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Eorcengota

7th-century Kentish princess, nun and saint

Saint Eorcengota or Ercongotha was a 7th-century Kentish princess and nun at Faremoutiers Abbey who is venerated as a saint in the Christian church. She is known for her deathbed vision in which she supposedly predicted her own death.

Eorcengota
Saint

Eorcengota
BornKingdom of Kent
ResidenceFaremoutiers
DiedFaremoutiers Abbey, France
Venerated inCatholic Church, Anglicanism, Eastern Orthodox Church
Feast7 July (Western Christianity)
21 February (Eastern Orthodoxy)

Saint Eorcengota or Ercongotha was a 7th-century Kentish princess and nun at Faremoutiers Abbey who is venerated as a saint in the Christian church. She is known for her deathbed vision in which she supposedly predicted her own death.

Family

Eorcengota was the daughter of King Eorcenberht of Kent and St. Seaxburh of Ely, and was the sister of King Ecgberht of Kent, King Hlothhere of Kent and Saint Ermenilda of Ely.[1][2] Her family was heavily involved with promoting Christianity; her paternal grandfather Eadbald of Kent had been the first Anglo-Saxon king to convert, and her father had ordered stricter Christian practices across his kingdom and the destruction of pagan idols.[3][4]

Life

Not much is known about Eorcengota's life, but she was sent by her father to Faremoutiers Abbey in Brie, France, to serve as a nun due to the lack of monasteries in England at the time.[4][5][6] Her maternal step aunt Saint Sæthryth and aunt Saint Æthelburh of Faremoutiers both served as abbess at the abbey.[5]

The monk Bede wrote about Eorcengota's purity and piety, and that she foretold her own death.[5] Upon her deathbed, she claimed to have received a vision of men dressed in white entering the abbey. When questioned by Eorcengota about the purpose of the visit, they replied that they had come to collect the aureum illud nomisna (golden coin) that had been taken from Kent to the monastery, with the coin representing Eorcengota herself. At the time, metal coins were rare, considered prized objects of great significance, and used as jewellery.[3][7][8] In addition, starting at the beginning of the seventh century, some of the first English coins had started to be minted in her native Kent.[3]

Her Catholic feast day is 7 July,[9] while her Eastern Orthodox day is commemorated on 21 February.[10]

References

  1. ↑ Castelow, Ellen. "Kings of Kent". Historic UK. Archived from the original on 29 April 2026. Retrieved 26 April 2026.
  2. ↑ Rollason, David. "Seaxburh [St Seaxburh, Sexburga]". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/25150. (Subscription, Wikipedia Library access or UK public library membership required.)
  3. 1 2 3 Sykes, Katharine (27 June 2024). Symbolic Reproduction in Early Medieval England Secular and Monastic Households. Oxford University Press. pp. 65–66. ISBN 9780192659132.
  4. 1 2 Kelly, S. E. (23 September 2004). "Eorcenberht". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/39239. (Subscription, Wikipedia Library access or UK public library membership required.)
  5. 1 2 3 Ridyard, Susan J. (1988). The Royal Saints of Anglo-Saxon England A Study of West Saxon and East Anglian Cults. Cambridge University Press. pp. 60–61. ISBN 978-0-521-30772-7.
  6. ↑ Whitelock, Dorothy, ed. (1996). English Historical Documents Volume 1. Routledge. p. 739. ISBN 978-0-415-14366-0.
  7. ↑ Naismith, Rory (1 April 2014). "The Social Significance of Monetization in the Early Middle Ages". Past & Present (223): 3–39. doi:10.1093/pastj/gtu004.
  8. ↑ Haworth, Katie D.; Clarke-Neish, Kelly M. (26 June 2024). "Pierced, looped and framed: the (re)use of gold coins in jewellery in sixth- and seventh-century England". Early Medieval Europe. 32 (3): 338. doi:10.1111/emed.12714. Archived from the original on 28 June 2024. Retrieved 26 April 2026.
  9. ↑ "St. Ercongotha". Catholic Online. Archived from the original on 5 March 2026. Retrieved 26 April 2026.
  10. ↑ "Latin Saints of the Orthodox Patriarchate of Rome". Orthodox Europe. Archived from the original on 7 October 2023. Retrieved 26 April 2026.