St Mary and St Eanswythe
This is the parish church of St Mary and St Eanswythe, situated in the heart of Folkestone. Around 650 AD Eorcenberht , king of the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Kent, built a convent and church for his sister Eanswythe. Many believe it to have been the first religious house with an abbess in the country. Her grandfather, King Ethelbert, was the first English king to convert to Christianity under Augustine, who landed not far from Folkestone in AD597 to re-establish Christianity, which had almost been wiped out by the pagan Anglo-Saxons.
While the convent was under construction, a pagan prince came to Kent seeking to marry Eanswythe. She refused his hand and chose instead to lead a monastic life, guided perhaps by some of the Roman monks who had come to England with St. Augustine in 597. She remained at the priory until her death in her late teens or early 20s.
The site was abandoned by the 10th century having been plundered by Viking raiders, and eventually fell into the sea. A site further inland was chosen for a new priory by William de Abrincis in 1137, with a church dedicated to St Mary and St Eanswythe. Eanswythe’s relics [bones] became a focus of pilgrimage and in 1138 were brought into the chancel of the present church. Eanswythe's remains escaped being destroyed during the Reformation in the early 16th Century which changed England's official religion from Catholicism to the new Protestant faith because the bones, which comprised about half of a skeleton, were hidden in the north wall of the church where they remained, forgotten for hundreds of years.
After the Reformation the church escaped destruction by becoming Folkestone’s Parish Church. It entered a long period of neglect and decline until Canon Matthew Woodward, the vicar from 1851 to 1898, transformed it into the church you see today, with stained glass, murals and mosaics of the highest quality.
During restoration work at the church in 1885, human remains were discovered in a lead reliquary, embedded within the church wall, which were identified as a 12th-century vessel, and the bones of a young woman. This led to the conclusion that they could be the relics of Saint Eanswythe. but there was always an element of doubt because the Catholic Church has so many questionable relics [my opinion]. But now the bones have been carbon dated and shown to be from one person, probably female, probably aged between 17 and 20, and with no signs of malnutrition, so potentially a person with high status. A tooth and a foot bone were sent to Queen’s University Belfast for radiocarbon dating. The tests confirmed it was highly probable the person died in the mid-seventh century and is almost certainly Eanswythe, the only surviving remains of a member of the Kentish royal family, and one of the earliest Anglo-Saxon saints. The vicar is looking forward to pilgrimages starting again. After the current coronavirus crisis of course…
St Mary and St Eanswythe
This is the parish church of St Mary and St Eanswythe, situated in the heart of Folkestone. Around 650 AD Eorcenberht , king of the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Kent, built a convent and church for his sister Eanswythe. Many believe it to have been the first religious house with an abbess in the country. Her grandfather, King Ethelbert, was the first English king to convert to Christianity under Augustine, who landed not far from Folkestone in AD597 to re-establish Christianity, which had almost been wiped out by the pagan Anglo-Saxons.
While the convent was under construction, a pagan prince came to Kent seeking to marry Eanswythe. She refused his hand and chose instead to lead a monastic life, guided perhaps by some of the Roman monks who had come to England with St. Augustine in 597. She remained at the priory until her death in her late teens or early 20s.
The site was abandoned by the 10th century having been plundered by Viking raiders, and eventually fell into the sea. A site further inland was chosen for a new priory by William de Abrincis in 1137, with a church dedicated to St Mary and St Eanswythe. Eanswythe’s relics [bones] became a focus of pilgrimage and in 1138 were brought into the chancel of the present church. Eanswythe's remains escaped being destroyed during the Reformation in the early 16th Century which changed England's official religion from Catholicism to the new Protestant faith because the bones, which comprised about half of a skeleton, were hidden in the north wall of the church where they remained, forgotten for hundreds of years.
After the Reformation the church escaped destruction by becoming Folkestone’s Parish Church. It entered a long period of neglect and decline until Canon Matthew Woodward, the vicar from 1851 to 1898, transformed it into the church you see today, with stained glass, murals and mosaics of the highest quality.
During restoration work at the church in 1885, human remains were discovered in a lead reliquary, embedded within the church wall, which were identified as a 12th-century vessel, and the bones of a young woman. This led to the conclusion that they could be the relics of Saint Eanswythe. but there was always an element of doubt because the Catholic Church has so many questionable relics [my opinion]. But now the bones have been carbon dated and shown to be from one person, probably female, probably aged between 17 and 20, and with no signs of malnutrition, so potentially a person with high status. A tooth and a foot bone were sent to Queen’s University Belfast for radiocarbon dating. The tests confirmed it was highly probable the person died in the mid-seventh century and is almost certainly Eanswythe, the only surviving remains of a member of the Kentish royal family, and one of the earliest Anglo-Saxon saints. The vicar is looking forward to pilgrimages starting again. After the current coronavirus crisis of course…