{{Short description|Anglo-Saxon saint}} {{Use dmy dates|date=June 2020}} {{Infobox saint | honorific_prefix = Saint | name = Werburgh | birth_date = {{circa|650}}<ref name=stwerburghrc>{{Cite web|url=http://www.stwerburghchester.co.uk/more-about-the-catholic-faith/saints-and-intercessors/st-werburgh.aspx|title=St Werburgh's Roman Catholic Parish, Chester|access-date=4 December 2013|archive-date=10 March 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160310163359/http://www.stwerburghchester.co.uk/more-about-the-catholic-faith/saints-and-intercessors/st-werburgh.aspx|url-status=dead}}</ref> | death_date = {{death date|df=yes|700|2|3}}<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.st-werburgh-spondon.org.uk/st_werburgh.php |title="History – St. Werburgh", The Parish Church of St. Werburgh, Spondon, (Church of England) |access-date=4 December 2013 |archive-date=4 March 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304031154/http://www.st-werburgh-spondon.org.uk/st_werburgh.php |url-status=dead }}</ref> | feast_day = 3 February | venerated_in = Catholic Church<br>Anglican Communion<br>Eastern Orthodox Church<ref>February 16 / February 3. https://www.holytrinityorthodox.com/htc/orthodox-calendar/</ref> | image = Chester Cathedral - Refektorium Ostfenster 1 St.Werburg.jpg | imagesize = 250px | caption = Saint Werburgh, Chester Cathedral. | birth_place = Stone, Mercia | death_place = Trentham, Staffordshire, England | titles = | canonized_date = | canonized_place = | canonized_by = | attributes = | patronage = Chester | major_shrine = Hanbury then<br/>Chester Cathedral | suppressed_date = | issues = }} '''Werburgh''' (also ''Wærburh'', ''Werburh'', ''Werburga'', meaning "true city"; {{Langx|la|Vereburga}};<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cCBkAAAAcAAJ&dq=Vereburga&pg=PA34|title=A companion and key to the history of England; consisting of copious genealogical details of the British sovereigns, with an appendix, exhibiting a chronological epitome of the successive holders of the several titles of the ... nobility, etc, with their armorial bearings|first=George FISHER (of Swaffham|last=Norfolk.)|date=7 February 1832|via=Google Books}}</ref> c. AD 650 – 3 February 700) was an Anglo-Saxon princess who became the patron saint of the city of Chester in Cheshire. Her feast day is 3 February.
==Life== Werburgh was born at Stone (now in Staffordshire), and was the daughter of King Wulfhere of Mercia (himself the Christian son of the pagan King Penda of Mercia) and his wife Ermenilda, herself daughter of the King of Kent. She obtained her father's consent to enter the Abbey of Ely, which had been founded by her great-aunt Etheldreda (or Audrey), the first Abbess of Ely and former queen of Northumbria, whose fame was widespread. Werburgh was trained at home by Chad<ref name=casanova>{{Cite web|url=https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/15588b.htm|title=CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: St. Werburgh|website=www.newadvent.org}}</ref> (afterwards Bishop of Lichfield), and by her mother; and in the cloister by her aunt and grandmother. Werburgh was a nun for most of her life. During some of her life she was resident in Weedon Bec, Northamptonshire.
Werburgh was instrumental in convent reform across England. She eventually succeeded her mother Ermenilda, her grandmother Seaxburh, and great-aunt Etheldreda as fourth Abbess of Ely. She died on 3 February 700 and was buried at Hanbury in Staffordshire.
==Veneration== [[File:Chester Cathedral misericord Hamilton 0172.JPG|thumb|left|250px|Miracles of St Werburgh, including the resurrection of the goose, depicted on a misericord at Chester Cathedral]] Following Werburgh's death, her brother Coenred became king of Mercia. In 708 he decided to move his sister's remains to a more conspicuous place within the church at Hanbury. When the tomb was opened, her body was found to be miraculously intact. This preservation was taken as a sign of divine favour. A year later Coenred had abdicated as king and taken holy orders, becoming a monk in Rome.<ref name=casanova/> It was at this time that the most famous story about Werburgh appeared, according to which she restored a dead goose to life after it had been eaten, as recounted by the medieval hagiographer Goscelin.<ref name=stwerburghrc/> A stained glass window in the Church of St Peter and St Paul, Weedon Bec, relates to another tale in which she was said to have banished all the geese from the village.<ref>{{cite web |url= http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/domesday/dblock/GB-460000-258000/page/20 |title=Weedon's Local History |work=BBC Domesday Reloaded |publisher=BBC |access-date=29 August 2014}}</ref>
The shrine of St Werberh remained at Hanbury until the threat from Danish Viking raids in the late 9th century prompted their relocation to within the walled city of Chester. A shrine to St Werberh was established at the Church of St Peter and St Paul (the site is now occupied by Chester Cathedral). In 975, the Church of St Peter and St Paul was re-dedicated to St Werburgh and the Northumbrian saint Oswald. A monastery in the names of these two saints was attached to the church in the 11th century.
