Saint Ethelbert of East Anglia

Also known as

• Albert
• Albright

Memorial

• 20 May

Profile

Son of Ethelred, King of the East Angles, and Leofrana. A pious youth, he would have preferred religious life, but was in line for the throne. King of East Anglia for 44 years. He would have preferred to remain celibate, but agreed to seek the hand of Althryda (Alfrida) daughter of Offa, King of the Mercians in order to continue a stable line to the crown. There were a number of supernatural indications that it was a bad choice, but Ethelbert went anyway. Due to court intrigues, Ethelbert was murdered by a man named Grimbert at the instigation of his father-in-law, Offa of Mercia. Often listed as a martyr.

Died

• murdered in 793 at Villa Australis, Mercia, England
• his body was buried like trash, but a heavenly light identified it, and it was eventually relocated
• buried at Maurdine near the Lugg River in Mercia
• remains relocated to Stratus-way
• remains relocated to Fernley (modern Hereford, England)
• remains relocated to Hereford Cathedral
• during one of the moves the head fell off the body, fell of the cart it was being carried in, touched a pedestrian who had been blind for eleven years, and cured him
• head enshrined at Westminster Abbey

Canonized

• Pre-Congregation

Patronage

• Hereford, England
• Hereford Cathedral

Additional Information

• Book of Saints, by the Monks of Ramsgate
• Britannia Biographies
• Catholic Encyclopedia, by Patrick Ryan
• Katherine Rabenstein
• Lives of the Saints, by Father Alban Butler
• New Catholic Dictionary
• Our Sunday Visitor’s Encyclopedia of Saints

MLA Citation

• “Saint Ethelbert of East Anglia“. Saints.SQPN.com. 12 May 2013. Web. 22 May 2013. <>