The Legend of Frideswide
According to the 12th-century legendary account preserved by John of Worcester and adapted by Robert of Cricklade, King Algar of Leicester sought to marry Frideswide despite the vow of celibacy she had taken. When she refused, he attempted to abduct her, forcing her to flee first to Bampton in Oxfordshire and later to Binsey.
In Oxford the people refused to reveal her whereabouts, and Algar was struck blind. At Binsey, tradition relates that she prayed for water and a well sprang up whose waters were held to have healing properties, drawing many pilgrims. The well at the Church of Saint Margaret in Binsey was reconstructed in the 19th century.
Two Middle English adaptations of her legend appear in the South English Legendaries. Modern artistic depictions show her holding an abbess's pastoral staff together with a fountain and an ox; Pre-Raphaelite stained glass by Edward Burne-Jones depicts her in Christ Church Cathedral.
Relics & Shrines
In 1180 Archbishop Richard of Dover translated Frideswide's remains to a new shrine in the monastery church, in the presence of King Henry II. The shrine became a focus of pilgrimage from at least the 12th century until the early 16th century.
During the Dissolution of the Monasteries the priory was dissolved by Cardinal Wolsey in 1524. Queen Mary reinstated the shrine in 1558, but the Calvinist canon James Calfhill subsequently mixed Frideswide's remains with those of Catherine Dammartin, the wife of Peter Martyr Vermigli, and the two sets of remains remain commingled.
Her shrine is now located in the Latin Chapel of Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford.
The Priory and its Legacy
The original nunnery founded by Frideswide was destroyed in 1002 during the St. Brice's Day massacre and later restored. In 1122 King Henry I granted the church to the chaplain Gwymund, who installed Augustinian canons regular, establishing an Augustinian priory.
Notable priors included Robert of Cricklade, who wrote on miracles attributed to the intercession of Thomas Becket, and Philip of Oxford. Among those interred at the priory were Frideswide herself, Lady Elizabeth Montacute, the architect William Orchard, and the scholar Edward Pococke.
In 1524 Cardinal Wolsey dissolved the priory and repurposed its site, combined with lands from Wallingford Priory and other houses, to found Cardinal College. After Wolsey's fall in 1530, Henry VIII converted the college into Christ Church; the surviving portion of the church, including five nave bays, became both the college chapel and the cathedral of the newly created Diocese of Oxford.
Feast Days
Frideswide is commemorated on 19 October, the day of her death. Two further observances mark events connected with her relics: 12 February, the translation of her relics, and 15 May, their discovery.
