Æthelflæd of Romsey
Saint Æthelflæd of Romsey (also Ælflæd and Æthelflæda) was a late tenth-century abbess of Romsey Abbey. Her identity is obscure, though in later stories she was said to be the daughter of a tenth-century nobleman.[1] Her feast days are 23rd October and 5th November.[2] There is a doubtful record of a sainted daughter of King Edward the Elder (reigned 899-924) called Æthelflæd, but this is probably a confusion with Æthelflæd of Romsey.[3]
Life
[edit]Æthelflæd appears in a small number of eleventh- and twelfth-century monastic calendars.[1] A 14th-century life of her and a predecessor as abbess, Merewenna, amongst a collection of saints lives once belonging to Romsey Abbey, is held in the British Library's Lansdowne manuscripts, MS Lansdowne 436, fols. 43v-45v. It was printed by C. Horstmann, Nova Legenda Angliae, 1901, vol I, pp. 379-381; and translated by H. Liveing, Records of Romsey, 1912, pp. 19-26.[4][5]
References
[edit]- ^ a b Cynthia Turner Camp (2019). "Looking for Holy Grandmothers in Late Medieval Nunneries". In Jay Paul Gates; Brian O'Camb (eds.). Remembering the Medieval Present: Generative Uses of England's Pre-Conquest Past, 10th to 15th Centuries. Leiden; Boston: Brill. pp. 150–151. ISBN 9789004408333.
- ^ "Dmitry Lapa. Venerable Merewenna and Ethelfleda of Romsey". OrthoChristian.Com. Retrieved 2025-12-14.
- ^ Thacker, Alan (2001). "Dynastic Monasteries and Family Cults". In Higham, N. J.; Hill, D. H. (eds.). Edward the Elder 899–924. Abingdon, Oxfordshire: Routledge. p. 257. ISBN 978-0-415-21497-1.
- ^ "Chronicle and British saints' lives. Lansdowne MS436: 14th century". British Library. Retrieved September 6, 2022.
- ^ Foot, Sarah (2000). Veiled Women. Vol. II. Aldershot, UK: Ashgate. p. 151 n. 1. ISBN 978-0-7546-0044-2.
See also
[edit]- Collier, Christopher (1990). "Romsey Minster in Saxon Times" (PDF). Proceedings of the Hampshire Field Club and Archaeological Society. 39: 41–52.
- Hollis, Stephanie (2013). The Literary Culture of the Anglo‑Saxon Royal Nunneries: Romsey and London, British Library, MS Lansdowne 436. Brepols.