St Werburg And The Geese

A legend from Anglo-Saxon Mercia

A window in Chester Cathedral. Photo by Wolfgang Sauber. Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported, 2.5 Generic, 2.0 Generic and 1.0 Generic licence

Werburg, the patron saint of women and children, and of the city of Chester, was the daughter of St Erminilda and Wulfhere, who ruled the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Mercia for a time during the 7th century.

From early childhood, Princess Werburg showed a strong desire for the religious life, rather than that of her father’s court. Her piety and organisational ability led to her becoming the mother superior of a number of convents and eventually the chief abbess of all Mercia.

The Legend of the Geese

Stories about the miraculous doings of saints are often intriguing and completely unbelievable. This one about St Werburg certainly fits those criteria.

One of her convents was at Weedon Abbey in Northamptonshire. While she was there, the local villagers were troubled by a gaggle of geese that swooped down on their crops and orchards and threatened to eat everything before it could be harvested.

The villagers went to the abbey and begged Werburg to help them. She sent her servants to round up the geese and bring them to the abbey. The geese had no problem with this and allowed themselves to be penned up.

The next morning, Werburg went to the goose pen and gave the geese a severe talking-to. They stretched their necks forward, begging forgiveness, and promised not to cause any more mischief. Werburg let them go and they flew away.

However, before long the geese were back. They had noticed that one of them was missing, and accused the abbey servants of having killed and eaten it during the night.

Werburg was aggrieved that her trust had been betrayed and promised to punish those res­ponsible for the crime. Then she ordered the bones of the dead bird to be brought to her.

This was done and, bidding the geese fare­well, she asked the chief gander to count his flock as it flew away. He did so, and found that the number was once again complete. The missing bird had been miraculous­ly restored to life.

A 15th century pilgrim’s badge. Photo by the Portable Antiquities Scheme. Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic licence

Sinless and incorruptible

Werburg died in about AD 700 at a nunnery at Threeckingham in Lincolnshire, and her body is said to have resisted decay for nearly 200 years. It finally crumbled to dust in 875 when the Danes in­vaded England.

Her remains were then taken to Chester where the Mercian Princess Aethelflaed fled a built a convent to house them. During times of danger, the monks of Chester carried her shrine around the city’s walls and once, in 1180, the city is alleged to have been saved from fire by this ritual.

A shrine of St Werburg was housed in the Benedictine Abbey that was built in 1093. In 1538, during the Dissolution of the Monasteries, the shrine was desecrated and the Abbey became Chester Cathedral, which still contains a chapel dedicated to St Werburg that contains a reconstructed shrine.

Photo by “Mcginnly”. Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported licence

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