Okay, that's a different Audrey. She's the one who starred in The Nun's Story in 1959. But a picture of Saint Audrey might not be nearly so aesthetically appealing, since she had a large, unsightly tumor bulging from her neck. It is said that she was grateful for this tumor, as she understood it to be divine retribution the necklaces she wore in her youth. We get the word tawdry (gaudy, showy, cheap) as a shortening of Saint Audrey, though it's not her fault. It related to the lace that was sold at the fair at Ely, England.
Audrey had sworn virginity, even though she was twice married. The first husband apparently accepted her vow, but inconsiderately died after only three years of marriage. As she was related to the King of East Anglia, that put her back on the nuptial market, if only for political alliance. He next husband had a tougher time with this celibacy thing, so she fled to a coastal bluff called Colbert's Head. The incoming tide separated the Head from the mainland -- no surprise, I am sure she was counting on that. The surprise was that the tide stayed in for seven days. It must have been a local phenomenon because I can't find any other record of tidal arrest in the seventh century, but it did the trick. Husband Number Two asked for an annulment, allowing Audrey to found a convent.
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