St Werburgh
Werburgh lived in the 7th Century but less is know about St Werburgh than St Chad although she was a highly respected and loved, as well as powerful, Abbess who lived a long life. St Werburgh was the daughter of the Mercian King Wulphere and his wife Ermenild who was a princess from Kent. Under the influence of her mother she learned the Christian faith from the Roman perspective and developed a pious and virtuous nature. She was very beautiful and attracted many admirers but she refused them, declaring that she wished to be married only to Christ. She eventually managed to persuade her father to allow her to enter a convent.
When the time came, she was escorted in great state to to the Abbey of Ely where she was welcomed by her aunt Etheldreda, who was the abbess. Werburgh fell on her knees and asked that she might be received as a novice. She was stripped of her coronet and her royal garments and exchanged them for the veil and rough habit of a nun.
She made good progress and eventually she came to supervise all the convents in Mercia which became models of monastic discipline. Through the wealth of her family she also established new convents at Wheedon in Northamptonshire, Hanbury in Staffordshire and some say at Trentham which is on our route.
St Werburgh lived into old age and is said to have visited all her convents for farewell visits before her death which took place late in the seventh century at Trentham, now on the outskirts of Stoke-on-Trent, where she was initially buried. However nuns from her 'favourite' monastic community at Hanbury allegedly stole her body in the night and established a shrine which became an important medieval pilgrimage site. Around 875, an invading Danish army meant that it was deemed wise to transfer her remains to the walled city of Chester where her body was re-interred at the Saxon church of St Peter and St Paul. This church was rededicated to St Werburgh and St Oswald in 907 by Aethelflaed, daughter of King Alfred the Great. In due course her shrine there became a major pilgrimage site and eventually it became Chester Cathedral.
When the time came, she was escorted in great state to to the Abbey of Ely where she was welcomed by her aunt Etheldreda, who was the abbess. Werburgh fell on her knees and asked that she might be received as a novice. She was stripped of her coronet and her royal garments and exchanged them for the veil and rough habit of a nun.
She made good progress and eventually she came to supervise all the convents in Mercia which became models of monastic discipline. Through the wealth of her family she also established new convents at Wheedon in Northamptonshire, Hanbury in Staffordshire and some say at Trentham which is on our route.
St Werburgh lived into old age and is said to have visited all her convents for farewell visits before her death which took place late in the seventh century at Trentham, now on the outskirts of Stoke-on-Trent, where she was initially buried. However nuns from her 'favourite' monastic community at Hanbury allegedly stole her body in the night and established a shrine which became an important medieval pilgrimage site. Around 875, an invading Danish army meant that it was deemed wise to transfer her remains to the walled city of Chester where her body was re-interred at the Saxon church of St Peter and St Paul. This church was rededicated to St Werburgh and St Oswald in 907 by Aethelflaed, daughter of King Alfred the Great. In due course her shrine there became a major pilgrimage site and eventually it became Chester Cathedral.