Saint Osith, also known as Osyth, Osgyth, Othith, Ositha, Sythe, a Mercian noblewoman and prioress martyred in the 8th century. Born in Quarrendon, Buckinghamshire, England, she was the daughter of Frithuwald, a sub-king of Mercia in Surrey. Her mother was Wilburh, of the royal house of Mercia. Her parents, with St Erconwald, founded Chertsey Abbey in 675 AD.
Raised in the care of her maternal aunts, St Edith of Aylesbury and Edburga of Bicester, her ambition was to become an abbess, but she was forced by her father into a marriage with Sighere, King of Essex. She is the mother of King Offa of Essex.
While her husband was away on a hunt, Osith persuaded two local bishops to accept her vows as a nun. Upon the king’s return some days later, he reluctantly agreed to her decision and granted her some land at Chich near Colchester, now named after her as St Osyth, where she established a convent, and ruled as first abbess. She was beheaded by Vikings, perhaps because she resisted being carried off.
The holy spring at Quarrendon, is associated with her legend, in which Osith stood up after her execution, picking up her head and walking with it in her hands, to the door of a local convent, before collapsing there.
Veneration of St Osith was widespread across England. Norwich Cathedral and St Albans Abbey had chapels dedicated to her in the Middle Ages.
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