Tancred, Torthred, and Tova facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Saints Tancred, Torthred, & Tova |
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|---|---|
| Hermits, Martyrs | |
| Died | circa 869 or 870 England |
| Venerated in | Catholic Church Anglican Communion Western Orthodoxy |
| Canonized | Pre-Congregation |
| Major shrine | Thorney Abbey (destroyed) |
| Feast | 30 September 9 or 10 April |
Saints Tancred, Torthred, and Tova were three Anglo-Saxon siblings. They lived in the ninth century and were known as saints, hermits (people who live alone for religious reasons), and martyrs (people who die for their beliefs). Their special day, called a feast day, was celebrated on September 30th at places like Thorney and Deeping.
Their Lives as Hermits
The brothers Tancred and Torthred, along with their sister Tova, lived at Thorney, Cambridgeshire. At that time, Thorney was mostly a group of small hermit cells in the area known as The Fens. It was not yet a large monastery (a place where monks live).
Like many other hermits living in Thorney, they were killed by the Danes around the year 870. The Danes were a group of invaders from Scandinavia. We do not know much else about their lives, only that they died as martyrs.
How We Know Their Story
The story of how these siblings became martyrs comes from a document called the chronicle of Pseudo-Ingulf. This document is not always completely reliable, but it does include information from older sources that existed before the 12th century.
However, people at Thorney Abbey definitely honored these saints by the year 1000. This is known from other historical writers like R.P.S., C.S.P., and William of Malmesbury. Their bodies were also moved to a special place by Ethelwold, a famous bishop. The first official record of their existence is from 973, when they were placed in the abbey at Thorney.
Saint Torthred's Special Story
Saint Torthred of Thorney was also a saint and a hermit in Anglo-Saxon England during the ninth century. According to the Pseudo-Ingulf chronicle, he was killed with many other monks by pagan Danish raiders in 869.
His feast day is sometimes celebrated on April 9th or April 10th. Some people believe that Torthred (and maybe Tova too) did not die during the 869 raids. Instead, they might have lived their final years at Cerne in Dorset. This idea is similar to the story of Eadwold of Cerne, another saint.
