Synaxarion
Our holy mother Edburga — also written Eadburh — was the daughter of King Edward the Elder, grandson of Alfred the Great, and his third wife Eadgifu of Kent. When she was scarcely three years of age, her father set her upon his knee and placed before her two choices: on one side, jewels and ornaments befitting a princess; on the other, a Gospel book and a chalice. Without hesitation the child slipped from his knee and prostrated herself before the sacred vessels. Her father was immediately persuaded that God had claimed her for Himself, and she was entrusted as a child oblate to Saint Mary’s Abbey at Winchester — known as the Nunnaminster — which had been founded by the Queen Mother Ealhswith, wife of King Alfred, and was one of the foremost centres of learning and the arts in England.
In the Nunnaminster, the royal child became a model of evangelical humility. She was faithful in obedience to her elders, respectful to her peers, and devoted to those younger than herself. She would rise secretly in the night to clean the other nuns’ shoes, and was once rebuked by the abbess for washing their socks — work considered beneath any person of her birth. When the abbess told the king, he was, on the contrary, greatly edified by his daughter’s conduct. She ministered to the poor with her own hands, and among the miracles attributed to her are the healing of a lame beggar in Winchester, the cure of a travelling clerk who was seized with madness in the city, a successful exorcism performed upon a poor man from Wilton, the healing of two women of unknown residence, and the freeing of a man unjustly imprisoned by her father’s officers.
She was an outstanding singer and served as precentrix of the community, presiding over the chanting of the Divine Office. She would remain in the oratory long after the community had dispersed to continue her private prayer, so habitually that on one occasion the prioress, finding her alone while the rest were at their appointed work, reproved her for apparent idleness. On a royal visit, her father desired her to sing at the banquet; she complied only when he promised her a reward, and the beauty of her voice astonished all who heard her. She used the opportunity to appeal on behalf of the poverty of her community, and so moved the king that he endowed the abbey buildings and bestowed upon the community an estate and a royal grant.
Edburga fell asleep in the Lord at the age of thirty, still faithful in her duties as cantrix even in her last days. For five successive nights after her burial outside the church, the window above her grave was found to have blown open, however firmly it had been secured the evening before. Understanding this as a sign that the saint was displeased with her resting-place, the community opened her coffin and found her relics entire and incorrupt, and translated her to a place of honour near the altar. She appeared to the nuns in a dream to confirm their action. She was formally canonised in 972 at the behest of Bishop Aethelwold of Winchester. A portion of her relics was translated to Pershore Abbey in Worcestershire, which bears her dedication. Her intercession continued to bring healing and help to those who sought her aid.
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