St Eanswythe

St Eanswythe

There are many stories of St Eanswythe’s miracles before and after her death. Among other things, she is said to have given sight to a blind man, and cast out a demon from one who had been possessed.
We know few details about the rest of St Eanswythe’s life. Following the monastic Rule, she prayed to God day and night. When she was not in church, she spent her waking hours reading spiritual books and in manual labour. This may have consisted of copying and binding manuscripts. The nuns probably wove cloth for their clothing, and also for church vestments. They cared for the sick and aged nuns of their own community, as well as for the poor and infirm from outside. Then there was the daily routine of cooking and cleaning.
According to Tradition, St Eanswythe fell asleep in the Lord on the last day of August 640 when she was only in her mid-twenties. Her father King Eadbald also died in the same year.
The convent at Folkestone did not last very long after the saint’s death. Some say the sea destroyed it, while others say it was sacked by the Danes in 867. St Eanswythe’s holy relics were moved to the nearby church of Sts Peter and Paul, which was farther away from the sea. In 927 King Athelstan granted the land where the monastery had stood to the monks of Christchurch, Canterbury.
As time passed, the sea continued to encroach on the land. In 1138 a new monastery and church, dedicated to St Mary and St Eanswythe, were built farther inland. The relics of St Eanswythe were transferred once again, this time from the church of Sts Peter and Paul to the new priory church. During the Middle Ages, this second transfer of her relics was celebrated on September 12, which the church still keeps as its Patronal Festival.On November 15, 1535 the officers of the King, who plundered the church of its valuables, seized the priory. The shrine of St Eanswythe was destroyed, but her relics had been hidden to protect them.

In June 1885, during the installation of Hem’s elaborate Sanctuary arcading of Derbyshire alabaster, with the Apostle mosaics designed by Capello, the workmen came across a small cavity in the north wall containing an ancient lead casket. Upon its removal and examination it was found to contain the remains of a young woman who had died in the 7th century. From the place of burial near the High Altar, the position of greatest honour and distinction in the church, it was concluded that here were the long lost relics of St. Eanswythe.

The remains were reverently interred in the place where they had been discovered still in their ages-old coffer, and enclosed behind an elaborate brass grill and engraved door. There they remain to this day, bestowing a rare distinction upon our church, which is one of the very few places remaining in this country, which has the bones of its patron saint buried within its walls.

At first, the holy relics were brought out for veneration every year on the parish Feast Day. This practice ended when several parishioners accused the Vicar of “worshiping” the relics. Although St Eanswythe’s relics are no longer offered for public veneration, candles and flowers are sometimes placed before the brass door where they are immured.
An Orthodox iconographer has presented the parish of St Mary and St Eanswythe with an icon of the saint.