Saint
Frideswide (c. 650 – October 19,
735-Events:* A smallpox epidemic starts in Ancient Japan, which reduces the population by 30%.* In Tang Dynasty China, by this year there was 149,685,400 kg of grain shipped annually along the Grand Canal of China.-Births:...
; ; also known as
Frithuswith Fritheswithe,
Frevisse, or simply
Fris) was a
celibateCelibacy is defined as the lifestyle of someone who is, and is striving to remain, unmarried all his/her life. It is also used to describe a state of life where one chooses to abstain from all sexual activities...
EnglishThe English are a nation and ethnic group native to England, who speak English. The English identity as a people is of early medieval origin, when they were known in Old English as the Anglecynn....
princess and
abbessAn abbess is the female superior, or Mother Superior, of an abbey of nuns.In Roman Catholic and Anglican abbeys, the mode of election, position, rights, and authority of an abbess correspond generally with those of an abbot. The office is elective, the choice being by the secret votes of the...
who is credited with establishing
Christ ChurchThis article is about the Oxford college. For other uses, see Christ Church or Christchurch .Christ Church , is one of the largest constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England...
in
OxfordOxford is a city, and the county town of Oxfordshire, in South East England. The city has a population of just under 165,000, with 151,000 living within the district boundary. The rivers Cherwell and Thames run through Oxford and meet south of the city centre...
.
Frideswide was born to Didanus (an
Anglo-SaxonAnglo-Saxon may refer to:* historically, the Anglo-Saxons, a Germanic people inhabiting parts of England during the Dark Ages** their Anglo-Saxon language, commonly referred to as Old English** anything pertaining to the History of Anglo-Saxon England...
king) and his wife Safrida around
AD , abbreviated as AD or A.D., and Before Christ, abbreviated as BC or B.C., are designations used to number years in the Julian and Gregorian calendars....
650. Frideswide founded a
prioryA priory is a house of men or women under religious vows headed by a prior or prioress. Priories are Catholic institutions.Priories may be houses of mendicant friars or religious sisters , or monasteries of monks or nuns .The Benedictines and their offshoots , the...
(St Frideswide's Priory) while still young, but while bound to celibacy Algar (that is, Ælfgār), a
MerciaMercia was one of the kingdoms of the Anglo-Saxon Heptarchy. It was centred on the valley of the River Trent and its tributaries in the region now known as the English Midlands...
n king, tried to
courtCourtship is the traditional dating period before engagement and marriage. During a courtship, a couple dates to get to know each other and decide if there will be an engagement...
her.
Saint
Frideswide (c. 650 – October 19,
735-Events:* A smallpox epidemic starts in Ancient Japan, which reduces the population by 30%.* In Tang Dynasty China, by this year there was 149,685,400 kg of grain shipped annually along the Grand Canal of China.-Births:...
; ; also known as
Frithuswith Fritheswithe,
Frevisse, or simply
Fris) was a
celibateCelibacy is defined as the lifestyle of someone who is, and is striving to remain, unmarried all his/her life. It is also used to describe a state of life where one chooses to abstain from all sexual activities...
EnglishThe English are a nation and ethnic group native to England, who speak English. The English identity as a people is of early medieval origin, when they were known in Old English as the Anglecynn....
princess and
abbessAn abbess is the female superior, or Mother Superior, of an abbey of nuns.In Roman Catholic and Anglican abbeys, the mode of election, position, rights, and authority of an abbess correspond generally with those of an abbot. The office is elective, the choice being by the secret votes of the...
who is credited with establishing
Christ ChurchThis article is about the Oxford college. For other uses, see Christ Church or Christchurch .Christ Church , is one of the largest constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England...
in
OxfordOxford is a city, and the county town of Oxfordshire, in South East England. The city has a population of just under 165,000, with 151,000 living within the district boundary. The rivers Cherwell and Thames run through Oxford and meet south of the city centre...
.
Life
Frideswide was born to Didanus (an
Anglo-SaxonAnglo-Saxon may refer to:* historically, the Anglo-Saxons, a Germanic people inhabiting parts of England during the Dark Ages** their Anglo-Saxon language, commonly referred to as Old English** anything pertaining to the History of Anglo-Saxon England...
king) and his wife Safrida around
AD , abbreviated as AD or A.D., and Before Christ, abbreviated as BC or B.C., are designations used to number years in the Julian and Gregorian calendars....
650. Frideswide founded a
prioryA priory is a house of men or women under religious vows headed by a prior or prioress. Priories are Catholic institutions.Priories may be houses of mendicant friars or religious sisters , or monasteries of monks or nuns .The Benedictines and their offshoots , the...
