Frideswide, St

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Frideswide, St (c.680–727), Anglo-Saxon princess, virgin and patron of Oxford; she was first abbess of a double monastery founded on the site of what is now Christ Church Cathedral. Her cult was locally popular and her shrine was restored under Mary I, but in 1558 it was desecrated when through the agency of a Calvinist divine who wished to suppress the cult, her relics were mixed with those of the wife of one of the fellows. Her feast days are 19 October and 12 February (the date of her translation).

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