Saint
Milburga's Bones
The builders lifted the floor, and found a saint.
See it clearly
- What's there
- Tall ruined priory walls and topiary
- Legend from
- Saxon saint; 1101 discovery
- Tone
- Curious
Under the church floor, the builders found bones. The monks said they were the saint's.
Wenlock Priory, or St Milburga's Priory, is a ruined Cluniac monastery at Much Wenlock. A double monastery was founded here around 680 by Merewalh, and his daughter Milburga became its second abbess. Roger de Montgomery refounded it for Cluniac monks between 1079 and 1082. In 1101, during repairs to the old Holy Trinity church, bones were found under the floor and declared to be Milburga's; they were carried in ceremony to the new church, and miracles drew pilgrims from France and Wales. The Miracula Inventionis tells the story. She was said to have power over birds, which spared crops when she asked, and her veil once hung on a sunbeam.