Pega
- This article is about the Christian saint. For the customer relationship management and business process management software see Pegasystems.
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Pega (c. 673-c.719), is a Christian saint who was an anchoress in the ancient Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Mercia, and the sister of Saint Guthlac.
Life
Pega belonged to one of the great noble families of Mercia,[1] the daughter of Penwalh of Mercia.[2] She lived as an anchoress at Peakirk ("Pega's church") in the modern county of Cambridgeshire, not far from Guthlac's hermitage at Crowland. When Guthlac realized that his end was near in 714, he invited her to his funeral. For this she sailed down the River Welland,[1] curing a blind man from Wisbech on the way.[3] She inherited Guthlac's psalter and scourge, both of which, it was claimed, she later gave to Crowland Abbey. She went on pilgrimage to Rome and died there c.719.[1] Ordericus Vitalis claimed that her relics survived in an unnamed Roman church in his day, and that miracles took place there.
It is said that her heart was returned to Peakirk and was kept as a relic in the church, contained in a heart stone, the broken remains of which, smashed by Cromwell's troops, can be seen in the south aisle window.[3]
Sainthood
Pega is considered a saint by the Anglican and Roman Catholic churches. Her feast day is 8 January.[4][5]
References
- ^ a b c Stevens, Clifford. "The One Year Book of Saints", Our Sunday Visitor Publishing Division, Our Sunday Visitor, Inc., Huntington, Indiana
- ^ "Repton Saints", St Wystan's Church, Repton
- ^ a b "St. Pega", Peakirk Village
- ^ Butler, Alban. The Lives of the Saints, Vol. IV, 1866
- ^ ewtn.com retrieved 19 April 2014
- Attwater, Donald and Catherine Rachel John. The Penguin Dictionary of Saints. 3rd edition. New York: Penguin Books, 1993. ISBN 0-14-051312-4.
External links
- 7th-century births
- 8th-century deaths
- Mercian saints
- People from Peterborough
- 8th-century Christian saints
- 7th-century English people
- 8th-century English people
- East Anglian saints
- Christian female saints of the Middle Ages
- 7th-century women
- 8th-century women
- Women of medieval England
- English people stubs
- English saint stubs