# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Mildred

Mildrith in the ODNB.
​MILDRYTH or MILDRYTH (d. 700?), saint and abbess, younger sister of St. Milburg [q. v.], was destined by her mother, Eormenburga or Domneva, to a conventual life; for Eormenburga was then abbess of a nunnery which she had built at Minstre or Minster in the Isle of Thanet, on land given to her by Egbert, king of Kent, as a wergild for her two brothers, St. Ethelbert and St. Ethelred, slain at Eastry with his consent by his counsellor Thunor (Thorn ap. Decem Scriptores, col. 1906; Symeon, Historia Regum, ap. Opp. ii. 3–10). Mildred, who was a girl of excellent disposition, was therefore sent to the nunnery of Chelles, about twelve miles to the east of Paris, to be instructed in ecclesiastical learning. While she was there a kinsman of the abbess Wilcoma wished to marry her; the abbess favoured his suit, and persecuted Mildred for refusing him; she shut Mildred into a hot oven, and kept her there for three hours, but Mildred came out unhurt. On another day the abbess beat her and tore out her hair. Mildred sent her mother a tress of her torn-out hair and a little psalter that she had written for her, with a request that her mother would help her. Eormenburga sent for her, but the abbess would not let her go. However, she escaped, and taking with her some precious relics that she had bought sailed for England. She landed at Ebbsfleet, and the stone on which she stepped on landing was impressed by her foot, and many were healed there. Along with seventy other virgins she became a nun of her mother's house, being blessed by Archbishop Deusdedit (d. 663?) [q. v.] (Symeon), or by his successor Theodore (Thorn), and succeeded her mother in the rule of the house. She is supposed to have ​died about 700, but this is a vague guess, and seems too early. Her festival is 13 July in the Roman calendar. She was succeeded as abbess by Eadburga, who translated her body [see under Eadburga or Bugga, d. 751]. Minster was destroyed by the Danes in 1011, and its destruction led to a dispute as to the possession of St. Mildred's body. The convent of St. Augustine's, Canterbury, asserted that the place of her burial was known to and kept secret by the people of Thanet, and that it was revealed to their abbot Elfstan, who with Canute's leave, and after the king's return from Rome, translated it to St. Augustine's. There it was more than once moved and worked miracles, the day of her deposition being kept there on 20 Feb. On the other hand, the canons of St. Gregory's, Canterbury, declared that they had the body, that it had been translated to Liming by Eadburga, a daughter of Ethelbert of Kent, and had thence been removed and given to their house by Archbishop Lanfranc. With reference to this dispute Goscelin [q. v.] wrote his ‘Libellus contra usurpatores S. Mildrithæ,’ and Thorn describes the history of the saint and her relics ‘contra Gregorianos corpus beatæ virginis Mildredæ fallaciter usurpantes.’ Parker notes churches dedicated to St. Mildred at Preston and Canterbury in Kent, two in London, and another at Whippingham, Isle of Wight, to which must be added one at Oxford now destroyed (Anglican Church Calendar, p. 264; Wood, City of Oxford, ii. 94–7). The earliest mention of St. Mildred is, Bishop Stubbs notes, in the attestation of the privilege granted by Wihtred, king of Kent, between 696 and 716, if the document be genuine (Ecclesiastical Documents, iii. 240). The charters in which her name occurs, given by Thorn, Elmham, and in the ‘Codex Diplomaticus,’ are not perhaps sufficiently authoritative to demand references here (see Bishop Stubbs, as below). Her life has been written by Goscelin, Thorn, and Capgrave.
[Acta SS. Bolland. July, iii. 485–96; Thorn's Chron. of St. Augustine's ap. Decem SS. ed. Twysden; Elmham (Rolls Ser.); Flor. Wig. Geneal. i. 265 (Engl. Hist. Soc.); Symeon of Durham's Gesta Regum, ap. Opp. ii. (Rolls Ser.); William of Malmesbury's Gesta Regum, i. 78, 268, and Gesta Pontiff. pp. 7, 306 (Rolls Ser.); Hardy's Cat. Mat. i. 376–84 (Rolls Ser.); Parker's Anglican Church Calendar; Wood's City of Oxford (Oxf. Hist. Soc.); Dict. Chr. Biog., art. by Bishop Stubbs, with notices of the charters bearing on the subject.]
W. H.