(St Frideswide's Priory) while still young, but while bound to celibacy Algar (that is, Ælfgār), a
MerciaMercia was one of the kingdoms of the Anglo-Saxon Heptarchy. It was centred on the valley of the River Trent and its tributaries in the region now known as the English Midlands...
n king, tried to
courtCourtship is the traditional dating period before engagement and marriage. During a courtship, a couple dates to get to know each other and decide if there will be an engagement...
her. When Frideswide refused him, Algar tried to
rapeRape, also referred to as sexual assault, is an assault by a person involving sexual intercourse with or without sexual penetration of another person without that person's consent....
her, but she hid in a nearby forest (in a "tub") to escape him. After she returned to the priory, Algar continued his advances until he
lost his visionBlindness is the condition of lacking visual perception due to physiological or neurological factors.Various scales have been developed to describe the extent of vision loss and define blindness...
. According to tradition, Frideswide felt compassion for Algar and while in
BinseyBinsey is a small village just to the west of Oxford, England, in modern times encompassed within the city's ring road. It is the other side of the River Thames from Port Meadow, and a couple of miles south-west from the remains of Godstow priory....
prayed to St Margaret of Antioch and St
Catherine of AlexandriaSaint Catherine of Alexandria, also known as Saint Catherine of the Wheel and The Great Martyr Saint Catherine is a Christian saint and martyr who is claimed to have been a noted scholar in the early 4th century. In the beginning of the fifteenth century, it was rumored that she had spoken to...
, who instructed her to hit the ground with her abbess's staff. Once Frideswide did this, the ground gave way to reveal a well, whose water she used to cure Algar's blindness. (This well can be found today at the Church of St
MargaretMargaret the Virgin, also known as Margaret of Antioch , virgin and martyr, is celebrated by the Roman Catholic and Anglican Churches on July 20 and July 17 in the Eastern Church. Her historical existence is dubious; she was declared apocryphal by Pope Gelasius I in 494, but devotion to her...
.)
The priory
St Frideswide's Priory, a medieval
AugustinianThe Augustinians, named after Saint Augustine of Hippo , are several Christian monastic orders and congregations of both men and women living according to a guide to religious life known as the Rule of Saint Augustine...
house which became
Christ Church, OxfordThis article is about the Oxford college. For other uses, see Christ Church or Christchurch .Christ Church , is one of the largest constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England...
following the
dissolution of the monasteriesThe Dissolution of the Monasteries, sometimes referred to as the Suppression of the Monasteries, denotes the administrative and legal processes between 1536 and 1541 by which Henry VIII disbanded monasteries, nunneries and friaries in England, Wales and Ireland; appropriated their income, disposed...
is claimed to be the site of her abbey and
relicA relic is an object or a personal item of religious significance, carefully preserved with an air of veneration as a tangible memorial. Relics are an important aspect of some forms of Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Shamanism, and many other religions....
s, although this is under debate.
In modern tradition
Frideswide is the
patron saintA patron saint is a saint who is regarded as the intercessor and advocate in heaven of a nation, place, craft, activity, class, or person. Patron saints, because they have already transcended to the metaphysical, are able to intercede effectively for the needs of their special charges...
of
OxfordOxford is a city, and the county town of Oxfordshire, in South East England. The city has a population of just under 165,000, with 151,000 living within the district boundary. The rivers Cherwell and Thames run through Oxford and meet south of the city centre...
. Her feast day is 19 October. In art, she is depicted holding the pastoral staff of an
abbessAn abbess is the female superior, or Mother Superior, of an abbey of nuns.In Roman Catholic and Anglican abbeys, the mode of election, position, rights, and authority of an abbess correspond generally with those of an abbot. The office is elective, the choice being by the secret votes of the...
, a fountain springing up near her and an ox at her feet. The fountain probably represents the holy well at Binsey. She appears in medieval stained glass and in Pre-Raphaelite stained glass by
Edward Burne-JonesSir Edward Coley Burne-Jones, 1st Baronet was a British artist and designer closely associated with the later phase of the Pre-Raphaelite movement, who worked closely with William Morris on a wide range of decorative arts as a founding partner in Morris, Marshall, Faulkner, and Company...
in Christ Church Cathedral,
OxfordOxford is a city, and the county town of Oxfordshire, in South East England. The city has a population of just under 165,000, with 151,000 living within the district boundary. The rivers Cherwell and Thames run through Oxford and meet south of the city centre...
, in the chapel where her shrine is also located.
External links