Thread by @Blondie_Black

[THREAD] Two days ago, it was my nameday, so let me tell you about my namesake : Saint Audrey, the OG feminist.

So Saint Audrey, back then named Æthelthryth, was the daughter of Anna, king of East Anglia, and was born in Suffolk.
She had four sisters and one brother. Plot twist, all sisters founded abbeys, and Erkenwald became Bishop of London, and was canonized.

Runs in the family.

But back to Audrey.

She made an early first marriage in around 652 to Tondberct, chief of the South Gyrwe in the Fens. She persuaded her husband to respect the vow of perpetual virginity that she had made prior to their marriage.

Upon his death in 655, she retired to the Isle of Ely, which she had received from Tondberct as a morning gift (i.e. dower).

She was subsequently remarried for political reasons (remember, she's a princess) in 660, this time to Ecgfrith of Northumbria, who was 14 or 15.

Audrey was then 24.

Shortly after his accession to the throne in 670, Audrey wished to become a nun. This step may have led to Ecgfrith's long quarrel with Wilfrid, bishop of York, who was her spiritual counselor.

Indeed, one account relates that while Ecgfrith initially agreed she should remain a virgin, he appealed to Wilfrid circa 672 for the enforcement of his marital rights as against her religious vocation.

The bishop succeeded at first in persuading the king to consent that she should live for some time in peace as a sister of the Coldingham nunnery, founded by his aunt, Æbbe of Coldingham.

But wait, it wouldn't be that easy, right?

Eventually, in light of the danger of being forcibly carried off by the king, Audrey then fled back to the Isle of Ely with two nuns as companions.

Ecgfrith later married Eormenburg and expelled Wilfrid from his kingdom in 678. According to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, Audrey founded a double monastery (a monastery combining monks and nuns, separated) at Ely in 673, which was later destroyed in the Danish invasion of 870.

After her death, Audrey's bones were disinterred by her sister and successor, Seaxburh her uncorrupted body was later buried in a white, marble coffin. When her grave was opened, in 695, her body was discovered to be uncorrupted. 16 years after her death.

After Seaxburh, Æthelthryth's niece and her great-niece, both of whom were royal princesses, succeeded her as abbess of Ely (#womanpower).

3 churches are dedicated to her in England, one of which (in Holborn) was used by the Spanish ambassadors after the English Reformation.

It allowed Roman Catholic worship to continue in the church.

Her shrine is shared between two of those churches, and pilgrims often visit both of them. But that's another story.

Audrey vowed to protect women . She has even been described as one of "the most significant of all native English Saints."

The name Audrey gave the noun tawdry, which derived from the fact that her admirers bought modestly concealing lace goods at an annual fair held in her name in Ely. By the 17th century, this lacework had become seen as old-fashioned, giving the meaning cheap or vulgar to it.

It now means gaudy or shameful thanks to the Puritans of eastern England who, in the 17th century, looked down on any form of lacy dressiness.

Bede (another Saint, also called father of English history) wrote about her, and even wrote her an hymn.

But he's not the only one. More medieval vernacular lives about Audrey were composed in England than any other native female saint.

She's one of the earliest female subject of history writing in Anglo-Saxon recollection,

She's also at the origin of many studies of female Saint and medieval women. You'll stumble upon Audrey in many research or anthology about Christianity and women's place in its worship, in England, or in France, thanks to another badass woman: Marie de France.

"Ici escris mon non Marie
Pur ce ke sois remembree
La Vie Seinte Audree"

Here I write my name Marie
So that is remembered
The life of Saint Audrey

Audrée is another authorized spelling of her name, as well as variants like Audric, Audrie, Awdry, Audraine or Audrena.

The name Audrey is of Germanic origin, derived from the terms "edel" and "hrod" referring to the meaning of "noble" and "glory". Its Celtic etymology is inspired by the words "halt" and "roen" meaning respectively "high" and "royal".

So to recap what we've learned:

As her name indicates, Audrey is a princess. She's a fervent catholic who just wants to practice her religion peacefully. And when her duty as a princess becomes an obstacle to her faith, she flees to an island to found and rule a mixed monastery.

She will then become the source of many myths, legends, or historical research.

So yeah, the OG badass. Thanks for coming to my Ted Talk ✌🏻️

SOURCES ⬇️

Bede, & al. Bede’s Ecclesiastical History of the English People. Clarendon Press ; Oxford University Press, 1969.
Blanton, Virginia. Signs of devotion: the cult of St. Aethelthryth in medieval England, 695-1615. Pennsylvania State University Press, 2007.

Carpenter, Jennifer, & Sally-Beth MacLean, editors. Power of the weak: studies on medieval women. University of Illinois Press, 1995.
Griffiths, Gwen. « Reading Ælfric’s Saint Æthelthryth as a Woman ». Parergon, vol. 10, no 2, 1992, p. 35‑49. Crossref, doi:10.1353/pgn.1992.0077.

Herbermann, C. G., et C. W. Publishing. The Catholic Encyclopedia: An International Work of Reference on the Constitution, Doctrine, Discipline, and History of the Catholic Church. Catholic Way Publishing, 2014, books.google.fr/books?id=h4upA….

Ridyard, Susan J. The royal saints of Anglo-Saxon England: a study of West Saxon and East Anglian cults. Cambridge University Press, 1988.

Watt, Diane. « The Earliest Women’s Writing? Anglo-Saxon Literary Cultures and Communities ». Women’s Writing, vol. 20, no 4, novembre 2013, p. 537‑54. Crossref, doi:10.1080/09699082.2013.773761.

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