St Ediths Close, Wilton

Saint Ediths Close, in Wilton, is most likely to be named after Saint Edith of Wilton.

Saint Edith Stein

There is, though, a later Saint Edith, known usually as Saint Edith Stein, who was a victim of the Nazi holocaust.

She was born Jewish in Breslau, in what is now Poland, in 1891.

She converted to Catholicism in the 1920s, and taught, first in a Dominican girls’ school, and then at the Munster Institute of Pedagogy.

She left Germany for Holland to escape the Nazis some time after they came to power. However, following the condemnation of Nazi racism by the Dutch bishops in July 1942, she and other converts were arrested.

She died at Auschwitz in August 1942, and was canonized by Pope John Paul II in 1998.

Saint Edith of Wilton

Saint Edith of Wilton, however, has a happier life story. She was the great-granddaughter of Alfred the Great, and daughter of King Edgar the Peaceful. Edgar reigned from 959 until 975. Edith’s mother was a young woman called Wulfrith, who was at school in Wilton.

The circumstances of Edith’s conception and birth (in AD 961) are unclear. Moira Allen suggests her parents may have been in a “handfast”, or trial, marriage but that it is also possible that Wulfrith was raped1.

In any case, Edith lived at Wilton Abbey, where she became Abbess.

In AD 979 she had a dream warning of the death of her brother King Edward the Martyr – he died that night at Corfe Castle. She was allegedly offered the Crown, but refused2

She died in AD 984.

Footnotes

  1. St. Edith of Wilton []
  2. Edith of Wilton – Wikipedia []

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