My Introduction to St. Frideswide (680-727)

I have visited Oxford, UK, many times over the past thirty years. However, it is embarrassing to say that as a historian of Christianity I only heard of St. Frideswide this year (thanks to Louis for pointing her out to me!).

This year I was able to go to Oxford University for archival research, and I made sure that I visited places associated with her (in particular the parish church and well in Binsey). The following are some pictures as well as some brief comments.

St. Frideswide was a Saxon princess who travelled long and hard to escape marrying a German prince.[1] He chased her across the country, and simply would not relent. Finally, she took refuge in Oxford. As the prince approached the town he was stuck blind, and relented in his quest. At that point he was miraculously healed and forgiven by St. Frideswide.
 
St. Frideswide is also connected to a healing well – those who drink from it or pray there have experienced healing. She is also connected to accounts of other miracles: for instance, the healing of a blind girl and a man with leprosy. 
 
She also established the first church in Oxford, as well as inspired the founding of Christ Church College.
 
Lawrence Cunningham notes the importance of such accounts of godly men and women of the past for spiritual formation and inspiration: “The lives of the saints were part and parcel of the spiritual formation of serious Christians from the time of antiquity.”[2]
 
As I sat by the well and entered into the parish church in the middle of the English countryside, I was transported back over 1,000 years to experience the impact of a godly women’s witness and a church that sought to provide hope in the midst of a dark time in British history. It was a genuinely moving experience.
 
And if contemporary local interest in her life is any indication, while many today in England may not be overly excited about formal Christianity, the witness of a young female refugee still captures the imagination – and, hopefully, in time the heart.

"Bonus Material": Click here and here for a few low quality videos of the visit. 


[1] Mary T. Malone, Women and Christianity: The First Thousand Years (Orbis, 2001), ch.9. https://www.chch.ox.ac.uk/blog/shrine-st-frideswide;https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/saint-margarets-well-in-binsey
[2] Lawrence S. Cunningham, A Brief History of Saints (Malden: Blackwell, 2005), 136.