Eanswida was the granddaughter of St. Ethelbert, the first Christian king of England. Eanswida’s father Prince Edbald later became the king of Kent.

Edbald was not a religious man at first, but he learned a great deal about Christianity from his little daughter. She was a very good Christian as well as attractive.

Her father found a handsome man to marry her, a pagan prince from Northumbria. But Eanswida was not at all pleased. She kindly refused to marry him so that her father would not be offended.

He respected her wish and surprised everyone when he allowed his daughter to become a nun.

Princess Eanswida was a very happy nun and she soon started a Benedictine convent. She lived simply and prayerfully like the rest of the sisters.

She spent the rest of her life in penance and prayer for herself and for all the people of her homeland. Eanswida died on the last day of August in 640.

The Danes finally destroyed her convent, but Benedictine monks started the monastery again in 1095.

In pictures and art St. Eanswida is shown as a nun wearing a crown, holding a church or a fish.