(END OF 7TH CENT.)
[Benedictine Martyrology. Authority:--Bede, lib. iii., c. 8.]
Earcongotha, great granddaughter of the first Christian king of the
Anglo-Saxons, and daughter of Ercombert, King of Kent, was a nun in
the French community of Faremoutier, where so many of the English
princesses were trained. She was, says Bede, a virgin of great virtue,
worthy in everything of her illustrious origin, and was elevated to
become Abbess. Being warned of her approaching end, she went from cell
to cell in the infirmary of the monastery, asking for the prayers of
her sick nuns. She died during the following night, at the first
glimpse of dawn. At the same hour the monks, who occupied another part
of the double monastery, heard a sound like the noise of a multitude,
who, to the sound of heavenly music, invaded the monastery. When they
went out to see what it was, they found themselves in a flood of
miraculous light, in the midst of which the soul of the foreign
princess ascended to heaven.