Who was St Fremund?

Legend has it that Fremund was the eldest son of King Offa, the ninth century King of Mercia.  His father became a Christian and Fremund followed his example.  He gave up his place as a prince and travelled to the island of Lundy in the Bristol Channel to a life of prayer and simplicity as a hermit.  Hermits are people who live alone in a remote place so that they can listen more closely to God at work in their lives.

Fremund stayed on Lundy for some years until he was sent for by his father to lead  soldiers in a victorious battle at Offchurch, near Coventry.  After the battle he knelt to give thanks to God for the victory and one of his own men – jealous of his success – cut off his head in anger.  St Fremund became a martyr, a man who died for his faith.

After some years the body of Fremund was brought to the village of Cropredy, three miles north of Banbury off the A423, where it rested in the Parish Church .  Miracles happened there and Fremund was proclaimed a Saint. There is a chapel dedicated to St Fremund in the Parish Church of St Mary in Cropredy. 

In 1122, when Dunstable Priory was new, the Prior ‘somehow acquired’ the bones of St Fremund.  They were placed in a special place in the Priory in a jewelled casket, perhaps to try to rival the shrine of St Alban.  Nothing remained of the shrine, however, at the Dissolution of the Monasteries.

St Fremund’s Day remained a Fair Day in Dunstable until the early twentieth century, and our Church is dedicated to St Fremund’s memory.