Saint Arilda a little-known female saint

Saint

A saint is a holy person. In various religions, saints are people who are believed to have exceptional holiness.In Christian usage, "saint" refers to any believer who is "in Christ", and in whom Christ dwells, whether in heaven or in earth...

 from Oldbury-on-Severn

Oldbury-on-Severn

Oldbury-on-Severn is a small village near the mouth of the River Severn in South Gloucestershire. It is home to the nearby Oldbury nuclear power station, a Magnox power station which opened in 1967 and is due to cease operation in 2011....

 in the English

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

 county of Gloucestershire

Gloucestershire

Gloucestershire is a county in South West England. The county comprises part of the Cotswold Hills, part of the flat fertile valley of the River Severn, and the entire Forest of Dean....

. She probably lived in the 5th or 6th century and may have been of either Anglo-Saxon

Anglo-Saxons

Anglo-Saxon is a term used by historians to designate the Germanic tribes who invaded and settled the south and east of Great Britain beginning in the early 5th century AD, and the period from their creation of the English nation to the Norman conquest. The Anglo-Saxon Era denotes the period of...

 or Welsh

Welsh people

The Welsh people are an ethnic group and nation associated with Wales and the Welsh language.John Davies argues that the origin of the "Welsh nation" can be traced to the late 4th and early 5th centuries, following the Roman departure from Britain, although Brythonic Celtic languages seem to have...

 origin.

Arilda was a virgin martyr who, according to John Leland, was slain by a tyrant named Municus when she refused to lie with him.

Two churches in Gloucestershire are dedicated to Arilda, one at Oldbury-on-Severn near her traditional home, a second ("St Arild's Church

St Arild's Church, Oldbury-on-the-Hill

St Arild's Church, Oldbury-on-the-Hill, is a redundant Anglican church near the village of Oldbury-on-the-Hill, Gloucestershire, England. It has been designated by English Heritage as a Grade II* listed building, and is under the care of the Churches Conservation Trust. The church is...

") at Oldbury-on-the-Hill

Oldbury-on-the-Hill

Oldbury-on-the-Hill is a small village and former civil parish in Gloucestershire, England, ninety-three miles west of London and less than one mile north of the village of Didmarton.-History:...

. Both places were called 'Aldberie' at the time of the Domesday Book

Domesday Book

Domesday Book , now held at The National Archives, Kew, Richmond upon Thames in South West London, is the record of the great survey of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086...

, suggesting that their names may be derived from the saint.

There was a shrine to Arilda at St Peter's Abbey, Gloucester, which is now Gloucester Cathedral

Gloucester Cathedral

Gloucester Cathedral, or the Cathedral Church of St Peter and the Holy and Indivisible Trinity, in Gloucester, England, stands in the north of the city near the river. It originated in 678 or 679 with the foundation of an abbey dedicated to Saint Peter .-Foundations:The foundations of the present...

, but it was destroyed after the Dissolution of the Monasteries

Dissolution of the Monasteries

The Dissolution of the Monasteries, sometimes referred to as the Suppression of the Monasteries, was the set of administrative and legal processes between 1536 and 1541 by which Henry VIII disbanded monasteries, priories, convents and friaries in England, Wales and Ireland; appropriated their...

.