Saint Eanswith

Saint Eanswith (Old English: Ēanswīþ; born c. 630, Kent, England. Died c. 650, Folkestone, England), also spelled Eanswythe or Eanswide, was an Anglo-Saxon princess, who is said to have founded Folkestone Priory, one of the first Christian monastic communities for women in Britain. Her possible remains were the subject of research, published in 2020. Eanswith was a princess of the Kingdom of Kent. Her father was Eadbald, who ruled as king of Kent from 616 to 640. Her mother, Eadbald's second wife, was Emma, who may have been a Frankish princess; she also bore him two sons, Eormenred and Eorcenberht. Eanswith's grandfather, Æthelberht of Kent had been the first king of Anglo-Saxon England to accept Christian baptism. Tradition has it that Eanswith, with her father's support, founded the Benedictine Folkestone Priory, the first nunnery in England. While the monastery was under construction, a pagan prince came to Kent seeking to marry her. Eadbald, whose sister Æthelburh (Ethelburga) had married the pagan King Edwin two or three years before, recalled that this marriage had resulted in Edwin's conversion. Eanswith, however, refused the match. Instead of getting married, Eanswith lived at the monastery with her companions in the monastic life; they may have been guided by some of the monks who had come to England with Augustine in the Gregorian mission of 597. She remained at the abbey until her death. The first monastic site became abandoned by the 10th century, and began to be eroded by the sea, a problem which also afflicted a new foundation of 1095. A site further inland was provided for a new foundation of Folkestone Priory by William de Abrincis in 1137, with a church dedicated to St Mary and to Eanswith. Saint Eanswith's day falls on 12 September; traditionally, this is the date on which her remains were translated to the new church in 1138.