By 1057 the Abbey church was rebuilt and further endowed by Leofric, Earl of Mercia. By this time, Werburgh was regarded as the patron saint and protector of Chester. A miracle attributed to her was the unexpected withdrawal of the Welsh king Gruffudd ap Llywelyn from besieging the city.
Even after 1066 and the Norman Conquest of England, the shrine of St Werburgh was a place of veneration. In 1093, Hugh d'Avranches, the second Norman Earl of Chester, presented gifts of property to the abbey and had the church enlarged and rebuilt. He also established a Benedictine monastery. Its monks came from Bec Abbey in Normandy, which had provided the first two post-Conquest Archbishops of Canterbury: Lanfranc and Anselm. Like many other Anglo-Norman barons, Hugh d'Avranches entered the monastery shortly before he died and, in turn, was buried there. During the Middle Ages, the badge of a gaggle of geese was adopted as proof of having made a pilgrimage to the Shrine of St Werburgh.<ref name=stwerburghrc/> thumb|right|The reassembled shrine at the back of the Lady Chapel In 1540 the dissolution of the abbey led to the creation of Chester Cathedral, which was rededicated to Christ and the Blessed Virgin Mary. Although an elaborate shrine had been constructed in the 14th century to Werburgh, this was broken up at the time of the Dissolution. Werburgh's relics were lost. Parts of the shrine's stonework that survived were reassembled in 1876. The shrine remains on display in the cathedral's Lady Chapel at the back of the main nave.
==Today== thumb|St Werburgh's pilgrimage badge, showing a gaggle of geese St Werburgh remains the patron saint of Chester. Her feast day is 3 February.
At least ten churches in England, and some overseas, are dedicated to St Werburgh, including those in Dublin, Derby, Stoke-on-Trent and Spondon. The village of Warburton in Greater Manchester (previously Cheshire) is named after its parish church of St Werburgh, and a neighbourhood in Bristol is named St Werburghs after its church (now a climbing centre). The Manchester Metrolink line to East Didsbury has St Werburgh's Road, at the crossroads with Wilbraham Road where there is a church dedicated to St Werburgh.
==See also== {{Portal|Saints|Cheshire}} * St Werburgh's Church (disambiguation)
==References== {{reflist}}
==Further reading== *Roy Wilding, ''Death in Chester'' (2003) {{ISBN|1-872265-44-8}}
==External links== * {{PASE|187284|Wærburg 4}} *[https://archive.org/details/lifeofsaintwerbu00braduoft The life of Saint Werburge of Chester] on the Internet Archive *[https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Gazetteer/Places/Europe/Great_Britain/England/_Topics/churches/_Texts/KINCAT*/Ely/2.html St Werberga and her royal and saintly relatives at Ely] *[https://web.archive.org/web/20070929124058/http://www.btinternet.com/~p.g.h/travel_england_cheshire.htm Reference to Earl Hugh building the abbey church] Archived 29 September 2007 *[https://chesterwalls.info/cathedral.html Steve Howe's 'Chester: a Virtual stroll Around the Walls']
{{Anglo-Saxon saints}}
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Category:699 deaths Category:People from Stone, Staffordshire Category:Anglo-Saxon nuns Category:Anglo-Saxon royalty Category:Mercian saints Category:Abbesses of Ely Category:7th-century Christian saints Category:Incorrupt saints Category:Year of birth unknown Category:Female saints of medieval England Category:Iclingas Category:People from Weedon Bec Category:7th-century English nuns Category:7th-century Christian nuns Category:Daughters of kings Category:7th-century abbesses