ST. CUTHBURGE, QUEEN, VIRGIN, AND ABBESS

THIS saint was sister to king Ina, and was married to Alfred, who was crowned king of the Northumbers in 685. At her suit he allowed her to remain always a virgin, and to devote herself to her heavenly spouse in the monastery of Barking in Essex. She afterward founded that of Winburn, in Dorsetshire, which she governed, giving nerself up totally to fasting, watching, and holy prayer; humble both to God and man, meek and tender to others, but always austere to herself. She never ceased to exhort her sisters to live up to the dignity of spouses of the King of Heaven, to keep their hearts free from all affection to the things of this world, and ever to sigh after their heavenly home. Being purified by a long and painful illness, and strengthened with the viaticum of the precious body of Christ, she passed to everlasting bliss on the 31st of August, in the beginning of the eighth century. She is commemorated in the Sarum Breviary. See William of Malmesbury in king Ina, Leland, Harpsfield, Alford, and Cressy.