Cuthberga was a former Anglo-Saxon Queen turned religious leader, who was a woman of deep faith and learning who died 1,300 years ago. This is her story …
Cuthberga
Cuthberga, also spelt Cuthburh (and not to be confused with St Cuthbert) was born into the ancient Saxon royal family of Wessex, the daughter of Cenred and granddaughter of Ceolwad, cousins of the ruling branch. She had brothers Ine and Inglid and a sister Cwenburga (also spelt Cwenburh or Quenburga).
King Ine
Later her brother became King Ine of Wessex from AD 689 to 726. He was based near Wimborne and he ruled the area of western England up to Dorset, Hampshire, and the Isle of Wight.
He extended Saxon rule to the River Tamar, which is still considered the border with Cornwall, and divided Wessex into shires, governed by a shire reeve (sheriff). King Ine was noted for his codification of laws which owed much to his Christian faith, and he founded Winchester Cathedral. Discovery Channel dubbed him “the greatest king you’ve never heard of.”
Queen Cuthberga
About AD 688 Cuthberga was given in marriage to King Aldfrith of Northumbria, which lay 300 miles north. It was a political marriage. The reason is debated, but what is known is that St Cuthberga and King Aldfrith separated. She entered Barking Abbey in Essex near London as a nun, along with her sister Cwenbuga, and they became pupils of St Hildelitha the abbess. At the time Barking Abbey was famous for the study of literature.
Wimborne Abbey
Her husband died in AD 705 and she returned to Wessex, where she and her sister Cwenburga asked her brother King Ine for some land to establish an abbey as a dual monastery and nunnery. King Ine gave his sisters some land at Wimborne in Dorset, and in or about the year AD 713 Cuthberga became the founding abbess at Wimborne presiding over the monastery and nunnery. The monks and nuns lived quite separate lives in separate quarters, but worshipped together at Mass. These were places of prayer, worship, education, and hospitality. Wimborne grew to be a market town.
Abbesses
Abbesses were powerful women and held great positions of authority in the Church, although they were not ordained as priests. Abbesses ran nunneries and were the female equivalent of an abbot. Abbesses led a community of religious women, as administrators and pastors. Either an abbot or an abbess could rule an abbey which was a dual monastery and nunnery, as in the case of St Cuthberga. In Saxon times abbesses sat at the great royal council (Witan), and this tradition continued into mediaeval times. During the reigns of Henry III and Eward I it is recorded that both abbots and abbesses were part of the lords spiritual of Parliament. This position only technically ended under Henry VIII, with the Dissolution of the monasteries and the lords spiritual were limited to the bishops who were then all men. In the Sovereign’s robing room in the House of Lords, built for Queen Victoria, there are statues of Anglo-Saxon royal abbesses to remind her of the heritage of female leaders going back over a thousand years.
Death
Cuthberga was reported to have been a beautiful woman and kind to others, but on herself she was severe and zealous in fasting and prayer. She is said to have had disturbing visions of hell. St Cuthberga died on August 31, 1,300 years ago in AD 725. She was buried at Wimborne, and her remains are believed to lie beneath the wall of the chancel. After she died her sister succeeded her as abbess, and in AD 726 her brother King Ine abdicated to go on pilgrimage to Rome.
Significance of Wimborne
Wimborne became famous as an abbey for male and female missionaries. Before the days of seminaries and theological colleges, those who wanted to train for Christian service went to a minster church. A minster served as a base for the evangelisation of the surrounding area and sending missionaries further afield. At its greatest, Wimborne nunnery had some 500 nuns. It was from Wimborne, that shortly after St Cuthberga’s death, that women like St Lioba (also spelt Leoba) and St Walburga and others, joined St Boniface of Crediton, on his mission to the Germans.
Postscript
In AD 871 King Ethelred I, a later descendant of St Cuthberga’s brother Inglid, was buried in Wimborne church after being killed in battle against the Vikings and was succeeded by his brother who became King Alfred the Great.
In 1013 the monastery and nunnery were destroyed by the Danes, but later restored by King Edward the Confessor, when the church was dedicated to St Cuthburga. From then the church marked its patronal festival on her saint’s day which is commemorated each year on the date of her death, 31 August.
Today little of the original Saxon church survives, and most of the current minster is 12th century. Unusually it has two towers. By the 14th century St Cuthberga was being widely venerated as a saint and Wimborne Minster became a place of pilgrimage. The church later became the burial place of John and Margaret Beaufort, who were the parents of Margaret Beaufort who was the mother of Henry VII.
The Minster church of St Cuthberga is now in the Anglican Diocese of Salisbury. In 1883 a stained glass window dedicated to St Cuthberga was installed at Wimborne Minster.
Special Anniversary Services
On Sunday, August 31, 2025, Wimborne Minster marked the 1,300th anniversary of the death of their foundress Saint Cuthburga in a series of special services and a special peal of bells for the Festival of St Cuthberga. The bishop attended the services. The 9:30am Parish Eucharist was also attended by the Mayor and Mayoress of Wimborne and the Town Crier. At the later 11:15am Family Service there was a short play about Cuthburga and her sister Cwenburga. There was a special peal of bells at 2:30pm and at 6:30pm there was a special choral evensong to commemorate the anniversary.The post-communion prayer collect was “Merciful God, who gave such grace to your servant Cuthberga that she served you with singleness of heart and loved you above all things: help us, whose communion with you has been renewed in this sacrament, to forsake all that holds us back from following Christ and to grow into his likeness from glory to glory; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.”
