An Essex Saint

 

 ~ St.Osyth Priory

This is all the remains of St. Osyth's Priory situated on the junction of the rivers Stour and Blackwater in Essex.

St. Osyth was the daughter of Redwald, the first Christian king of East Anglia and his wife, Wilburga, daughter of Penda, king of the Mercians.

When Osyth was very young she was given into the care of St. Modwen in Warwickshire.  During her time there she was sent with a book to deliver. She fell off a bridge into a river and was thought to have been drowned but she was restored to life by the prayers of St. Modwen.

When she returned to her parents she was betrothed to Sighere, King of Essex. However, Osyth was not happy. She was of a spiritual nature and had decided to dedicate her life to God.  A great feast was arranged prior to the marriage.  During the feast, Sighere, a keen hunter, saw from the window, a Stag and he could not resist leaving with his friends to hunt it down.  Osyth saw her chance and slipped away from the celebrations and went to some local nuns begging to be allowed to join them.  They took her in.

Sighere was an understanding man and when he realised how devout Osyth was, he accepted her decision and let her take her religious vows.  He gave her the village of Chich and built a nunnery for and she became the abbess.

In October of the year 653 a band of Danes commanded by Inguar and Hubba landed in the neighbourhood of Chich and ravaged the country.  They eventually came to Osyth's nunnery and dragging Osyth out they took her into Nun's wood and commanded her to turn from Christ and worship their Gods.  She steadfastly refused.  They threatened to whip her and taunted her with even worse torments, but she continued faithful to Christ.

It is said that Hubba, by then infuriated with the young woman, grabbed her by the hair and hacked off her head and that where her blood fell a miraculous healing fountain spouted.  It is more likely that her throat was slashed  because Osyth was able to walk to the back to the church and rap on the door before she fell dead.

The martyred princess was first buried in the church of Chich which had been founded by her, but her parents soon removed her body to Aylesbury .  Many miracles were performed at her shrine and six years later her body was taken back to Chich and buried with great solemnity in Christ Church.

Her nunnery was destroyed by the Danes immediately after she was killed but the church of St. Peter and St. Paul now stands on the site of the church she founded.

In times long past when people in Essex went to bed "they did rake up the fire and make an X on the ashes and pray to God and St. Osyth to deliver them from fire and from water and from all misadventure."

According to local tradition, on one night of the year, St. Osyth revisits the scene of her martyrdom, walking with her head in her hand.

In the reign of Henry the first, the Bishop of London built a religious house of St. Augustine at Chich in honour of the great apostles, St. Peter and St. Paul and St. Osyth, virgin and martyr.