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Hereswith
Northumbrian saint
SaintResearchedBenedictinesPre-congregation
Feast: 1 December (not on the universal Roman calendar; kept in the Roman Martyrology or local calendars)
Born
601
Died
—
unknown
Beatified
—
not needed: before formal processes
Canonised
By tradition
recognised before formal processes began
Who they were
Hereswith, sister of St Hilda of Whitby, was the wife of King Aethelhere of East Anglia and mother of two sons.
After her husband was killed at the battle of the Winwaed in 655, she became a nun at the Abbey of Chelles and remained there to the end of her life.
The miracles
There was never a formal cause: she has been honoured as a saint since before the Church's formal processes began.
Why that counted as sanctity
A widowed queen who became a nun.
Connected on this site
- Hilda Saint Brother or sister
- Edwin of Northumbria Saint“Details of her life and identity come from Bede's Historia Ecclesiastica, the Anglian collection and the Lives of Edwin of Northumbria and Hilda of Whitby.” — Wikipedia
Sources
- Catholic Encyclopedia (1913), via New Advent - St. Hereswitha
- Wikidata Q5738218 — dates, feast day and identifiers (CC0)
- English Wikipedia — Hereswith (CC BY-SA)
Checked against the sources listed on 21 September 2026. Corrections welcome.