Edith of Wilton

Saint Edith of Wilton
Saint Edith in a 13th-century miniature
Born	c. 961 Kemsing, Kent
Died	c. 984 Wilton Abbey, England
Venerated in	Roman Catholic Church, Anglican Churches, Eastern Orthodox Church
Major shrine	Wilton Abbey
Feast	16 September
Attributes	Learning, beauty
Patronage	Wilton Abbey

Edith of Wilton (c. 961^[1] – c. 984^[2][3]) was an English saint,^[4] nun and member of the community at Wilton Abbey, and the daughter of Edgar, King of England (r. 959–975) and Saint Wulfthryth. Edith's parents might have been married and Edgar might have abducted Wulfthryth from Wilton Abbey, but when Edith was an infant, Wulfthryth returned with Edith and their marriage was dissolved. Edith and her mother remained at Wilton for the rest of their lives.

Like her mother, Edith was educated at Wilton. From a young age, Edith chose to enter the religious life, although it is uncertain whether she became a nun or a secular member of the Wilton community. Goscelin, who completed her hagiography around 1080, reports that Edith "always dressed magnificently"^[5] because it reflected her status as a member of the royal family and because she was obliged to fulfil certain roles to ensure the continued royal patronage of the Wilton community. Goscelin based his Vita on the oral testimony of the Wilton nuns and their abbess, as well as on existing written sources. The work was dedicated to Lanfranc, the Archbishop of Canterbury.

When she was 15 years old, Edith's father offered her the position of abbess of three convents, but she declined. In 978, after the murder of her half-brother, Edward the Martyr, she may have been offered the English throne, which she also refused.

In 984, Edith constructed a chapel at Wilton Abbey dedicated to St Denys. The chapel was consecrated by St Dunstan, the Archbishop of Canterbury, who reportedly foretold her imminent death and that the thumb on her right hand would remain uncorrupted. She died three weeks later, at the age of 23, on 16 September 984 and was buried at the chapel she built as she had instructed. Dunstan presided at her translation, which occurred on 3 November 987; her thumb, as Dunstan had foretold, had not decomposed.

Few miracles were attributed to her that supported Edith's canonisation and her cult did not become popular and widespread for 13 years after her death. Many of the miracles that were reported later focused on the protection of Edith's relics and the property owned by the Wilton community, often violently retaliating against those who sought to take or steal them. The support of Edith's elevation to sainthood by both secular and religious authorities was probably politically motivated, in order to establish their power and to connect themselves to King Edgar's descendants. Her feast day is 16 September.