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St. Wulfhilde
December 9, 2021
Placed at a young age by her parents in the monastery of Winchester, St. Wulfhilde was greatly admired by King Edgar but she rejected his continuous offers sent via many gifts and letters to the monastery. An aunt tricked her by feigning sick and asked that she come to her from the monastery so that there, King Edgar could persuade her to change her resolution. She violently broke out of the house, leaving part of her sleeve in the hands of the king, who attempted to hold her. Soon after, she consecrated herself to the religious state. The king was overcome by her constancy and nominated her abbess of Barking on which house he bestowed many possessions. Wulfhilde settled upon it twenty villages of her own patrimony and founded another monastery at Horton in Dorsetshire. Both these houses she governed with great sanctity. Her inflexible virtue excited the jealousy of Queen Elflede by whom she was ejected out of her monasteries but she was restored with honor and died about the year 990.