St Frideswide

Saint Frithuswith
Frithuswith hides amongst swine to escape from Algar. Stained-glass window in Christ Church, Oxford.
Born	c. 650 upper Thames region
Died	727 Binsey, Oxford
Venerated in	Roman Catholic Church; Anglicanism; Eastern Orthodox Church; Oriental Orthodox Church
Feast	19 October
Attributes	pastoral staff; a fountain; the ox
Patronage	Oxford, England; University of Oxford

Saint Frithuswith (c. 650 – 19 October 727; Old English: Friðuswīþ; also known as Frideswide, Frideswith, Fritheswithe, Frevisse, or simply Fris) was an English princess and abbess. She is credited with establishing a religious site later incorporated into Christ Church in Oxford – Frithuswith was the first abbess of this Oxford double monastery. Frithuswith was the daughter of a Mercian sub-king named Dida of Eynsham, whose lands occupied western Oxfordshire and the upper reaches of the River Thames. Dida is known to have endowed churches in Bampton and Oxford.

Two 12th-century Latin texts (edited by John Blair) were adapted into two Middle English accounts of the Life of Saint Frithuswith, which are included in the South English Legendary. The accounts differ slightly in their story. The shorter tale recounts that Frithuswith was born to Didan (an Anglo-Saxon sub-king) and his wife Safrida around AD 650. With the help of her father, Frithuswith founded a priory (St Frideswide's Priory) while still young, but even though Fritheswith was bound to celibacy, Algar (that is, Æthelbald), a Mercian king, sought to marry her. When Frithuswith refused him, Algar tried to abduct her.

A longer tale is attributed to Robert of Cricklade, then prior of Oxford, and was later recorded by William of Malmsbury. According to this account (recorded in the South English Legendary), Fritheswith flees to Oxford. There she finds a ship sent by God which takes her to Bampton. Meanwhile, the King searches for her in Oxford, but the people refuse to tell him where she is. When he has searched the whole town but cannot find her, he becomes blind. In the shorter version, Frithuswith hides in a forest outside Oxford, but when Algar comes to look for her, she sneaks back into the town. The king follows her, but just outside the Oxford city gates he falls off his horse and breaks his neck.