Saint Agnes and the Selkie

Anglo-Saxon women of royal blood sometimes became abbesses ruling great religious houses of both men and women. Some, like Hilda of Whitby, became among its greatest saints. But for others, the role, with its responsibilities and its privations, cannot have been easy to bear.

Thrust into the leadership of Whitby Abbey by a dynastic bargain, Mother Wynflaed, a king's daughter once engaged to a nobleman's son, attempts to live her responsibilities with grace both in the abbey and as councilor ...