Frideswide was a Saxon princess from the royal family of Wessex. Her name combines the noun meaning ‘Peace’ (frith) with the adjective ‘strong’ (swith).’

Legend suggests that the young Frideswide became a nun. In spite of her vow of chastity, King Algar of Leicester was set on marrying her. To avoid his advances she fled and found religious sanctuary in a monastery close to the Thames. As Algar pursued her he was struck blind. Repentant, Algar asked Frideswide for forgiveness and she granted it, after which his sight was restored. Frideswide went on to have a reputation as a healer and a beloved figure of great piety and prayerfulness.

St Frideswide founded a minister, the religious community of which Oxford’s Christchurch Cathedral is a successor. Her monastery had a missionary function of catechesis and teaching, and providing for poor and sick. She is believed to have died in 727.

Her shrine in the Cathedral was destroyed in 1538 during the Reformation and her relics re-buried in an unmarked spot in Christchurch, combined with the bones of a protestant martyr, Catherine.

Frideswide is commemorated in Christchurch Cathedral, by a reconstruction of a shrine incorporating fragments of the original shrine recovered in the 19th Century.
​
Frideswide is the Patron Saint of the City and University of Oxford.

​Her memorial is kept on the 19th October.

All-powerful God,
you choose those whom the world considers weak
to strengthen your people.
Through the intercession of St Frideswide
may we live lives worthy of you.
Grant this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
God, for ever and ever.

Photographs (c) 2019, 225. Allen Morris

Window from church of St Edmund and St Frideswide (Greyfriars), Oxford.

Reconstruction of the Shrine of St Frideswide, Christchurch, Oxford

Windows depicting the life of St Frideswide, Christchurch, Oxford.