Withburga's Well, in the churchyard of St Nicholas, Dereham, Norfolk. UK
Withburga was said to be the youngest daughter of Anna, King of East Anglia. She spent the early part of her life living at Holkham, north Norfolk, but after her father was killed in 654 (653?) she built a convent at East Dereham. During the construction works, she had nothing but dry bread to give her workmen. She prayed to the Virgin Mary for assistance and was directed to send her maids to a certain spot where she would find two wild does which yielded milk to sustain the workforce through the construction. When she died, she was buried at Dereham abbey but after 55 years, her body was found to be still intact and it was moved into the church she had built. In AD 974, Brithnoth, Abbot of Ely, decided to steal the body and put it with her sisters in Ely cathedral. With an armed party, he went to Dereham, invited the townsmen to a feast, made them drunk and then carried off the body to Ely. The Dereham men went in pursuit but failed to stop the theft.
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Photo credit: © John Worrall / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: anna, annas, body, brithnoth, churchyard, daughter, dereham, east, ecclesiastical, ely, england, holy, king, nicholas, norfolk, saint, st, tomb, uk, withburga, withburgas
