Bones of early saint hidden in church wall
Monks concealed remains of St Eanswythe, England’s first abbess, thus saving them from being destroyed
BONES hidden away by monks during the Reformation have been confirmed as belonging to one of England’s earliest saints who founded the country’s first nunnery.
The seventh-century remains of St Eanswythe, a Kentish royal saint who was the daughter and granddaughter of Anglo-saxon kings, have finally been identified by historians.
The relics survived the Dissolution of the Monasteries – in which King Henry VIII aimed to destroy the monastic system – after being hidden away in a lead box behind a church wall in Kent.
Her remains were discovered in 1885, however it is only now – more than 1,300 years after her death and after carbon-dating her teeth and bones – that historians believe they have finally identified England’s first abbess and one of the country’s earliest saints.
The discovery was made by archaeologists and historians in Kent, working with Queen’s University in Belfast, who confirmed that human remains kept at the Church of St Mary and St Eanswythe, in Folkestone, are almost certainly those of the saint.
The discovery has been hailed as a “stunning result of national importance” and has drawn comparisons with the exhumation of King Richard III after DNA confirmed that bones found beneath a Leicester car park in 2012 were those of the former king of England.
The findings were revealed at a special event at the church yesterday to mark the start of British Science Week.
Dr Andrew Richardson, of 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.”
Dr Richardson said: “I think we’re up there in terms of certainty... There’s not really any indication it’s someone else.”
Tooth and bone samples were carbon-dated and the results pointed to a high probability of a mid-seventh-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.
King Ethelbert, St Eanswythe’s grandfather, was the first English king to convert to Christianity under the Roman monk Augustine.
St Eanswythe is believed to have founded one of the earliest monastic communities in England, most likely around AD660 in Folkestone. She is the patron saint of Folkestone, and probably died between the ages of 17 and 22, but her cause of death is unknown.
In 1535, the church was a priory which had monks. During the Dissolution of the Monasteries, where relics were destroyed across England, it is thought that St Eanswythe’s skull was handed over by the monks. The rest of her remains might well have been destroyed had they not been concealed in the wall of the Folkestone church.
The discovery represents the conjunction of the Finding Eanswythe Project and the Folkestone Museum.
The project now needs to raise funds for the next stage of work, which will reveal more about St Eanswythe and to ensure that her remains are housed properly for the future and can be securely displayed for research and tourism purposes.
The next analytical steps will include DNA analysis. Dr Richardson added: “There is more work to be done to realise the full potential of this discovery.”
Below the chalky tunnel mouth devouring trains bound for France stands the church of St Mary and St Eanswythe. A neighbour is the British Lion, Folkestone’s oldest pub, in the Bayle, the fortified headland above the Channel. How unlikely it seemed that this church held the bones of the English princess who shares its dedication. At the Reformation the tomb of her more famous grandfather, King Ethelbert, who welcomed St Augustine to Kent, was smashed up. Then, in 1885, a casket of bone relics was found in the north wall of the Folkestone church. Could they be those of the long-lost St Eanswythe? Probably not, a sceptical world said. But now scientific tests have dated them to the mid-7th century. It looks like the quiet tradition of Folkestone has been vindicated and a relic of our island history has been rediscovered.