Arilda of Oldbury

Saint Arilda
Martyr
Born	unknown possibly Gloucestershire or Wales
Died	probably 5th century Oldbury-on-Severn, Gloucestershire
Honored in	Roman Catholic Church; Anglican Communion
Major shrine	St Peter's Abbey, Gloucester (destroyed)
Feast	20 July
Patronage	Oldbury-on-Severn and Oldbury-on-the-Hill, Gloucestershire

Saint Arilda a little-known female saint from Oldbury-on-Severn in the English county of Gloucestershire. She probably lived in the 5th or 6th century and may have been of either Anglo-Saxon or Welsh origin.

Arilda was a virgin martyr who, according to John Leland, was slain by a tyrant named Municus when she refused to lie with him.

Two churches in Gloucestershire are dedicated to Arilda, one at Oldbury-on-Severn near her traditional home, a second ("St Arild's Church") at Oldbury-on-the-Hill. Both places were called 'Aldberie' at the time of the Domesday Book, suggesting that their names may be derived from the saint.

There was a shrine to Arilda at St Peter's Abbey, Gloucester, which is now Gloucester Cathedral, but it was destroyed after the Dissolution of the Monasteries.

References

• G. Jones, "Authority, Challenge and Identity in three Gloucestershire Saints' Cults", Authority and Community in the Middle Ages (ed. Donald Mowbray, Ian P. Wei, Rhiannon Purdie), 1999, ISBN 0750918675, pp. 124–127
• Julian M. Luxford, "The art and architecture of English Benedictine monasteries, 1300-1540: a patronage history" , Boydell Press, 2005, ISBN 1843831538, p. 134
• Alan Thacker, Richard Sharpe, "Local saints and local churches in the early medieval West", Oxford University Press, 2002, ISBN 0198203942, p. 509
• David Verey, Gloucestershire: the Vale and the Forest of Dean, The Buildings of England edited by Nikolaus Pevsner, 2nd ed. (1976) ISBN 0-14-071041-8, p. 314
• David Verey, Gloucestershire: the Cotswolds, The Buildings of England edited by Nikolaus Pevsner, 2nd ed. (1979) ISBN 0-14-071040-X, p. 351