Died March 17, c. 743; other feasts are celebrated on April 18 at
Cambridge and on
March 17;
today's feast commemorates her translation.
She was the youngest daughter of King Anna of the East Angles. Like her
holy sisters, she devoted herself to the divine service, and led an
austere life in solitude for several years at Holkham, near the
sea-coast in Norfolk, where a church dedicated to her was afterwards
built. After the death of her father she changed her abode to East
Dereham, now a market-town in Norfolk, but then an obscure place of
retirement.
Withburga assembled there some devout maidens, and laid the foundation
of a church and convent, but did not live to finish the buildings. Her
body was interred in the churchyard at East Dereham and 50 years later
was found incorrupt and translated into the church. In 974, with
soldiers and under the cover of night but with the blessing of King
Edgar and Saint Ethelwold, Abbot Brithnoth of Ely removed it to Ely.
They moved the body to wagons, drove 20 miles to Brandun River, and
continued their journey by boat--much to the dismay of the men of
Dereham who had pursued them by land and could only watch helplessly as
their treasure drifted away. At Ely Brithnoth deposited Withburga's
relics near the bodies of her two sisters.
In 1102, Withburga's relics were moved into a new part of the church. In
1106, the remains of four saints were translated into the new church and
laid near the high altar. The bodies of Saints Sexburga and Ermenilda
were reduced to dust, except the bones. That of Saint Etheldreda was
entire, and that of Saint Withburga was not only sound but also fresh,
and the limbs
flexible. This is related by Thomas, monk of Ely, in his history of Ely,
which he wrote the following year. He also tells us that in the place
where Saint Withburga was first buried, in the churchyard at Dereham, a
spring of clear water gushed forth when her body was first exhumed: it
is to this day called Saint Withburga's well. The church at Holkham is
dedicated to her honour
(
Benedictines,
Farmer,
Walsh).
In art, Saint Withburga is portrayed as an abbess with two hinds at her
feet because William of Malmesbury described her as being provided milk
in her solitude by a doe. She may be holding a church inscribed Ecclisia
de Estderham. She is venerated at Barham, Burlingham, and Dereham in
Norfolk
(
Roeder).