Whyte of Dorset

Date unknown. We don't really know much about Saint Whyte, though there are several possibilities according to various legends. She gave her name to the place where she is buried, Whitchurch Canonicorum in Dorset.

Her modest shrine is the only one, other than that of Saint Edward the Confessor, to have survived intact. There are several theories on her identification. She may be a West Saxon of whom no other record survives. She might be the Welsh Saint Gwen whose relics King Athelstan gave to this church. A third theory holds that Saint Whyte is actually the male Bishop Saint Albinus of Buraburg, also known as Saint Witta, a companion of Saint Boniface, martyred with him and then translated back to Wessex.

William Worcestre and John Gerard both mentioned her relics. Thomas More referred to the custom of offering cakes or cheese to the saint on her feast--probably only at this church. In 1900, her leaden coffin was opened. It was inscribed "Hic requiescunt reliquie sancte Wite." The badly damaged reliquary held the bones of a small woman who died about the age of 40, so it appears that the third theory fails (Farmer).

Additional information: St. Whyte (Gwen) was a Saxon murdered by Danish pirates, according to Alan Smith's book, Sixty Saxon Saints. The church where her relics are enshrined was given by King Alfred to his youngest son. The shrine itself is 13th
century.