Frideswide

Frideswide, St, the patroness of Oxford, was born there early in the 8th century, the daughter of Dida, an ealdorman. She preferred the religious life to marriage with Algar, a great Mercian noble, who, coming in search of her, was struck blind. She died on 14th November at Oxford (q.v.), and was formally canonised in 1481. Catherine, Peter Martyr's wife, was buried beside her pillaged shrine in 1552, exhumed by Cardinal Pole, but reinterred there in 1561, when the remains of the virgin saint and of the ex-nun were indissolubly mingled together. See F. Goldie, S.J., The Story of St Frideswide (1881).