ther widowed queen. S. Sexburga
joined the house at Ely, and had resided there some time before her
sister's death. The body of S. Etheldreda was in her time removed into
the church, under the superintendence of Archbishop Wilfrid. Bede gives
a full account of the translation. The monks who had the charge of
providing a stone coffin suitable for the reception of the remains of
the foundress are said to have "found" one of marble among the ruins of
Grantchester, the name of the old town of Cambridge. When disinterred,
the body was reported free from all corruption. The account would not be
complete without the customary miracles--marvellous cures effected by
touching the clothes and coffin, and by the healing efficacy of a spring
that flowed from the place of the first interment. This translation took
place on October 17th, 695. This is the day assigned to the
commemoration of S. Etheldreda. The importance of this festival is
sometimes held to account for the fact that the Feast of S. Luke, on
October 18th, is not preceded by a fast. But as no fast is assigned to
the vigils of the Conversion of S. Paul, S. Mark, or Saints Philip and
James, it is questionable if this opinion is sound. Upon the death of S.
Sexburga, in 699, her body was laid in the church next to that of her
sister.

The next abbess was her daughter, S. Ermenilda. Her husband had been
Wulphere, King of Mercia, who died in 675. She had been professed at
Ely, and left to become the head of her mother's foundation at Sheppey.
The date of her death is not known. She was succeeded, both at Sheppey
and at Ely, by her daughter, S. Werburga. How long she ruled at Ely is
not recorded. She was buried by her own desire at Hanbury, in
Staffordshire. When the Danes reached Derbyshire in their incursions,
this was deemed no longer a safe place, and her body was removed to
Chester, where the cathedral was afterwards placed under the joint
invocation of S. Werburga and S. Oswald.[2] The reason why it is
suggested above that ten years may be taken as the limit of time to be
assigned to the rules of S. Ermenilda and S. Werburga is that the author
of her Life[3] says that her body was taken up "9 years after her
decease, to translate it to a more eminent part" of Hanbury Church, by
order of Ceolred, King of Mercia. As this king died at latest in 717, it
would follow that S. Werburga must have died not later than 708.

Probably in the Isle of Ely more special respect was pai