Like many people that we regard as saints, we know almost nothing of St Werburg’s life, but it is clear, from the evidence of devotion to her memory, that she was revered by Christian communities for centuries after her death. The main source of information about Werburg comes from that devotional tradition, which was gathered together in a Life written by a monk, Henry Bradshaw, in the early sixteenth century.  

Long before that, she was highly respected in life. Born about 650, she was the daughter of Wulfhere, the first Christian king of the kingdom of Mercia, which covered most of the Midlands adjoining Wales. He supported the work of Chad, the first bishop of Mercia, donating land for religious buildings (3 March). She became a nun at Ely, under her great aunt, St Etheldreda. From there she founded numerous monastic houses and nunneries, governing them as Abbess. She was renowned for her good and holy life and stories of many spiritual healings and miracles are associated with her. When her father’s brother, Etheldred, succeeded him as king in 674, he recalled her to Mercia, giving her control over several convents across the kingdom. Etheldred himself later abdicated to become a monk.

She died in 699, at her monastery in Trentham, Staffordshire, and had requested burial in Hanbury. The nuns refused to release her remains, but she was moved in 708. Numerous miracles were recorded at her intervention.  St. Werburg was carried to Chester in 875, and installed in a minster refounded in her honour. The cult apparently enjoyed something of a resurgence in the eleventh century, and a late twelfth century account told of the canons twice parading St. Werburg's shrine in defence of the city when it was besieged.

 By 1150, Werburg's association with Chester influenced William of Malmesbury and Henry of Huntingdon to locate the story of the saint's resurrection of a goose that had been cooked and eaten there. The story was an embellished version of a miracle in the earliest surviving Life of the saint, probably compiled at Ely. A modern statue of St Werburg and the restored goose stands in the Catholic church in Clayton, Staffordshire.

 The corpus of miracle stories was probably put together about this time, including the story of Earl Richard's rescue, aided by St. Werburg's miraculous intervention, and of a fire in the city being contained when the community took out the saint's shrine and bore it in procession, chanting litanies and prayers.
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Other religious foundations followed, and over the centuries, a number of churches were built to reflect widespread devotion to St Werburg, including one at Hanbury, near Burton on Trent, established in the thirteenth century on the site associated with her burial, in Burslem in Staffordshire, and in the twentieth century, in Clayton.

​The Memorial of St Werburg is kept on 3rd February.

Lord God,
your love, at work in the life of St Werburg,
enabled her to renounce the riches of an earthly kingdom
for a life of charity and self-denial.
Inspired by her example, may we come to share
the glories of your eternal kingdom.
Grant this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
God, for ever and ever.

• ​The Two Saints Way is a 92-mile pilgrimage route between the cathedral cities of Chester and Lichfield, between the former shrines of Werburg and Chad. The route can be walked from either the north or the south,  through Cheshire and Staffordshire along footpaths, canal paths and lanes which link the villages, towns and cities along the way.

Photograph (c) 2017, Allen Morris

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St Werburg. Detail of window from Chester Cathedral