Kyneburga, Kyneswide and Tibba: Difference between revisions

{{Short description|Canonized 7th-century Mercian princesses}}

|honorific_prefix=Saints

|name=Kyneburga, Kyneswide and Tibba

|venerated_in=[[Catholic Church]]<br>[[Anglican Church]]<br>[[Eastern Orthodox Church]]

'''Kyneburga, Kyneswide and Tibba''' were female members of the [[Iclingas|royal family]] of [[Mercia]] in 7th-century [[England]]. They are venerated as saints.

'''Kyneburga''' (d. c. 680) (also called Cyneburh in Old English); the name being also rendered as ''Kinborough'' and in occasional use as a Christian name<ref name="Withycombe">Elizabeth Gidley Withycombe, ''The Oxford Dictionary of English Christian names'' Oxford:Clarendon Press,(1945) Pp. xxxvi+136.</ref>) and '''Kyneswide''' (Cyneswitha) were sisters, the daughters of [[King Penda of Mercia]] (who remained true to [[Anglo-Saxon paganism]]). She was eldest daughter of Penda. Although her father was an opponent of Christianity, she and all her siblings converted.

Kyneburga married [[Alhfrith of Deira]], co-regent of [[Northumbria]] (who attended the [[Synod of Whitby]] in 664),<ref>Bede(d. 735), Ecclesiastical History of the English People.</ref> and later founded an [[abbey]] for both [[monks]] and [[nuns]] in [[Castor, Cambridgeshire|Castor]], in the [[Soke of Peterborough]].<ref>Dugdale's ''Monasticon'' prints the foundation charter of Burh/Medehampstead, dated 664, which establishes beyond doubt that Kyneburg had left her husband to found and preside over her monastery at Castor: "Formerly a queen, who had resigned her sway to preside over a monastery of maidens".</ref> She became the first [[abbess]] and was later joined by Kyneswide and Tibba. Kyneswide succeeded Kyneburga as abbess and she was later succeeded by '''Tibba'''. She was buried in her church, but the remains of Kyneburga and Kyneswide were [[Translation (relic)|translated]], before 972,<ref>The account of the translation is from the ''[[Anglo-Saxon Chronicle]]'', dated 972: "Abbot Aelfsi took up St Kyneburgh (with her sister and a female kinswoman) who lay at Castor and brought them to Burh and offered them all to [[St Peter]] in one day".</ref> to Peterborough Abbey, now [[Peterborough Cathedral]].

She died on 15 September AD 680 and was buried at Castor where she soon became revered as a [[saint]]. In 963 [[relics|her body]] was moved to [[Peterborough]], with those of her sister, Cuneswitha, and their kins woman, Tibba. Her remains were translated to [[Thorney Abbey]] some time later. Her feast day is celebrated on 6 March.<ref>[http://www.geni.com/people/Cyneburh/6000000005034376339 CyneBurh at geni.com]</ref>

She is remembered in a chapel at Peterborough Cathedral, the 12th-century St Kyneburga's parish church in Castor, Lady Conyburrow's Way (a ridge in a field near Castor), Kimberwell spring, [[Bedfordshire]], the villages of [[Kimberley, Norfolk]] and [[West Yorkshire]].<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.kinbarra.net/anglosaxon.htm |title=Cyneburh |access-date=18 January 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140201115721/http://www.kinbarra.net/anglosaxon.htm |archive-date=1 February 2014 |url-status=dead }}</ref>

There was another lady by the name of Kyneburg, the wife of [[Oswald of Northumbria]].<ref>For Kyneburg the wife of Oswald see Henry of Avranches, ''Vita Sancti Oswaldi'' (Life of St Oswald)</ref> She was the first abbess at Gloucester.

Tibba, patron saint of [[Falconry|falconer]]s, is believed to have lived at [[Ryhall]], Rutland, in the 7th century. She was buried there, but in the 11th century her relics were translated to Peterborough Abbey, by Abbot Ælfsige (1006&ndash;1042).<ref>{{cite book|editor1-last=Mellows|editor1-first=William Thomas |editor2-last=Mellows|editor2-first=Charles|title=The Peterborough Chronicle of Hugh Candidus|publisher=Peterborough Natural History, Scientific and Archæological Society|year=1941|page=27|url=http://www.peterborough.gov.uk/leisure_and_culture/museum_and_galleries/visiting_the_museum/peterborough_museum_society/publications.aspx}} The society is now known as [http://www.peterborough.gov.uk/leisure_and_culture/museum/visiting_the_museum/peterborough_museum_society.aspx Peterborough Museum Society]</ref><ref>[http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=66248 ''A History of the County of Rutland: Volume 2'', Page, W. (ed.), 1935.] British History Online. Retrieved 16 March 2010</ref> According to legend, St Tibba was a niece of [[Penda of Mercia|King Penda]].<ref>Rollason, D.W., ''The Mildrith Legend A Study in Early Medieval Hagiography in England'', Leicester University Press, 1982 (e.g. p. 115, in [[Medieval Latin]]).</ref> The remains of a small [[Hermitage (religious retreat)|hermitage]] associated with the saint can be seen on the west side of the north aisle of the [[Church of St John the Evangelist, Ryhall]].

Eabba, a cousin of Tibba, lived with her. Hope suggests the holy well dedicated to her was just north of Tibba's, on the other side of a ford of the [[River Gwash]] and the name "St. Eabba's-well-ford was corrupted to Stableford when a bridge was later built there. St. Eabba's well came to be called by local shepherds 'Jacob's well'".<ref name=Hope/> Barrie Cox in ''The Place-Names of Rutland'' suggests 'St Eabba's well ford' is [[Folk etymology|popular etymology]].<ref>''The Place-Names of Rutland'' by Barrie Cox (EPNS, 1994), p.163</ref> (For the relationship between St Tibba and St Ebba ("Domne Eafe"), see e.g. Rollason, D.W., ''The Mildrith Legend A Study in Early Medieval Hagiography in England'', Leicester University Press, 1982, p.&nbsp;77)

* Dunbar, Agnes (1904) ''A Dictionary of Saintly Women''. 2 vols. London: Bell, 1904–1905.

{{Anglo-Saxon saints|state=collapsed}}

[[Category:Iclingas]]

[[Category:7th-century English nuns]]

[[Category:7th-century Christian nuns]]