Sainte Édith
Vierge, Princesse d´Angleterre
(† 984)
Édith vint au monde en 961. Elle était fille naturelle du roi Edgar. Ce prince l'avait eue d'une dame illustre par sa naissance, qu'il avait enlevée, et qui se nommait Wulfride ou Wilfrith. Sa femme étant morte, il voulut épouser celle qu'il avait déshonorée; mais Wulfride ne voulut point y consentir, et alla même prendre le voile dans le monastère de Wilton, dont elle devint abbesse peu de temps après. Elle voulut se charger elle-même du soin d'élever Édith, sa fille, qui par là fut arrachée à la corruption du monde, avant d'en avoir ressenti les effets. C'est ce qui a fait dire au rédacteur du martyrologe romain, en parlant de notre Sainte, que, «s'étant consacrée à Dieu dès son enfance, elle avait moins quitté le monde qu'elle ne l'avait ignoré»: ignorance infiniment précieuse, et qui est le plus sûr moyen de vivre dans une parfaite innocence.
La jeune princesse profita si bien des exemples et des instructions de sa mère, qu'elle se fit religieuse dans le même monastère. Elle faisait l'office de Marthe à l'égard de toutes les religieuses et des externes, et les fonctions de Marie à l'égard de Notre-Seigneur; car, sans considérer sa naissance, elle s'appliquait aux plus vils ministères de la maison, assistait les malades, et se faisait la servante des étrangers et des pauvres. Elle fonda pour eux, près de son monastère un hôpital pour en entretenir toujours treize. Secourant de ses aumônes et de ses soins ceux qu'elle savait être dans l'indigence, elle cherchait les affligés pour leur donner de la consolation, et aimait mieux converser avec les lépreux, qui sont abandonnés de tout le monde, qu'avec les premiers princes du royaume. Plus les personnes étaient rebutées des autres à cause de leurs infirmités, plus elles étaient bienvenues auprès d'elle; en un mot, Édith était incomparable dans son zèle à rendre service à son prochain. L'abstinence faisait ses plus grandes délices, et elle fuyait autant les viandes délicates que les autres les recherchent avec empressement, joignant à cette mortification celle d'un rude cilice qu'elle portait sur sa chair nue, afin de réprimer de bonne heure les mouvements de la nature. Telle fut la vie de cette jeune princesse jusqu'à l'âge de quinze ans.
Le roi informé de tant de belles qualités de sa fille, voulut la faire abbesse de trois monastères; mais elle le remercia, et se contenta de lui proposer pour cela des religieuses que son humilité lui faisait juger beaucoup plus capables qu'elle d'occuper ces places. Elle ne put se résoudre à quitter une maison où elle avait déjà reçu tant de grâces; elle aima mieux obéir que commander, et demeurer sous la conduite de sa mère, que d'être chargée de la conduite des autres. Mais son humilité parut bien davantage lorsqu'elle refusa la couronne d'Angleterre; car après la mort de saint Édouard II que l'Église honore comme un martyr, les seigneurs vinrent la trouver pour lui présenter le sceptre, et employèrent toutes les raisons possibles, et même tentèrent les voies de la violence pour l'obliger de l'accepter. Elle leur résista toujours généreusement, et l'on aurait plutôt transmué les métaux, dit son historien, que de la retirer de son cloître, et de lui faire quitter la résolution qu'elle avait prise d'être toute sa vie dévouée au service de Dieu.
Elle avait fait bâtir une église en l'honneur de saint Denis; elle pria saint Dunstan d'en faire la dédicace. Pendant la solennité de la messe, ce saint prélat eut la révélation que la mort de la jeune princesse, qui n'avait encore que vingt trois ans, arriverait au bout de quarante jours. Cette nouvelle attendrit son coeur et tira de ses yeux des torrents de larmes: «Hélas!» dit-il à son diacre qui lui demanda le sujet de sa tristesse, «nous perdrons bientôt notre bien-aimée Édith; le monde n'est plus digne de la posséder. Elle a, en peu d'années, acheté la couronne qui lui est préparée dans les cieux. Sa ferveur condamne notre lâcheté; notre vieillesse n'a pu encore mériter cette grâce; elle va jouir des clartés éternelles, et nous demeurons toujours sur la terre dans les ténèbres et les ombres de la mort». S'étant aperçu, durant la cérémonie, que la Sainte faisait souvent le signe de la croix sur le front, il dit aussi par un esprit de prophétie: «Dieu ne permettra pas que ce pouce périsse jamais».
