St. Ethelreda (Audrey)

 Today we have another Saint that I found in my Encyclopedia. 

St. Ethelreda, also known as Audrey, was born in East Anglia, England, in the seventh century. She had taken a vow of perpetual virginity but was given in marriage to a prince named Tonbert. She convinced her husband to respect her vow and they lived as brother and sister. After three years of marriage, Audrey's husband died. She withdrew from the world to the Isle of Ely, which she had received as part of her dowery. 

A few years later, Audrey was remarried for political reasons to a powerful king from Northumberland named Egfrid, who was in his mid-teens at the time. Initially, her new husband also respected her vow of virginity, but as he matured, he started to make advances toward her. He even petitioned the local Bishop asking him to release Audrey from her vow. However, the Bishop backed Audrey and helped her escape. After 12 years of marriage, the two separated and Audrey founded an Abbey at Ely, took the veil and lived an austere life. She was not yet fifty when she died of an enormous and unsightly tumor on her neck, which she accepted as Divine retribution for all of the necklaces that she had worn in her younger days. 

Throughout the Middle Ages, "St. Audrey's Fair" was held at Ely on her feast day. The merchandise sold at the fair came to be seen as old fashioned and cheaply made, giving the English language the word "tawdry." St. Audrey's feast day is June 23, and she is a patron of throat complaints. 

St. Audrey pray for us.