Eadfrith of Leominster also known as Eadridus (died 675) was a seventh century saintThe Oxford Dictionary of Saints from Anglo-Saxon England.Patrick Sims-Williams, Religion and Literature in Western England, 600-800 (Cambridge University Press, 2005) p 101. Although very little is known of his life and he is not mentioned in contemporary texts, stories suggest that he was an important figure in the process of Christianisation of Anglo-Saxon England.
The later foundation legend of the minster at Leominster tells that Eadfrith came from Northumbria and worked as a missionary to the Hwicce kingdom and in 660 converted King Merewalh, subregus of the Magonsæte, a contemporary (and possibly son)Kentish royal legend. of King Penda of Mercia.Patrick Sims-Williams, Religion and Literature in Western England, 600-800 (Cambridge University Press, 2005) p55.
According to these foundation legends, Eadfrith founded Leominster Abbey for women around 660,Gerarld Alymer, Hereford Cathedral (Continuum, 2000) p.4Sarah Foot, Veiled Women, vol. 1, and vol. 2 103-107(Ashgate, 2000) as a conventual priory of the monks of Reading Abbey.J. & C. Hillaby, Leominster Minster, Priory, and Borough c.660-1539 (Logaston Press, Almeley, Herefs. 2006), p53. This abbey was mentioned in the Domesday Book and was re-founded about 1139.Leominster at monasticmatrix.com. at which time it may have been associated with the royal family.Gerarld Alymer, Hereford Cathedral (Continuum, 2000) p.4
Eadfrith is known to history mainly through the hagiography of the Secgan Manuscript,, British Library but also the Anglo-Saxon ChronicleAnglo-Saxon Chronicle manuscript C (1046). and the Catalogus sanctorum pausantium in Anglia.British Library MS Harley 3776, fos. 118-127
Eadfrith died in 675Eadfrid at Book of Saints, 1921. and was buried in Leominster (though this burial is not listed in the resting places of saints in the aforementioned Secgan Manuscript, which lists only a St Aethelred at Leominster). His feast day is on 26 October. St. Eadfrid at Catholic.org
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