L'événement vérifia l'une et l'autre de ces deux prédictions; car, au bout de quarante jours, le 16 septembre 984, elle rendit son âme dans la même église, entre les mains des anges, qui honorèrent son décès de leur présence et d'une mélodie céleste; et ce même pouce, dont elle s'était tant de fois servie pour former sur elle le signe de la croix, fut trouvé treize ans après sa mort sans aucune marque de corruption, quoique tout le reste de son corps fût presque entièrement réduit en cendres. Cette église de Saint-Denis, qu'elle avait souvent visitée et arrosée de ses larmes pendant sa vie, lui servit de sépulture. Trente jours après son décès, elle apparut à sa mère avec un visage serein et tout lumineux, lui disant que le Roi des anges, son cher Époux, l'avait mise dans Sa gloire; que Satan avait fait tout ce qu'il avait pu pour l'empêcher d'y entrer, en l'accusant devant Dieu de plusieurs fautes; mais que, par le secours des saints Apôtres, et par la vertu de la croix de son Sauveur Jésus, elle lui avait écrasé la tête, et, en triomphant de sa malice, l'avait envoyé dans les enfers.
Plusieurs miracles ont été opérés par ses mérites. Nous rapporterons seulement l'exemple suivant, qui montre combien pèchent ceux qui usurpent les biens de l'Église. Un homme s'étant approprié une terre de sainte Édith, tomba tout à coup malade, qu'on le crut mort sans avoir eu le temps de faire pénitence. Mais un peu après, étant revenu à lui, il dit aux assistants: «Ah! mes amis, ayez pitié de moi et secourez-moi par la ferveur de vos prières; l'indignation de sainte Édith contre moi est si grande que, pour me punir de l'usurpation que j'ai faite d'une terre qui lui appartenait, elle chasse mon âme malheureuse du ciel et de la terre. Il faut que je meure, et cependant je ne puis mourir. Je veux réparer mon injustice, et restituer à l'Église le bien que je lui ai ravi». Il n'eut pas plus tôt témoigné cette bonne volonté, qu'il expira paisiblement. On la représente tenant d'une main une bourse, et de l'autre une pièce de monnaie, pour marquer son grand amour pour les pauvres.
SOURCE : http://magnificat.ca/cal/fr/saints/sainte_edith.html
Sainte
Edith de Barking
Abbesse de Wilton (✝ 984)
Elle était la fille d'Edgar, roi des
Angles et suivit sa mère Wilfride, concubine du roi, lorsqu'elle se retira dans
le monastère de Wiltshire. Elle devint religieuse. Lorsqu'elle mourut, âgée de
vingt-trois ans, elle fut aussitôt placée sur les autels et dans les
calendriers de son pays.
À Wilton en Angleterre, vers 984, sainte Édith, vierge. Fille d’Edgar, roi
des Angles, consacrée à Dieu toute jeune au monastère de ce lieu, elle a ignoré
ce monde plutôt qu’elle ne l’a laissé.
Martyrologe
romain
Edith de Wilton
Princesse, religieuse, sainte
961-984
Sainte Édith de Wilton ou Eadgyth
est née en 961, morte à l'âge de 23 ans le 16 septembre 984 au monastère de
Wilton.
Née à Kensing, elle était la fille naturelle du
roi d'Angleterre saint Edgar le Pacifique, roi des Anglo-Saxons de 959 à 975,
et de Wulfrida.
Enfant encore, elle fut, par sa
mère, aux religieuses de l’abbaye de Wilton, où elle reçut une éducation
extrêmement soignée pour l'époque. Elle s’y consacra au service des pauvres et
des malades.
Malgré les cadeaux de son père et
de ses demi-frères, elle ne fut guère attirée pas le monde séculier.
Elle refusa la couronne qui lui
fut offerte après la mort de son père et celle de son frère Saint Edouard le
Martyr, mort assassiné en 978, pour rester fidèle à ses vœux monastiques.
Dans cette même abbaye elle fut
rejointe par sa mère, Wulfrida, qui devint plus
tard — après avoir amèrement regretté son ancienne vie dissolue de
courtisane — abbesse du même monastère. Ce fut cette dernière qui fit
construire l’église de Saint-Denis à Wilton.
Considérée comme une sainte de
son vivant, comme plusieurs femmes de son sang, elle mourut de maladie à
vingt-trois ans, le 16 septembre 984.
On la fête le 16 septembre.
St. Edith of Wilton
Edith of Wilton was the daughter of King
Edgar of England and Wulfrida. She was born at Kensing, England, and was
brought as a very young child to Wilton Abbey by her
mother, who later became a nun there and Abbess. Edith became a nun when
fifteen, declined her father's offer of three abbacies, and refused to leave
the convent
to become queen when her half-brother, King Edward the Martyr was
murdered, as many of the nobles requested. She built St. Denis Church at
Wilton. Her feast day is
September 16.
