Today (15 July) in the calendar of early British saints we commemorate St. Edith (Editha, Eadgyth), abbess of Polesworth (ca. 925). Miss Dunbar separates out two Ediths who are conflated by other sources, so here they both are:
St. Edith (3), March 15. 871. First abbess of Polesworth, in Warwickshire. Daughter of Egbert, king of England (828-830). Sister of Ethelwolf. Aunt of Alfred the Great. Polesworth was one of two towns or estates granted by Etholwolf to ST. MODWENNA for monasteries. OSITHE and ATEA were nuns under Edith. Book of Hyde. Dugdale Monasticon i.197. Lives of the Women Saints of our Contrie of England.
St. Edith (4), July 15. Queen of Northumberland, l0th century. Eldest daughter of Edward the Elder, king of England (901-925). Her mother’s name was Egwenna, a beautiful lady whom Edward met at his nurse’s house, and who was the mother of his successor, Athelstane. In 920 Athelstane gave his sister Edith in marriage to Sithric, or Siric, king of the Danes in Northumberland, who was tributary to the English crown. Sithric died the following year. Edith became a nun at Polesworth, and died in the monastery she built at Tamworth. She was half-sister of Kings Edmund (940-940) and Edred (940-955), and of SS. EDBURGA (6) and ELFLEDA, a nun either at Rumsey or Wilton. Of her other half-sisters, one married Otho the Great, king of Germany and emperor, another was Queen of France, being the wife of Charles the Simple, and the three others made marriages nearly as illustrious. William of Malmesbury, De Gestis Pontificum. Book of Hyde. Stevenson, Church Hist. of England. Memorial of Ancient British Piety. Watson, Eng. Mart.
Holy Mother Edith, pray to God for us.
Pilgrim 