​Written by  Fr. Dennis O'Neill

​Mildred was the second daughter of Prince Merowald of Mercia, a sister of Saints Milburga and Mildgith. Her mother, St. Ermenburga, sent her to Chelles Abbey. To escape from the advances of a French nobleman, she fled to Millam in Flanders, then to Minster in Thanet, her mother's monastery. There she took the veil and was elected abbess after St. Ermenburga's resignation. In her capacity as abbess, she attended a provincial synod in 694. She died July 13, 725. In 1030, her relics were transferred to St. Augustine's Abbey Chapel in Canterbury. At the Dissolution of the Monasteries, St. Midlred's Convent was sold to a private family and her relics were transferred to Daventer in Holland. In 1937, German Benedictines purchased back the old St. Mildred property and reopened St. Mildred's Priory.

​​In 1953, a small relic was returned from Daventer to St. Mildred's Church in Thanet. The Shrine of All Saints had a small portion of her right elbow, which came to us from the collection of a wealthy woman in DuPage County.

In 2016, scientists Georges Kazan and Thomas Higham from Oxford University came and took samples from our relic of St. Mildred, as well as from relics of St. Nicholas of Myra and Thomas of Canterbury. On December 6, 2017, Oxford University released the results of the tests, declaring that the relics of Ss. Mildred and Nicholas came from just the correct periods in history but that the relic of St. Thomas was from the second century, far too early to be his. The Shrine of All Saints gifted the relic of St. Mildred to the nuns in Minster, with their profound gratitude. And now we are blessed to be able to welcome a second relic from St. Mildred's elbow, this time from the collection in Daventer, Holland.

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