St. Edith of Wilton
(AD 961-984)
Born: AD 961 at Kemsing, Kent
Died: 16th September AD 984 at Wilton, Wiltshire
St. Edith of Wilton
was the illegitimate daughter of King Edgar the Peaceable, born at Kemsing in Kent. Her
mother was St. Wulfthrith, a nun of noble birth, whom Edgar
forcibly carried off from her monastery at Wilton. Under St. Dunstan's direction, he did penance for this crime by
not wearing his crown for seven years. As soon as Wulfthrith could escape from
him, she returned to her cell and, there, Edith was born. Educated with great
care, she became a wonder of beauty, learning and piety. After his wife's
death, Edgar would have married Wulfthrith, but she preferred to remain a nun
at Wilton. Edith took the veil very early, with her father's consent. He made
her abbess of three different communities, but she chose to remain under her
mother at Wilton, where she was a Martha with regard to her sister nuns, and a
Mary in her devotion to Christ.
In AD 979 Edith dreamt that
she lost her right eye and knew the dream was sent to warn her of the death of
her brother, who, in fact, was murdered at that very time, while visiting his
step-mother, Queen Elfrida, at Corfe in Dorset. The nobles then offered the
crown to Edith, but she declined. Notwithstanding her refusal of all Royal
honours and worldly power, she always dressed magnificently and, as St.
Aethelwold remonstrated, she answered that purity and humility could exist as
well under Royal robes as under rags. She built a church at Wilton, and
dedicated it in the name of St. Denis. St. Dunstan was invited to the
dedication and wept much during mass. Being asked the reason, he said it was
because Edith would die in three weeks, which actually happened, on 15th
September AD 984.
A month afterwards, she
appeared in glory, to her mother, and told her the devil had tried to accuse
her, but she had broken his head. Many years after, King Canute laughed at the
idea that the daughter of the licentious Edgar could be a saint. St. Dunstan
took her out of her coffin and set her upright in the church, whereupon Canute was
terrified, and fell down in a faint. He had a great veneration for St. Edith
ever after.
Edited from Agnes
Dunbar's "A Dictionary of Saintly Women" (1904).
Wilton Abbey
A Benedictine convent in Wiltshire, England, three miles from Salisbury. A first foundation
was made as a college of secular priests by Earl Wulstan
of Wiltshire, about 773, but was after his death (800) changed into a convent for 12 nuns by his widow, St. Alburga, sister of
King Egbert. Owing to the consent
given by this king he is counted as the first founder of this monastery. St. Alburga herself
joined the community, and died at Wilton. King Alfred, after his temporary success against the Danes
at Wilton in 871, founded a new convent on the site of the royal palace and united to it the older foundation.
The community was to number 26 nuns. Wilton is best known as the home of St.
Edith, the child of a "handfast" union between
Edgar, King of the English
(944-75), and Wulfrid, a lady
wearing the veil though not a nun, whom he carried off from Wilton probably
in 961. After Edith's birth, Wulfrid
refused to enter into a permanent marriage
with Edgar and retired with her child to Wilton. Edith, who appears
to have been learned, received the veil while a child, at the hands of Bishop Ethelwold of Winchester, and at the age of fifteen refused the abbacy
of three houses offered by her
father. She built the Church of
St. Denis at Wilton, which was consecrated by St. Dunstan, and died shortly afterwards at the age of twenty-three (984). Her feast is on 16 September. St. Edith
became the chief patron of Wilton,
and is sometimes said to have been abbess. In 1003 Sweyn, King of Denmark, destroyed the town of Wilton, but we do not know whether the monastery shared its fate. Edith,
the wife of Edward the Confessor,
who had been educated at Wilton, rebuilt in stone the monastery which had formerly been of wood. In 1143 King Stephen
made it his headquarters, but was put to flight by Matilda's
forces under Robert of Gloucester. The Abbess of Wilton held an entire barony from the king, a privilege
shared by only three other English nunneries, Shaftesbury, Barking, and St. Mary,
Winchester. Cecily Bodenham, the
last abbess, surrendered her convent on 25 March, 1539. The site was granted to Sir
William Herbert,
afterwards Earl of Pembroke, who commenced the building of Wilton House, still the abode
of his descendants. There
are no remains of the ancient buildings.
Sources
DUGDALE, Monasticon Anglicanum, II (London, 1846), 315; HUNT in Dict.
Nat. Biog., s.v. EDITH (London, 1888).
