View source for Frithuswith

{{Short description|Anglo-Saxon noble and patron saint of Oxford, England}}
{{EngvarB|date=May 2017}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=May 2017}}
{{Infobox saint
|honorific_prefix=[[Saint]]
|name=Frithuswith
|birth_date=c. 650
|death_date=19 October 727
|feast_day=[[19 October]]<br>[[12 February]] (translation)<br>[[15 May]] (invention)
|venerated_in=[[Anglicanism]]<br>[[Eastern Orthodox Church]]<br>[[Roman Catholic Church]]
|image=St Frideswide 14th-century window at Christ Church Oxford.jpg
|imagesize=
|caption=Depiction of [[Margaret the Virgin]] and Frideswide in [[Christ Church, Oxford]], 14th-century.
|birth_place= upper [[River Thames|Thames]] region
|death_place=[[Binsey, Oxfordshire|Binsey]], [[Oxford]]
|titles=
|beatified_date=
|beatified_place=
|beatified_by=
|canonized_date=
|canonized_place=
|canonized_by=
|attributes=pastoral staff; a fountain; the ox
|patronage=[[Oxford]], England; [[University of Oxford]]
|major_shrine=Christ Church, Oxford
|suppressed_date=
|issues=
}}
[[Image:Hides in Pig-Sty.JPG|thumb|Frithuswith hiding with swine. From a stained glass in the [[Lady Chapel (Gloucester)|Lady Chapel]] At [[Gloucester Cathedral]].]]
[[Image:St Margarets well Binsey.jpg|thumb|St Margaret's Well, [[Binsey, Oxfordshire]].]]

'''Frithuswith''', commonly '''Frideswide''' ({{langx|ang|Friðuswīþ}}; c. 650{{spaced ndash}}19 October 727), was an English princess and [[abbess]].<ref name="ODNB">{{Cite ODNB|id=10183|title=Frithuswith [St Frithuswith, Frideswide] (d. 727)|last=Blair|first=John}}</ref> She is credited as the foundress of a [[monastery]] later incorporated into [[Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford]].<ref name="Blair1988">{{Cite journal |last=Blair |first=John |date=1988 |title=St Frideswide's monastery: problems and possibilities |url=https://oxoniensia.org/volumes/1988/blair2.pdf |journal=Oxoniensia |volume=53 |pages=221–258}}</ref> She was the daughter of a sub-king of [[Mercia]] named [[Dida of Eynsham]] whose lands occupied western [[Oxfordshire]] and the upper reaches of the [[River Thames]].<ref name="Blair1987">{{Cite journal |last=Blair |first=John |date=1987 |title=Saint Frideswide reconsidered |url=http://oxoniensia.org/volumes/1987/blair.pdf |journal=Oxoniensia |volume=52 |pages=71–127}}</ref>

==Life==

The earliest narrative of the saint is the ''Life of Saint Frideswide the Virgin'' ({{langx|la|Vita sanctae Fritheswithae uirginis}}) preserved in a manuscript from the early twelfth century, copied in the hand of [[John of Worcester]]. A longer adaptation of this work is attributed to [[Robert of Cricklade]], head of the [[Priory of St Frideswide, Oxford]].<ref name="Blair1987" /><ref>{{cite book |chapter=Two Twelfth-Century Lives of St Frideswide |date=2024-02-01 |title=The Cambridge Anthology of British Medieval Latin |pages=142–149 |editor-last=White |editor-first=Carolinne |publisher=Cambridge University Press |doi=10.1017/9781316890738.015 |isbn=978-1-316-89073-8}}</ref>

The story recounts that Frideswide was born to [[Dida of Eynsham|King Didan]] and his wife Safrida. She founds a monastery with her father's assistance while still young. Her parents die soon after. Algar, king of [[Leicester]] ([[Æthelbald of Mercia]]) seeks to marry her in spite of her vow of [[celibacy]]. When she refuses him, Algar attempts to abduct her, and Frideswide flees into the wilderness. On fleeing, she finds a ship sent by God which takes her to [[Bampton, Oxfordshire]]. Algar searches for her in Oxford, but the people refuse to tell him where she is, and he is struck blind.

Frideswide later seeks greater solitude and migrates to [[Binsey, Oxfordshire]]. To avoid having to fetch water from the distant [[River Thames]], she prays to God and a well springs up. The well water has healing properties and many people come to seek it out. A nineteenth-century reconstruction of this well can be found at the Church of [[Margaret the Virgin|Saint Margaret]] in Binsey. She later returns to Oxford and remains abbess until her death.

Two [[Middle English]] adaptations of the Life of Frideswide are included in the ''[[South English legendaries]]''.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Reames |first=Sherry |url=https://metseditions.org/editions/W2PjE0jIWWYYu4K6H36vEIR1EDEYV6p |title=Middle English legends of women saints |date=2003 |publisher=Medieval Institute Publications |isbn=978-1-58044-046-2 |location=Kalamazoo, Mich. |doi=10.2307/j.ctv13vdhm0 |jstor=j.ctv13vdhm0}}</ref> These include several minor variants on the narrative.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Thompson |first=Anne B. |date=1994 |title=Shaping a saint's life: Frideswide of Oxford |journal=Medium Ævum |volume=63 |issue=1 |pages=34–52 |doi=10.2307/43629614 |jstor=43629614}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Powell |first=Hilary |date=2010-08-01 |title='Once upon a time there was a saint …': Re-evaluating folklore in Anglo-Latin hagiography |journal=Folklore |volume=121 |issue=2 |pages=171–189 |doi=10.1080/0015587X.2010.481149 |issn=0015-587X |pmc=3672990 |pmid=23750046}}</ref>

