Having led a religious life several years in her own country, she
came into England in the reign of king Ethelwolf, about the year
840. That pious and great king being acquainted with her sanctity,
committed to her care the education of his daughter Editha, and
founded for her the monastery of Pollesworth, near the forest of
Arden in Warwickshire, which flourished till the dissolution, bearing
usually the name of St. Editha, its patroness and second abbess. St.
Modwena had before established two famous nunneries in Scotland,
one at Stirling, the other in Edinburgh. She made some other pious
foundations in England, but to apply herself more perfectly to
the sanctification of her own soul, she led during seven years in
anachoretical life in an isle in the Trent, which was called Andresey
from the apostle St. Andrew, in whose honor she procured her oratory
to be dedicated. When the great abbey of Burton-upon-Trent was
founded in the year 1004, it was dedicated under the patronage of
the Blessed Virgin and St. Modwena, and was enriched with the relics
of this saint, which were translated thither from Andresey; whence
Leland calls the monastery of Burton Modwenestow. See Pinius the
Bollandist, t. 2, Julij, p. 241. Tanner’s Notitia Mon. &c.