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| St Frideswide - St Mary Magdalene, Paddington. Henry Holiday? |
Saint Frideswide
Patron of Oxford, England (+ 727)
Feast: October 19
Frideswide is said to have been a Saxon princess living in Oxford. She desired to become a nun, but the Mercian King Algar aggressively pursued her hand. For three years, Frideswide hid from her spurned suitor in the surrounding area. At last Algar traced her back to Oxford, but when he reached the city gates he was thrown from his horse and killed. Free at last, Frideswide entered the Benedictine abbey her father had founded. She gave herself to prayer and humble service until her death in 727.
This abbey was destroyed in 1002. When a priory for Augustinian canons was built on the same site, Frideswide's relics were enshrined there. In the fifteenth century, Frideswide was named the official patron of Oxford University and twice-yearly processions were held in her honor.
Under King Henry VIII, the monastery was dissolved and the priory became Christ Church Cathedral. In 1561, Fridewide's shrine was destroyed. In an effort to prevent any further veneration of the saint, a Calvinist had her remains dug up and mixed them with the bones of an ex-nun who had married a Protestant reformer. In recent times, Frideswide's shrine has been reconstructed from pieces that were found in the cathedral well. Pilgrims can find it in the Latin chapel of Christ Church, in from of a stained-glass window that shows scenes from her life.
Magnificat March 2015, p. 199
She was a contemporary of Saint Corbinian (Freising) c.670 - c.730 (September 8), whose bear adorns Pope Benedict's coat of arms.
No wonder England was so fond of our beloved German Pontiff. It was the Anglo-Saxons after all who evangelized the Franks and the Germans. So it is only fitting that Germany return the favor. N.B. Pope Benedict XVI is the Pontiff who established the Ordinariate for Anglicans, The Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham which was established in 2011 by Pope Benedict XVI to allow Anglicans to enter into the full communion of the Catholic Church whilst retaining much of their heritage and traditions.
Recall also that it was Pope Benedict himself who beatified Blessed John Henry Cardinal Newman in Birmingham during his official State visit to England on September 19, 2010, a further and very deep connection to Oxford University!
N.B. Saint Willibrord (c. 658 - c. 739), Saint Boniface (c. 675 - 5 June 754) , Saint Willibald (c. 700 - c. 787), Saint Sturm (c. 705 - 17 December 779), Saint Leoba (c. 710 - 28 September 782) and Saint Lebuin (+ c. 775) were some of the great and renowned Anglo-Saxon missionaries to Germany of that same 8th century.
It must be remembered that Saint Patrick himself, a few centuries before, was a missionary bishop from England to Ireland. Western civilization owes much to the Anglo-Saxon Catholic evangelical faith!
