There are two versions of when Osburh lived. From ''Butler's Lives of the Saints'', and the nineteenth century book by Stanton, David Farmer suggests that Osburh died around 1018 CE, having been, from its inception,
abbess of a
convent founded by
King Cnut two years earlier. Osburh's cult may predate the
Viking Age. destroyed by King Cnut in 1016. This stood in the vicinity of
St. Mary's Priory. Around the Saxon nunnery, Coventry, in an area where settlement dates back to the
Iron Age, gradually developed as a town. A 14th-century note in MS Bodley 438 mentions an early nunnery at Coventry. The 15th-century writer
John Rous said that Cnut the Great destroyed the old Coventry minster, and referred to the "holy virgin Osburga now laid there in a noble shrine". The
Anglo-Saxon Chronicle records the devastation of neighbouring
Warwickshire in 1016, so Cnut's having attacked a convent at Coventry is credible. The
Earl Leofric's 1043 Coventry charter said that the abbey in those days was dedicated to Osburh (as well as
St Mary,
St Peter and
All Saints). The addition of Osburh could have been at some point in the previous 27 years, after 1016. According to Stanton's listing for 30 March, the nuns were expelled in 1045. Later, a new foundation for men was established on the site by Leofric and his wife
Godiva. == Feast-day ==