Etheldreda was quite a revolutionary. She set free all the bondsmen on her lands and for seven years led a life of exemplary austerity. After her death in 679, devotion to her spread rapidly, as people received help and favours through what they were convinced was her powerful intercession in Heaven. And when, through popular demand, it was decided to remove her to a more fitting tomb, it was found that even after 15 years in wet earth her body was still in a perfect state of preservation. When the Normans began building the present Cathedral at Ely and moved her body in 1106, it was again reported to be still incorrupt. That was nearly 450 years after her death.
Her Feast day is June 13.
St. Etheldreda is the patron saint of throat complaints.
Special thanks to the Church of St. Etheldreda for kind permission to photograph their beautiful statues. St Etheldreda's is a Rosminian church, see link (left) for more information.