==The priory==
{{Main|St Frideswide's Priory}}
St Frideswide's Priory, a medieval [[Augustinians|Augustinian]] house (some of the buildings of which were incorporated into [[Christ Church, Oxford]] following the [[dissolution of the monasteries]]) is claimed to be the site of her abbey and [[relic]]s. From early times the abbey appears to have been an important landowner in the area; however, it was destroyed in 1002 during the events of the [[St. Brice's Day massacre]].<ref name="Blair1988" /> A shrine was kept at the abbey in Frithuswith's honour; later a monastery was built there for [[Augustinians|Augustinian]] [[Canon_(priest)|canons]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Mayr-Harting |first=Henry |title=Studies in medieval history presented to R. H. C. Davis |date=1985 |publisher=Hambledon Press |isbn=978-0-907628-68-2 |editor1-last=Mayr-Harting |editor1-first=Henry |editor2-last=Moore |editor2-first=R. I. |location=London |pages=193–206 |chapter=Functions of a twelfth-century shrine: the miracles of St Frideswide |doi=10.5040/9781472599131.ch-014}}</ref>

In 1180, the [[Archbishop of Canterbury]] [[Richard of Dover]] translated Frithuswith's remains to a new shrine in the monastery church, an event that was attended by King [[Henry II of England]].  The later history of the monastery was chequered, but it remained sufficiently prominent that [[Catherine of Aragon]] visited the shrine during her final pregnancy.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Highfield |first=J. R. L. |date=1988 |title=Catherine of Aragon's visit to the shrine of St. Frideswide |url=https://oxoniensia.org/volumes/1988/stfrideswidenotes.pdf |journal=Oxoniensia |volume=53 |pages=274–275}}</ref>

The priory seal, designed in the late 1180s, depicts Frideswide with a [[lily]] and a set of [[wax tablets]].<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Heslop |first=T.A. |date=1988 |title=The late 12th-century seal of St. Frideswide's priory |url=https://oxoniensia.org/volumes/1988/stfrideswidenotes.pdf |journal=Oxoniensia |volume=53 |pages=271–274}}</ref>

[[Henry Chichele]], the archbishop of Canterbury, officially declared Frideswide the patron saint of Oxford and the [[University of Oxford]] in 1440. Her [[feast day]] is 19 October, the traditional day of her death; the date of her translation is commemorated on 12 February; and the invention (discovery) of her relics on 15 May.<ref name="Blair1987" />

The shrine was repeatedly vandalized during the [[Dissolution of the Monasteries]] and beyond.  In 1546 the monastery church became (and still remains) the cathedral church for the [[diocese of Oxford]].  Her shrine was reinstated by [[Mary I of England|Queen Mary]] in 1558, but was later desecrated by [[James Calfhill]], a [[Calvinist]] canon of the church, who was intent on suppressing her cult.  As a result, Frithuswith's remains were mixed with those of [[Catherine Dammartin]], wife of [[Peter Martyr Vermigli]], and they remain so to this day.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Kesselring |first=K. J. |date=20 July 2021 |title=The Case of Catherine Dammartin: Friends, Fellows, and the Survival of Celibacy in England's Protestant Universities |journal=Renaissance and Reformation |volume=44 |issue=1 |pages=87–108 |doi=10.33137/rr.v44i1.37043|s2cid=238798382 |url=http://id.erudit.org/iderudit/1081140ar }}</ref>

==In modern tradition==
Frideswide remains the [[patron saint]] of Oxford and its university, and there is a revived tradition of pilgrimages to Christ Church.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Garner |first=Lori Ann |date=2022 |title='If tradition can be trusted': Pilgrimage, place, and the legend(s) of Saint Frideswide |journal=Modern Language Review |language=en |volume=117 |issue=4 |pages=581–607 |doi=10.1353/mlr.2022.0115 |s2cid=252669922 |issn=2222-4319}}</ref> In later art, she is depicted holding the pastoral staff of an [[abbess]] with a fountain springing up near her and an ox at her feet. She appears in medieval stained glass, and in Pre-Raphaelite stained glass by [[Edward Burne-Jones]] in Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford, in the chapel where her shrine is also located.

==See also==
{{Portal|Saints}}
* [[St Frideswide's Church, Oxford]]
* [[Frideswide Square]] in central Oxford
* [[Frithuwold of Chertsey]], a purported ancestor of Frithuswith
* [[List of Catholic saints]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
{{commonscat|Saint Frideswide}}
* {{PASE|199947|Frithuswith 1}}
{{Anglo-Saxon saints}}

{{Authority control}}
[[Category:650 births]]
[[Category:727 deaths]]
[[Category:Anglo-Saxon royalty]]
[[Category:West Saxon saints]]
[[Category:People from Oxford]]
[[Category:Christianity in Oxford]]
[[Category:Burials at Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford]]
[[Category:Anglo-Saxon abbesses]]
[[Category:8th-century Christian saints]]
[[Category:Christian female saints of the Middle Ages]]
[[Category:Female saints of medieval England]]
[[Category:7th-century English women]]
[[Category:8th-century English women]]
[[Category:7th-century English nobility]]
[[Category:8th-century English people]]
[[Category:8th-century English nuns]]
[[Category:8th-century Christian nuns]]
[[Category:Oxfordshire folklore]]
[[Category:English Roman Catholic saints]]
[[Category:History of Catholicism in England]]
[[Category:7th-century English nuns]]