Wimborne Abbey
WIMBORNE ABBEY
Dorsetshire, England; founded c. 713, by King Ine's sister St. cuthberga, who had been trained by hildelide at barking abbey. In 748, boniface wrote to Abbess Tetta, sister and successor of Cuthberga, begging for nuns to aid him in the evangelization of Germany. Under the leadership of lioba, Boniface's learned cousin, 30 missionary nuns crossed to Mainz. These included St. thecla, future abbess of Kitzingen, and St. walburga, sister of SS. willibald of eichstÄtt and winnebald, and later abbess of Heidenheim, whose tomb at Eichstätt is famous to this day for its flow of miraculous oil. Lioba and her companions erected innumerable foundations throughout Germany. The abbey of Wimborne was destroyed probably by the Danes; even its site is unknown. Wimborne Minster, now the Anglican parish church, dates posssibly from the time of the Confessor who there established a house of secular canons.
Bibliography: w. dugdale, Monasticon Anglicanum (London 1655–73); best ed. by j. caley, et al., 6 v. (1817–30) 2:88– 89; 6.3:1452. l. h. cottineau, Répertoire topobibliographique des abbayes et prieurés, 2 v. (Mâcon 1935–39) 2:3457. d. knowles and r. n. hadcock, Medieval Religious Houses: England and Wales (New York 1953) 345.
[f. corrigan]