Etheldreda.
All medieval churches are both functional and symbolic. They were designed to provide an appropriate setting for communal worship and the services which make up the Christian Mass and specific liturgy. It is through the liturgy that one can understand the building and its imagery. The artwork, design, and overall architecture were not only intended to inspire the worshipper, they were meant to teach him about the lessons of a "patron saint " or gospel message. .
The Norman church of Ely, and associated monastery was built to honor a group of saints, and one in particular, St. Etheldreda. (Braughton 2001) The shrines of her sister St Sexburga and her niece St Eormenhilda were placed here as well. The body of her sister St Withburga was brought to join them in 974. (Braughton 2001) .
In England, the imprint of the cults of royal saints had been made long before the Conquest among the West Saxons and East Anglicans: it was deep, ubiquitous and persistent. The main lines of the style of English sanctity were clear: kings who were martyred and women who renounced their high-born stations to embrace chastity and the monastic life. (Binski 2004) clearly St. Etheldreda fits the bill.
Etheldreda's Anglo-Saxon ancestors came as pagan raiders near the end of the Roman Empire. Pope Gregory the Great sent Augustine to Britain in 597 where he met and converted the Kentish King Ethelbert and the Christian message was spread. A church was built at the present location of Ely Cathedral.
The Venerable Bede tells us that Etheldreda's Great Uncle, Redwald (who is the believed to be the subject of the Sutton Hoo Burial adopted Christianity, along with his various other pagan gods. But his successors converted to a truer form of Christianity. Local tradition maintains that in 637, the warring pagan Mercians destroyed the previously mentioned church at Ely. In this war the great warrior King Sigerberht who has set aside his crown to join a monastery was compelled by his followers to join the battle.
