The Courier & Advertiser (Fife Edition)
Human remains discovered in wall confirmed as St Eanswythe
St Eanswythe, the patron saint of Folkestone, believed to have founded monastic community around AD 660
Human remains held at a church in Kent have been confirmed as those of one of the earliest English saints in a “stunning result of national importance”.
Bones dating back to around the 7th Century are almost certainly those of St Eanswythe, a Kentish Royal Saint and who was the daughter and granddaughter of Anglo-Saxon kings.
The relics survived the upheavals of the Reformation, squirrelled away in a wall, and were discovered in 1885.
The patron saint of Folkestone, Eanswythe is believed to have founded one of the earliest monastic communities in England, most likely around AD 660 on the Bayle – the overlooked historic centre of the town.
She is thought to have died in her late teens or early 20s – though the cause of her death is unknown.
Now more than 1,300 years after her death, Kent archaeologists and historians, working with Queen’s University in Belfast, have confirmed that human remains kept at the Church of St Mary and St Eanswythe Folkestone are almost certainly those of the saint.
The findings have been hailed as bringing the town’s “forgotten history back to the surface”.
The remarkable discovery was revealed at a special event at the church last night to mark the start of British Science Week 2020.
Dr Andrew Richardson, FSA, from the Canterbury Archaeological Trust, said: “This locally based community partnership has produced a stunning result of national importance.
“It now looks highly probable that we have the only surviving remains of a member of the Kentish royal house, and of one of the earliest Anglo-Saxon saints.”
Tooth and bone samples were carbon dated and the results pointed to a high probability of a mid 7th Century death date.
The relics mark a period that saw the very beginning of Christianity in England – and signify a continuous Christian witness in Folkestone that stretches from her life to the present day.
Her grandfather King Ethelbert was the first English king to convert to Christianity under Augustine.
Eanswythe’s remains might well have been destroyed during the Reformation – along with those of her contemporaries – had they not been concealed in the north wall of the Folkestone church.
Dr Richardson added: “There is more work to be done to realise the full potential of this discovery.
“But certainly the project represents a wonderful conjunction not only of archaeology and history, but also of a continuous living faith tradition at Folkestone from the mid 7th Century down to the present day.”