Webster, Douglas Raymund. "Wilton
Abbey." The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 15. New York: Robert Appleton
Company, 1912. 21 Mar. 2015
<http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/15647b.htm>.
SOURCE : http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/15647b.htm
September 16
St. Editha, or Eadgith, Virgin
SHE was born in 961, being natural daughter of King Edgar, by Wulfrida or Wilfrith, a noble lady whom that prince had ravished; for which he underwent a penance of seven years, as hath been related in the life of St. Dunstan. Edgar, after the death of his wife, endeavoured with great importunity to marry Wulfrida; but she constantly rejected his solicitations, and took the religious veil in the monastery of Wilton, of which house she was shortly after chosen abbess. Her daughter Editha or Eadgith, was brought up by her in this religious community, and thus rescued from the corruption of the world before she had any taste for its deceitful pleasures. Ignorance of vice being the most perfect fence of innocence, the Roman Martyrology draws from this circumstance the eulogium of St. Editha, that, “being from her tender years dedicated to God in a monastery, she may be said rather not to have known the world, than to have left it.” She never knew the enchantments of sin, or the allurements and snares of the world, which she only feared at a distance; and her tender heart was always open to God, because always a stranger to any other love. Wulfrida took a particular care to improve her religious sentiments by repeating constantly to her lessons of Christian perfection, and setting before her eyes the most illustrious examples of sanctity. Editha repaid her care with an admirable docility, and proficiency in the school of virtue. She was admitted very young to her religious profession, for which the consent of the king, her father, was obtained with much difficulty. She united the active life of Martha with the contemplation of Mary, and though it was her greatest delight to hear the voice of her heavenly spouse speak to her heart in silence and retirement, she frequently deprived herself of that celestial pleasure, that she might attend and serve him in his distressed members. She fed the poor, took care of the sick, and dressed their most foul and loathsome sores, preferring the leprous to the king’s children. Her abstinence and other austerities were wonderful, and she wore a hair cloth next her skin. She had a great devotion to the memory of her crucified spouse, which she expressed by the constant use of the sign of the cross.
When she was but fifteen years old, her royal father pressed her to undertake the government of three different monasteries: of which charge she was judged then most capable, such was her extraordinary virtue and discretion; but she humbly declined all superiority, and chose to remain in her own community, subject to her mother, who was abbess there. Soon after this refusal, Edgar died, and was succeeded by his son, Edward the Martyr. Upon the death of the latter, the nobility, who adhered to the martyred king, desired Editha to quit her monastery, and ascend the throne; but she preferred a state of humility and obedience to the prospect of a crown, says the author of her life. She built the church of St. Denis, at Wilton; to the dedication of which she invited the holy archbishop St. Dunstan. This prelate during mass was observed to weep exceedingly; the reason of which he afterwards discovered to be, because he learned that Editha should shortly be taken out of this world, and translated to the regions of everlasting light; whilst we, said he, shall still continue sitting here below in darkness and in the shades of death. According to this prediction, forty-three days after this solemnity, she happily reposed in our Lord, on the 16th of September, 984, being but twenty-three years old. St. Dunstan, who had assisted her in her last illness, performed the funeral solemnity, she being buried in the church of St. Denis. William of Malmesbury, who lived in the beginning of the twelfth century, assures us that her festival was kept with great devotion. See her life in Capgrave; and William of Malmesbury de Pontific. Angl. l. 2, c. 4, and de Regibus, Angl. l. 2, c. 13. Suysken the Bollandist, t. 5, Sept. p. 364.
Our calendars mention another St. EDITHA or EADGITHE, daughter to Earl Frewald, who died a nun at Ailesbury.
Rev. Alban Butler (1711–73). Volume IX: September. The Lives of the Saints. 1866.
SOURCE : http://www.bartleby.com/210/9/166.html
La sua biografia ci è trasmessa da Goscelino, monaco benedettino prima a St. Bertin poi a Canterbury (ove si trasferì alla metà del sec. XI), agiografo lodato da Guglielmo di Malmesbury come « in laudibus sanctorum Angliae nulli post Bedam secundus ». Lo stesso Guglielmo fissò le tappe essenziali della breve vita di Edith nel suo De gestis regum Anglorum.
Intorno al 1420, la vita della santa ispirò anche un'opera in dialetto del Wiltshire, intitolata Chro-nicon Vilodunense, sive De vita et miraculis S. Edithae regis Edgarii filiae Carmen vetus anglicum.
