Signs of Devotion: The Cult of St. Æthelthryth in Medieval England, 695–1615 (review)

Virginia Blanton’s lucid examination of the cult of St. Æthelthryth (d. 679), founder and first abbess of the abbey of Ely (also known as Ætheldreda and Audrey/Audrée), is valuable partly in its uniqueness. It is the first study of an Anglo-Saxon saint to trace its meanings across the early-medieval to early-modern periods. This multidisciplinary study draws on an impressive range of sources, including all the extant lives of Æthelthryth (of which over twenty-five versions survive, written in Latin, Old English, Anglo-Norman, and Middle English), as well as visual representations of her figure and life in various media. The book is well illustrated. An appendix provides a useful list of more than 150 images of the saint, some no longer extant, as well as a list of dedications. Documentary evidence of both clerical and lay responses to the cult also are examined. Overall, the book achieves its stated aim of demonstrating “how one national figure provides a central point of investigation among the cultic practices of several disparate groups over an extended period of time—religious and lay, aristocratic and common, male and female, literate and nonliterate” (p. 5). In common with other similar studies Blanton stresses the malleable and multivalent nature of the cult and divides her analysis into five chapters. These focus on its manifestation in specific chronological contexts, thus illuminating the responses of different groups of devotees.

The first chapter considers the Venerable Bede’s account of Æthelthryth and explores the importance of his depiction of her miraculously healed tumor scar as a sign of her inviolate virginity. Blanton argues that this episode is a crucial part of Bede’s purpose in narrating England’s history as a Christian community. Chapter 2 focuses on the late-tenth-century cult and central to the discussion here is the refoundation of Ely, in 970, as a house solely for monks. Blanton demonstrates that Æthelthryth’s virginity and power made her an appropriate means of advertising and promoting the authority of monasticism and clerical chastity.

Chapter 3 examines Æthelthryth’s status as the patron and protector of the abbey of Ely after the Norman Conquest up until the early-thirteenth century. Blanton shows that the miracle stories recorded by the Liber Eliensis portray the saint’s virginal body as a symbol of the monastic community, and any attempt to abuse the abbey or its resources was therefore represented within these as an attempted rape. The chief source for the fourth chapter is the late-twelfth/early-thirteenth-century La Vie Seinte Audrée, authored by a woman. This version of Æthelthryth’s life embellishes the existing narrative, including more material on the saint’s experience as a married woman, and Blanton argues that this was deliberately intended to render her a figure with whom aristocratic lay female readers could identify. The final chapter continues the investigation of lay responses to Æthelthryth by reading later medieval vernacular lives in concert with her frequent representation in parish churches. This provides Blanton with a means of gauging the value that the laity evidently found in her life and cult. Overall, Blanton’s approach allows her to reveal the array of different meanings and uses that such a popular saint could embody, and establishes the nature of Æthelthryth’s appeal to many different groups.

This rich study makes a compelling case for the importance of understanding an individual saint’s cult as a means of inferring how medieval men and women made sense of their lives and experiences. It is to be hoped that it will inspire other scholars to subject other saints to similarly sensitive and insightful scrutiny.