Dedication

Today is St Etheldreda’s Day.  Around 646, English princess, Etheldreda, Audrey, of East Anglia, despite her calling to be a nun, was married for reasons of State. Her husband grew tired of living as brother and sister and eventually attempted to bribe the local bishop, Wilfrid of York, to release Audrey from her vows.

Saint Wilfrid refused, and helped Audrey escape. She fled south, and founded the Abbey of Ely; by this time her husband gave up and married someone else.

Etheldreda lived an austere life of prayer but died of a huge tumour on her neck, which she believed was a result of all the necklaces she had worn in her early years!

During the Middle Ages, a festival, ‘St. Audrey's Fair’, was held at Ely on her feast day. Sadly, the shoddiness of the goods on sale particularly the neckerchiefs, gave rise to the word ‘tawdry’!

There’s a C13^th Church dedicated to St Etheldreda just outside Hatfield House built when the old palace was the home of the Bishop of Ely.

Lord Jesus, help us, like Etheldreda, to be faithful to our calling, to realise that material possessions are not lasting treasures and that prayer and following your way of love is the way to eternal life. Amen.