From: richarra@gmail.com   
      
   February 3rd - St. Werburga of Chester, OSB V (AC)   
   (also known as Werburg, Werebrurge, Werbyrgh)   
      
   Born at Stone, Staffordshire, England; died at Threckingham, England, c.   
   690-700; feast of her translation at Chester, June 21.   
      
   The patroness of Chester, England, Saint Werburga, was born of a line of   
   kings, being a daughter of Wulfhere, King of Mercia. From her mother, the   
   saintly Ermingilde (Ermenilda), she learned as a child the Christian faith.   
   By temperament she was pious and virtuous, and her beauty attracted many   
   admirers, among them a prince of the West Saxons, who offered her rich gifts   
   and made flattering proposals, and also Werbode, a powerful knight of her   
   father's court. But refusing all her suitors, she secured, after much   
   persuasion, her father's permission to enter a convent (or she did so after   
   her father's death).   
      
   When the time came, he and his courtiers escorted her in great state to the   
   abbey of Ely, where they were greeted at the gates by her aunt, the royal   
   abbess, Ethelreda, and her nuns. Werburga fell upon her knees and asked that   
   she might be received as a novice, and to the chanting of the Te Deum they   
   entered the cloister, where she was stripped of her costly apparel,   
   exchanged her coronet for a veil, and in a rough habit began her new life.   
      
   She made good progress, and after many years, at the request of her uncle,   
   King Ethelred, was chosen to superintend all the convents of his kingdom.   
   This opened to her a large and fruitful sphere of duty, and the religious   
   houses under her care became models of monastic discipline. Through the   
   wealth and influence of her family she also founded new convents at Trentham   
   in Staffordshire, Hanbury near Tutbury, and Weedon in Northamptonshire, and   
   secured the interest of Ethelred in establishing the collegiate Church of   
   Saint John the Baptist in Chester, and in giving land to Egwin for the great   
   abbey of Evesham.   
      
   Werburga won many from dissipation and vice, and God crowned her life with   
   many blessings. Her work was deeply rooted in prayer and discipline. She   
   took but one meal daily and that only of the coarsest food; she set before   
   her the example of the desert fathers; and she recited the whole of the   
   Psalter daily upon her knees.   
      
   She lived to a ripe age, and before her death she journeyed to all her   
   convents, paying to each a farewell visit; she then retired to Trentham   
   (Threckingham in Lincolnshire), where she died. She was buried in the   
   monastery of Hanbury in Staffordshire. Later, her remains were transferred   
   with great ceremony in the presence of King Coolred and many bishops to a   
   costly shrine in Leicester, which attracted many pilgrims.   
      
   In 875, for fear of the Danes, her relics were removed to Chester. In 1095,   
   they were translated within Chester, where in the course of time a great   
   church, now the cathedral, was built over it, and where the remains of it   
   may still be seen, carved with the figures of her ancestors, the ancient   
   kings of Mercia. On its four sides the deep niches remain, where the   
   pilgrims knelt, seeking healing, afterwards receiving a metal token to show   
   that they had visited her shrine. This final translation was the occasion   
   for Goselin to write her vita. The shrine was destroyed under King Henry   
   VIII, although part of its stone base survives. Twelve ancient English   
   churches were dedicated to her, including Hanbury and Chester (Attwater,   
   Benedictines, Encyclopedia, Farmer, Gill).   
      
   In art Saint Werburga holds the abbey, while her crown lays at her feet.   
   Sometimes there are wild geese near her (Roeder), because, according to   
   Goselin she restored one to life (see below); however, the writer borrowed   
   the story from his own vita of the Flemish Saint Amelburga (Farmer). She is,   
   of course, the patroness of Chester (Roeder).   
      
      
   Like a cheerful gossip, William of Malmesbury writes this tale of a local   
   miracle wrought by Saint Werburga:   
      
   "It was in the city of Chester that the girl Werburga, daughter of Wulfhere,   
   King of Mercia, and Ermenilda . . . took her vows, and her goodness shone   
   for many years. The story of one miracle done by her I now shall tell, which   
   made a great stir and was long told about the countryside.   
      
   "She had a farm outside the walls, where the wild geese would come and   
   destroy the standing corn in the fields. The steward in charge of the farm   
   took all shifts to drive them off, but with small success. And so, when he   
   came to wait upon his lady, he added his complaint of them to the other   
   tales he would tell her of the day.   
      
   "'Go,' said she, 'and shut them all into a house.' The countryman,   
   dumbfounded at the oddness of the command, thought that his lady was   
   jesting: but finding her serious and insistent, went back to the field where   
   he had first spied the miscreants, and bade them, speaking loud and clear,   
   to do their lady's bidding and come after him. Whereupon with one accord   
   they gathered themselves into a flock, and walking with down-bent necks   
   after their enemy, were shut up under a roof. On one of them, however, the   
   rustic, with no thought of any to accuse him, made bold to dine.   
      
   "At dawn came the maid, and after scolding the birds for pillaging other   
   people's property, bade them take their flight. But the winged creatures   
   knew that one of their company was missing; nor did they lack wit to go   
   circling round their lady's feet, refusing to budge further, and complaining   
   as best they could, to excite her compassion. She, through God's revealing,   
   and convinced that all this clamor was not without cause, turned her gaze   
   upon the steward, and divined the theft.   
      
   "She bade him gather up the bones and bring them to her. And straightway, at   
   a healing sign from the girl's hand, skin and flesh began to come upon the   
   bones, and feathers to fledge upon the skin, till the living bird, at first   
   with eager hop and soon upon the wing, launched itself into the air. Nor   
   were the others slow to follow it, their numbers now complete, though first   
   they made obeisance to their lady and deliverer.   
      
   "And so the merits of this maid are told at Chester, and her miracles   
   extolled. Yet though she be generous and swift to answer all men's prayers,   
   yet most gracious is her footfall among the women and boys, who pray as it   
   might be to a neighbor and a woman of their own countryside" (Malmesbury).   
      
      
   Saint Quote:   
   Let us faithfully transmit to posterity the example of virtue which we have   
   received from our forefathers.   
   --Saint Peter Damian   
      
   Bible Quote:   
   Thus saith the Lord: Stand ye on the ways, and see.  And ask for the old   
   paths, which is the good way, and walk ye in it, and you shall find   
   refreshment for your souls. ( Jeremias 6:16)   
      
      
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   Four ejaculations:   
      
      
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