Osburh of Coventry
Osburh (or Osburga) was an Anglo-Saxon saint who rested at Coventry Cathedral.[1] Although there is some tradition holding her to be an early 11th-century abbess of Coventry Abbey, it is suspected that her cult predates the Viking Age.[1]
A 14th-century note in MS Bodley 438 mentions an early nunnery at Coventry.[2] The 15th-century writer John Rous related that Cnut the Great destroyed the old Coventry minster, and noted that the "holy virgin Osburga now laid there in a noble shrine" (probably lay in the south transept of the church).[3] As the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle records the devastation of neighbouring Warwickshire in 1016, Cnut's attack on a monastery at Coventry is possible.[2]
Leofric's 1043 Coventry charter relates that the abbey was dedicated to Osburh (as well as St Mary, St Peter and All Saints), though this could potentially be a later addition.[2] Osburh was said to rest at Coventry in the 12th-century resting-place list of Hugh Candidus.[2]
She is mentioned the 13th-century Scandinavian Ribe Martyrology, which gives 21 January as her feast-day.[1] According to a description of Coventry's relics made in 1539, her head was enclosed with copper and gold.[4]
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