Cyneburg, St.
CYNEBURG, ST.
Name also spelled Kyneburg (a) or Cyniburg; Benedictine abbess, one of the remarkable progeny of Penda, pagan king of Mercia, all zealous propagators of the faith among whom are several saints; d. c. 680. Before 653 she married Alcfrith, son of King Oswy of Northumbria, himself sub-King of Deira. Probably upon his death, after 664, or possibly, as Florence of Worcester says, "renouncing a marriage of fleshly connection for love of God," she became abbess of the house called after her, Cyneburgecaestre, now Castor, Northamptonshire (where there is still a path called Lady Connyburrow's Way). A doubtful peterborough tradition records her participation in the original endowment of that abbey. In the mid-tenth century her remains were translated there from Castor. Her name occurs with Alcfrith's in runic on the Bewcastle Cross.
Feast: March 6.
Bibliography: Acta Sanctae Sedis March 1:440–446. bede, Ecclesiastical History 3.21. florence of worcester, The Chronicle … with the Two Continuations, tr. t. forester (London 1854) 37. j. earle and c. plummer, eds., Two of the Saxon Chronicles Parallel, 2 v. (Oxford 1892–99) years 656, 675, 963, with notes. a. m. zimmermann, Kalendarium Benedictinum (Metten 1933–38) 1:293–294.
[r. d. ware]