September 16
St. Editha, or Eadgith, Virgin
SHE was born in 961, being natural daughter of King Edgar, by Wulfrida or Wilfrith, a noble lady whom that prince had ravished; for which he underwent a penance of seven years, as hath been related in the life of St. Dunstan. Edgar, after the death of his wife, endeavoured with great importunity to marry Wulfrida; but she constantly rejected his solicitations, and took the religious veil in the monastery of Wilton, of which house she was shortly after chosen abbess. Her daughter Editha or Eadgith, was brought up by her in this religious community, and thus rescued from the corruption of the world before she had any taste for its deceitful pleasures. Ignorance of vice being the most perfect fence of innocence, the Roman Martyrology draws from this circumstance the eulogium of St. Editha, that, “being from her tender years dedicated to God in a monastery, she may be said rather not to have known the world, than to have left it.” She never knew the enchantments of sin, or the allurements and snares of the world, which she only feared at a distance; and her tender heart was always open to God, because always a stranger to any other love. Wulfrida took a particular care to improve her religious sentiments by repeating constantly to her lessons of Christian perfection, and setting before her eyes the most illustrious examples of sanctity. Editha repaid her care with an admirable docility, and proficiency in the school of virtue. She was admitted very young to her religious profession, for which the consent of the king, her father, was obtained with much difficulty. She united the active life of Martha with the contemplation of Mary, and though it was her greatest delight to hear the voice of her heavenly spouse speak to her heart in silence and retirement, she frequently deprived herself of that celestial pleasure, that she might attend and serve him in his distressed members. She fed the poor, took care of the sick, and dressed their most foul and loathsome sores, preferring the leprous to the king’s children. Her abstinence and other austerities were wonderful, and she wore a hair cloth next her skin. She had a great devotion to the memory of her crucified spouse, which she expressed by the constant use of the sign of the cross.
When she was but fifteen years old, her royal father pressed her to undertake the government of three different monasteries: of which charge she was judged then most capable, such was her extraordinary virtue and discretion; but she humbly declined all superiority, and chose to remain in her own community, subject to her mother, who was abbess there. Soon after this refusal, Edgar died, and was succeeded by his son, Edward the Martyr. Upon the death of the latter, the nobility, who adhered to the martyred king, desired Editha to quit her monastery, and ascend the throne; but she preferred a state of humility and obedience to the prospect of a crown, says the author of her life. She built the church of St. Denis, at Wilton; to the dedication of which she invited the holy archbishop St. Dunstan. This prelate during mass was observed to weep exceedingly; the reason of which he afterwards discovered to be, because he learned that Editha should shortly be taken out of this world, and translated to the regions of everlasting light; whilst we, said he, shall still continue sitting here below in darkness and in the shades of death. According to this prediction, forty-three days after this solemnity, she happily reposed in our Lord, on the 16th of September, 984, being but twenty-three years old. St. Dunstan, who had assisted her in her last illness, performed the funeral solemnity, she being buried in the church of St. Denis. William of Malmesbury, who lived in the beginning of the twelfth century, assures us that her festival was kept with great devotion. See her life in Capgrave; and William of Malmesbury de Pontific. Angl. l. 2, c. 4, and de Regibus, Angl. l. 2, c. 13. Suysken the Bollandist, t. 5, Sept. p. 364.
Our calendars mention another St. EDITHA or EADGITHE, daughter to Earl Frewald, who died a nun at Ailesbury.
Rev. Alban Butler (1711–73). Volume IX: September. The Lives of the Saints. 1866.
SOURCE : http://www.bartleby.com/210/9/166.html
Santa Edith di Wilton Badessa
† Wilton, Inghilterra, 16 settembre 984
Martirologio Romano: A Wilton in Inghilterra, santa Edith,
vergine, che, figlia del re degli Angli, consacratasi a Dio in un monastero fin
dalla tenera età, questo mondo, più che lasciarlo, non lo conobbe affatto.
Figlia di Edgaro re
d'Inghilterra e di Wulfthryth, nacque nel 961. Passò tutta la sua vita nel monastero
di Wilton, ove morì nel 984, il 16 sett., giorno in cui ancor oggi è
festeggiata.
La sua biografia ci è trasmessa da Goscelino, monaco benedettino prima a St. Bertin poi a Canterbury (ove si trasferì alla metà del sec. XI), agiografo lodato da Guglielmo di Malmesbury come « in laudibus sanctorum Angliae nulli post Bedam secundus ». Lo stesso Guglielmo fissò le tappe essenziali della breve vita di Edith nel suo De gestis regum Anglorum.
Intorno al 1420, la vita della santa ispirò anche un'opera in dialetto del Wiltshire, intitolata Chro-nicon Vilodunense, sive De vita et miraculis S. Edithae regis Edgarii filiae Carmen vetus anglicum.
Autore: Edith Pasztor
