The Pious Queen Etheldreda

St. Etheldreda is a model for royalty. It is typical among the holy monarchs, not to seek the earthly glory and power they are given but to conscientiously ascend forward as they become ever mindful of their trust and dependence on God. In a democracy, the political elite are duped into believing their power comes from the people and they seek nothing or little to do with God. Whereas the holy monarchs set us an example for how rulers are to govern according to humility. For this pious queen, lording over people was never something she sought. Rather, she desired to give up her possessions and pursue a much a higher status than the queenly status she held in the secular world. She was born to King Anna and Queen Hereswide of England.

She desired to remain a virgin but her parents married her for political reasons to the Prince Tonchbert, "the ruler of a territory bordering her father's" (Joan Carroll Cruz, The Incorruptibles, 8). But he respected her vow to remain a virgin. After three years, she was widowed. She was then married yet again at age 30 to King Egfrid, who was estimated to be around 16 (9). Despite the advice of her confessor and the desires of her husband, she persisted in remaining a virgin.

"She had long requested the king, that he would permit her to lay aside worldly cares, and to serve only the true King, Christ, in a monastery; and having at length with difficulty prevailed, she went as a nun into the monastery of the Abbess Ebba, who was aunt to King Egfrid, at the place called the city Coludi, having taken the veil from the hands of the aforesaid Bishop Wilfrid; but a year after she was herself made abbess in the country called Ely, where, having built a monastery, she began, by works and examples of a heavenly life, to be the virgin mother of very many virgins dedicated to God." (Ven. Bede, History of the English People, ch. XIX)

It is to be further mentioned that upon prophesying her repose from the plague and having been buried for 16 years, her sister, Sexburga, according to the chronicle of the Ven. Bede, states that her body was found "free from corruption as if she had died and been buried on that very day". This virgin who remarkably was married twice, retained her virginity in accordance to her wishes, and was found remaining incorrupt even after death!

It is in this act that we finally see the Holy Virgin reach the heights of her earthly glory which would eventually lead to her Heavenly glory. The power of the secular state today says that the only thing that matters is the material world. The sacral monarchy shows the monarch as never fully complete in the lofty life of the secular governance until they excel to the pious and religious life. How many other monarchs have we seen do this? Certainly St. Elizabeth of Hungary and the Empress Eudocia of Russia, wife of Prince Dmitry Donskoy, who wrapped her body in chains after his death. Certainly, one could make the statement that these were just queens who saw their kings repose, but they did not cling to their king's stately honor, for they knew the monarchy was to be respected by its obedience to the Church. It is in their actions of humility, pursuing not earthly power but heavenly glory, that the argument for divine right monarchy is sustained. A divine right monarchy upholds humility while a democratic mob breeds arrogance and buffonery.