents and friaries in England, Wales and Ireland; appropriated their...
is claimed to be the site of her abbey and relic
Relic
In religion, a relic is a part of the body of a saint or a venerated person, or else another type of ancient religious object, carefully preserved for purposes of veneration or as a tangible memorial...
s. The authority on the subject, Dr. John Blair of Queen's College, Oxford believes that Christ Church Cathedral is built on the site of her Saxon church.
In modern tradition
Frithuswith is the patron saintPatron saint
A patron saint is a saint who is regarded as the intercessor and advocate in heaven of a nation, place, craft, activity, class, clan, family, or person...
of Oxford
Oxford
The city of Oxford is the county town of Oxfordshire, England. The city, made prominent by its medieval university, has a population of just under 165,000, with 153,900 living within the district boundary. It lies about 50 miles north-west of London. The rivers Cherwell and Thames run through...
. Her feast day is 19 October. In art, she is depicted holding the pastoral staff of an abbess
Abbess
An abbess is the female superior, or mother superior, of a community of nuns, often an abbey....
, a fountain springing up near her and an ox at her feet. The fountain probably represents the holy well at Binsey. She appears in medieval stained glass and in Pre-Raphaelite stained glass by Edward Burne-Jones
Edward Burne-Jones
Sir Edward Coley Burne-Jones, 1st Baronet was a British artist and designer closely associated with the later phase of the Pre-Raphaelite movement, who worked closely with William Morris on a wide range of decorative arts as a founding partner in Morris, Marshall, Faulkner, and Company...
in Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford, in the chapel where her shrine is also located.