Saint of the Day – 31 August – Saint Cuthburga of Wimborne (Died c725) the 1st Abbess and Founder of Wimborne double Monastery, Queen, Mother, Widow, Nun She was the sister of Ine, King of Wessex and was married to the Northumbrian King Aldfrith, thus she was also a Queen. Also known as – Cuthburg, Cuthburgh.
Cuthburga was the sister of King Ina of Wessex, a great King who, in about 726, went to Rome with his wife, Ethelburga, ending his days as a Monk.
She was given in marriage to King Aldfrith of Northumbria in around 688. There are different accounts of this marriage. Some say that it was short and was never consummated; others – that it was long and produced a son, who was around eight years old, when his father died.
In any case, with the approval of her husband, Cuthburga retired from the world and went first to the Monastery of Barking, near London which was ruled, at that time, by St Hildelitha.
In 705 King Aldfrith died, whereupon Cuthburga journeyed back to her native Wessex and asked her brother, King Ina, for some land on which to found a Monastery. In the year 713 she founded the Monastery of Wimborne.
She was reported to have been a beautiful woman, kind to others but severe to herself and assiduous in fasting and prayer. She reposed in about 725 and was buried in the Church at Wimborne, where her Sepulchre can still be seen.
NB: – PLEASE NOTE: the second image above which has been obtained on Google and was originally displayed on an Anglican Site for the Church below (obviously EX-Catholic since stolen by Henry VIII) contains a very disturbing motif on the top right corner. It is a Free Masonic Symbol indicating the Square and the Compass (a sexual symbol!). As you know, the head of the Church of England is the current reigning Monarch and also the Head of the Free Masons in the UK, with all the ‘Royal’ family holding senior degree Offices – hence, their ‘so-called’ Churches quite freely display our Saints with added Masonic symbols, having been ‘adopted by them as special Masonic friends!’
AnaStpaul 