THE SAINT OF GEESE

 Always on the lookout for Benedictine saints, I found a whole family of them: eight women who even today are venerated for their lives. ST. WERBURGH could claim not only an abbess mother, but also a grandmother and great aunt who became abbesses, plus her aunt and three more great-aunts.   (Lots of lucky keeping them straight!)

SAINT WERBURGH  was born in Staffordshire, England, early in the seventh century. Her mother, ST. ERMENGILD, was a prayerful woman who married the pagan king of Mercia. Her strong Christian influence converted her husband as well as many others. When her husband died, Ermengild became a Benedictine nun at Minister-in-Sheppy, an abbey that had family connections. It had been founded by her mother, the abbess ST. SEXBURGA. Eventually, Ermengild succeeded her mother as superior.

Ermengild was following in her mother’s footsteps as Sexburga had also become a nun after her husband’s death. After serving as abbess at Minister-in-Sheppy for several years, however, Sexburga yearned to grow in holiness through a quieter, more obscure life. She left Minister-in-Sheppy and placed herself under the authority of her sister, ST. ETHELDREDA of ELY. But her quiet life was not to be, as she eventually succeeded Etheldreda as abbess of Ely.  St. Sexburga’s sisters, St.  Saeaethryth, and St. Withburga, as well as her daughter, St. Ercongata, were all called to be nuns. 

Werburgh was trained at home by St. Chad (afterwards Bishop of Lichfield), and by her mother. With this family influence, it is not surprising that Werburgh felt called to consecrated life. Though her beauty and grace attracted a number of suitors, her only desire was to enter religious life. She eventually convinced her father to let her enter the Abbey of Ely, where she was trained by her great-aunt Ethedreda (or Audrey), former queen of Northumbria, who had founded the Abbey at Ely and whose fame was widespread.

She eventually succeeded her mother Ermenilda, her grandmother Sexburga, and great-aunt Etheldreda as fourth Abbess of Ely.  She  established new monasteries in Trentham, Hanbury, Staffordshire, Weedon and Northhamptonshire. St. Werburgh was instrumental in monastic reform across England

Werburgh, like her grandmother, was drawn to solitude and desired to live an obscure life. But as with her grandmother, the Lord had other plans. Always obedient, she consented to His will and her uncle’s request to Werburgh’s gifts of self-discipline, obedience and leadership were soon apparent, and her uncle, who assumed the throne after her father’s death, asked her t

She died on 3 February 700 and was buried at Hanbury in Staffordshire. Many miracles are associated with the saint. It is even thought that she posthumously orchestrated the execution of her wishes regarding her own burial.  Knowing that all the monasteries in her charge would want to have her remains, she made arrangements to be buried at Hanbury. However, when she died in 699 at Trentham, the nuns there were determined to keep her. They stubbornly refused to transport Werburgh’s remains and even went so far as to lock them up and place a guard at the crypt.

The people of Hanbury, determined to honor the saint’s wishes, crept into Trentham late at night and marveled when all locks and bars fell open at their touch. Guards slept through the entire episode, and Werburgh’s body was spirited away to its resting place in Hanbury.

Due to the miracles and cures that occurred at the saint’s tomb, her body was exhumed in 708 to move it to a more accessible viewing place in the church. Werburgh’s brother, King Coenrad, was present and was stunned to see that his sister’s body was incorrupt.

He was so moved by what he witnessed that he experienced a conversion. Coenrad left his royal post and became a monk.

Werburgh’s remains were eventually moved to Chester, where a shrine was built to the beloved saint. She’s the patroness of that town, and a number of churches throughout England are dedicated to her.

When the shrine was destroyed (along with countless other holy sites) under the reign of King Henry VIII, her relics were scattered. Yet, amazingly, by the late 1800s, many parts of the shrine had been recovered and were reassembled. The shrine is still standing today in Chester Cathedral.

It was at this time that the most famous story about Werburgh appeared, according to which she restored a dead goose to life, as recounted by the medieval hagiographer Goscelin.   A stained glass window in the Church of St Peter and St Paul, Weedon Bec, Northamptonshire, relates to another tale in which she was said to have banished all the geese from the village.

As the story goes, St. Werburgh discovered one day that a large flock of geese was destroying the growing corn by feasting on it. To prevent this she gathered them up and began to keep them as though they were domestic geese. In the morning, she called them to send them out for day but discovered one missing. When she found that the goose had been eaten by her servants she demanded that the feathers and bones of the bird be brought to her.

 When they had been gathered together she prayed over the remains and commanded that the goose should live. The geese cried out at the return of their lost sister. Werburgh quieted them & asked that no goose should ever enter that field again. On gaining their agreement she set them free to become wild geese once more.