Million Book Collection - The Fishers of Men Ministries

SAXoN
PRINCESSES.
them under the immediate jurisdiction of the Holy
See. i
Very early in the day, as I have said, Saxon
"princesses and women showed aspirations after the
higher life. Before the close of the seventh century
royal maidens of Kent were no longer obliged to go
beyond the seas in search of a convent. Indeed,
the monastery of Barking dates as far back as 660.
It was built by St. Erconwald, Bishop of London, for
his sister Ethelburga, who was first abbess. r Accord-
ing to the Saxon custom, the foundation was a
double one, for men and women, whose respective
enclosures were strictly apart and equally under
feminine jurisdiction. The letters of St. Aldhelm
and St. Boniface speak of many devout women as
serving God in convents. Ina, King of the West
Saxons, had a sister, Cuthburga, who was married
to Alcfrid of m Northumbria, f and afterwards retired
first to Barking and then to Wimborne, where there
was a double monastery, founded in 705. The
Abbess of Barking and many of the sisters were slain
by the Danes in 870; but the house lasted till the
suppression under Henry VIII. St. Cuthburga's
royal brother, King Ina, is a landmark in Saxon
historv, c/ * and will be mentioned later. Penda the
terrible was the founder of a " chaste and renowned
generation". Through his son Merewald he was
grandfather to three saints, Milburga, Mildreda, and
1 William of Mulmesbury, De Gestis Pontificum, p. 352.