ST MILDRED is not one of our better-known saints, although she
seems to have had the traditional career for an Anglo-Saxon saint.
A princess, daughter of the King of Mercia, she escaped to a French
convent to avoid an unwelcome marriage, and later came back to
Britain as a nun, before becoming, in 694, an abbess at
Minster-in-Thanet, an abbey that her mother had
founded.
She is said to have had the virtues of tranquillity of temper
and generosity to the poor, especially women and children, and died
after a long illness. Her tomb became a place of pilgrimage, and
her remains were translated to St Augustine's,
Canterbury, in 1035.
A Benedictine nunnery has been revived at Thanet, and on St
Mildred's feast day, the Papal Nuncio, Archbishop Antonio Mennini
(pictured, in mitre), came on a visit, and preached during
the solemn mass in the Anglican Parish Church of St Mary the
Virgin, Canon Jim Rosenthal (next to nuns) says. Greek
Orthodox as well as Anglican clergy joined the Roman Catholic nuns
who were there to greet him.