Family and Royal Background
Seaxburh belonged to one of the most prominent saintly families of Anglo-Saxon England. Her father was Anna, King of East Anglia, and her sister was Æthelthryth (Etheldreda), the celebrated abbess of Ely whom she would eventually succeed.
Through her marriage to Eorcenberht of Kent she became the mother of two kings, Ecgberht and Hlothhere, and of two daughters honored as saints: Ercengota, who became a nun at Faremoutiers Abbey on the continent, and Eormenhild (also called Ermenilda), who became abbess at Ely.
Queen, Regent, and Monastic Founder
Her husband Eorcenberht was a significant figure in the Christianization of Kent: he was the first king in Britain to order the destruction of pagan idols and the observance of Lent, and in 655 he appointed Deusdedit, the first Saxon Archbishop of Canterbury.
When Eorcenberht died in the plague of 664, Seaxburh governed the kingdom as regent until her son came of age. She used her authority to found monastic houses, establishing Kent's first abbey for women at Milton Regis and a nunnery at Minster-in-Sheppey on land granted by her son Ecgberht around 670.
Having received the monastic veil from Archbishop Theodore of Tarsus at Minster-in-Sheppey, she later withdrew to the double monastery at Ely to live under her sister's rule, and on Æthelthryth's death took up the office of abbess herself.
The Translation of Saint Æthelthryth
Seaxburh is especially remembered for the translation of her sister Æthelthryth's relics in 695, sixteen years after her death. She had the remains removed from a common grave and placed in a marble sarcophagus.
When the tomb was opened, Æthelthryth's body was found to be miraculously preserved, and her coffin and grave-clothes were reported to possess miraculous powers. The event became a foundation of Ely's later reputation as a place of pilgrimage.
Relics and Shrines
According to the Liber Eliensis, Seaxburh reposed at a good, late age and was buried at Ely alongside her sisters Æthelthryth and Wihtburh and her daughter Eormenhild, making Ely a shrine to several members of her family.
The nunnery she founded at Minster-in-Sheppey endured as a monastic community; it was burned by the Danes in 855, roughly 185 years after its founding, and the site remained a religious house until the Dissolution of the Monasteries in 1539.
Veneration
Seaxburh received pre-congregation canonization and is venerated in the Eastern Orthodox Church, the Catholic Church, and the Anglican Communion.
Her principal feast is kept on 6 July, with a secondary observance on 17 October marking the translation of her relics.
