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Died 834. Saint Etheldritha was daughter of King Offa of the Mercians and his queen, Quindreda. She was betrothed to King Ethelbert of the East Angles, who was killed by her father's treachery. Because she had wanted to consecrate her life entirely to the service of God, she left the court and established herself about 793 in a small cell on Croyland Island in the desolate marshes of Lincolnshire. There she lived as a recluse for forty years devoting herself to assiduous prayer and the practice of Christian virtue. Several miracles attested to her eminent sanctity, however, she was best known for her prophesies. Her tomb was among those arranged around that of Saint Guthlac, but her relics were lost during the ravages of the Danes when they destroyed Croyland Abbey in 870 (Benedictines, Farmer, Encyclopaedia, Husenbeth).


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