Overview
Erkengota
(d. c. 660)
Quick Reference
(d. c.660),
virgin. She was a daughter of Erconbert, king of Kent, and his wife Sexburga, later abbess of Ely. She became a nun with her aunts Ethelburga of Faremoutier and Saethrith in the double monastery of Faremoutier-en-Brie. Unlike them she never became abbess, but died comparatively young. Bede narrates traditions of her visions and prophecies: how she visited the aged nuns to say farewell and ask their prayers, and how angelic visitors arrived in the monastery at the moment of her death. She was buried in the church of St Stephen near by: the balsam-like scent from her grave three days later was believed to attest to her sanctity.
At Faremoutier and Ely her feast was on 21 February, while the diocese of Meaux celebrated it on 26 February. The more usual, but apparently incorrect, date is 7 July.
Bede, H.E., iii. 8; N.L.A., ii. 542; Stanton, pp. 79, 319, 630, 657–8; E.B.K. after 1100, ii. 4.
