A Misplaced Miracle: the origins of St Modwynn of Burton and St Eadgyth of Polesworth

Sargent

Abstract

The twelfth-century Life of St Modwynn of Burton upon Trent (Staffordshire) includes an episode in which St Modwynn and St Eadgyth of Polesworth (Warwickshire) resurrect a nun named Osgyth who had drowned in a river. Current scholarly consensus locates the origins of this miracle with the cult of St Osgyth of Aylesbury (Buckinghamshire). This article seeks to restore the earliest written version of the miracle to St Modwynn, and goes on to consider the place of the miracle in the early medieval cults of St Modwynn and St Eadgyth. It is suggested that the miracle was first part of St Eadgyth’s cult, and that St Modwynn was intruded at some point in the eleventh century during the early development of the Benedictine monastery at Burton.

Citation

Sargent. (2016). A Misplaced Miracle: the origins of St Modwynn of Burton and St Eadgyth of Polesworth. Midland History, 41(1), 1-19. https://doi.org/10.1080/0047729X.2016.1159851

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Dec 8, 2015
• Publication Date: May 9, 2016
• Journal: Midland History
• Print ISSN: 0047-729X
• Publisher: Maney Publishing
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 41
• Issue: 1
• Pages: 1-19
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/0047729X.2016.1159851
• Keywords: Hagiography, St Modwynn of Burton, St Eadgyth of Polesworth, Anglo-Saxon minsters
• Publisher URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/0047729X.2016.1159851