Past Talks
St Edburg, Fact or Fiction?
Date: 16th March 2026
Speaker: Nigel Collett
St Edburg – Fact or Fiction? – Nigel Collett
16.3.26
Nigel aimed to answer a number of questions about St Edburg, patron saint of Bicester’s parish church. What do we know about her and what do we base our knowledge of her on? Can we add to the information that exists?
Eadburh or Edburg was not an uncommon name in Anglo-Saxon England, so this presents us with a problem when seeking to positively identify Bicester’s saint.
The Victorians favoured Edburg of Winchester, daughter of King Edward the Elder of Wessex, who died around A.D. 960. A banner in the church depicts her, but she had no connection with Mercia, where Bicester lay.
Another contender was Edburg, who was an abbess at Minster-in-Thanet, Kent. She died c. A.D.759 and, again, no connection with this area has been established.
So, the evidence, although circumstantial in places, suggests that St. Edburg, Edburga, Eadburh or Eadburg was an Anglo-Saxon princess, daughter of the pagan King Penda of Mercia, who, with her sisters Saint Edith and Wilburg, was born at Quarrendon, now part of Aylesbury. She converted to Christianity and with Edith founded an abbey at Aylesbury, where she was abbess. She followed three other sisters as Abbess of Castor, Repton and Gloucester and founded her own establishment at Adderbury. It’s believed that she died around A.D. 650. Her feast day is 18th July.
When investigating her link to Bicester, we can cite White Kennet, historian and Vicar of Ambrosden, who stated in the 17th century that she founded a monasterium at Bicester. Furthermore, the town’s first parish church may have been a minster church, which was dedicated to St Edburg. In the 12th century, it may have held her remains, for at the foundation of Bicester Priory in 1182, both the priory church and the parish church were dedicated to her. A shrine to St. Edburg’s memory was constructed when the priory church was extended in 1312. It was moved to Stanton Harcourt by Sir Simon Harcourt, then Sheriff of Oxfordshire, probably in a bid to preserve it after the Reformation.
Documentary evidence of her existence includes her name being recorded in the Durham Book of Lives, begun in Lindisfarne around A.D. 840.
The next mention is in the name of the Adderbury settlement, meaning the byrig or burg of Edburg, that appears in the will of a woman named Wynflaed dated between A.D. 990 and 995.
Another hundred years pass before her name is recorded in the calendars kept for the commemoration of saints’ days.
The only chronicle that mentions her is that of Hugh Candidus, monk of Peterborough and author of its History of Medeshamstede (Peterborough’s earlier name), which covers a period from the 7th century to A.D. 1175.
John Leland’s Itineraries, record that “St Edburg virgin” was the dedicatee of both parish and priory churches in Bicester.
No medieval vita or life of St Edburg exists, but documents suggest that one would have been kept at Bicester Priory. This would have been read out on her feast day and copies would have been sold to pilgrims.
A number of modern sources mention St Edburg. These include:
- Richard Stanton’s Menology 1892
- The compilation of saints’ lives made by the monks of St. Augustine’s Abbey,
Ramsgate, Kent
- Dr John Crook, English Medieval Shrines 2011.
Nigel went on to consider the veneration of St Edburg in the Middle Ages and the patrons and benefactors of her cult.
Gilbert Bassett (1154-1205/7) established the priory in 1182 in the name of the Virgin Mary and St Edburg. The cult probably also included St Edburg’s Well, a spring reached by a pathway from Piggy Lane called the Via St Edburge, later St Edburg’s balk.
The patronage passed via Bassett’s daughter to his granddaughter’s husband, Sir William Longespee, after which Longespee’s granddaughter’s husband Henry de Lacy became patron.
Benefactors included: Gilbert Basset’s nephew, Philip Basset (c. 1184/5-1271).
Philip Bassett’s daughter Aline (c.1246-c.1281) who married
Hugh le Despenser, 1st Baron le Despenser (1223-1265)
Hugh le Despenser the Elder, Earl of Winchester (1261-1326).
The cult had fallen into obscurity by 1326.
Nigel outlined St Edburg’s place in history. Although much is conjecture, she was the daughter of a king who conquered a new empire, sister to three kings, sister and aunt to four abbesses, abbess up to five times in her own right and remembered in Gloucester as the Queen of Mercia.
Sally James