Of Ercongota, such as wish for information will find it in Bede;[1] Ermenhilda married Wulfhere, king of the Mercians, and had a daughter, Werburga, a most holy virgin. Both are saints: the mother, that is to say, St. Ermenhilda, rests at Ely, where she was abbess after her mother, Sexberga; and the daughter lies at Chester, in the monastery of that city, which Hugo earl of Chester, ejecting a few canons who resided there in a mean and irregular manner, has recently erected. The praises and miracles of both these women, and particularly of the younger, are there extolled and held in veneration; and though they are favourable to all petitions without delay, yet are they more especially kind and assistant to the supplications of women and youths.
Merewald the brother of Wulfhere, by Ermenburga, the daughter of Ermenred brother of Erconbert king of Kent, had two daughters: Mildritha and Milburga. Mildritha, dedicating herself to celibacy, ended her days in the Isle of Thanet in Kent, which king Egbert had given to her mother, to atone for the murder of her brothers, Ethelred and Ethelbert.[2] In after times, being transferred to St. Augustine's monastery at Canterbury, she is there honoured by the marked attention of the monks, and celebrated equally for her kindness and affability to all, as her name[3] implies. And although almost every corner of that monastery is filled with the bodies of saints of great name and merit, any one of which would be of itself sufficient to irradiate all England, yet no one is there more revered, more loved, or more gratefully remembered; and she, turning a deaf ear to none who love her, is present to them in the salvation of their souls.
Milburga reposes at Wenlock;[4] formerly well known to the neighbouring inhabitants; but for some time after the arrival of the Normans, through ignorance of the place of her burial, she was neglected. Lately, however, a convent of
- ↑ Hist. Eccl. b. iii. c. 8, p. 122.
- ↑ In b.i.c.1, p. 15, it is said the compensation for their murder was made to their mother; but here she is called their sister, which is the general account. When it was left to her to estimate this compensation (i. e. their weregild), she asked as much land as her stag should compass, at one course, in the Isle of Thanet; where she founded the monastery of Minster. Vide W. Thorn, col. 1910, and Natale S. Mildrythæ (Saxonice), MS. Cott. Calig. A. xiv. 4.
- ↑ "Mild" gentle.
- ↑ In Shropshire.
