LONDON (RNS) The body of a 14th-century girl believed to have been decapitated as a witch and dumped into unconsecrated ground has been exhumed and given a proper burial in an English village church’s graveyard.
Some 200 mourners gathered at Hoo, in southeast England, to show their respect as the corpse of the unknown teenager was, some 700 years after her death, given a funeral service at St. Werburgh (Anglican) Church on Sunday (March 15).
The mystery girl’s remains were unearthed six years ago by archaeologists prior to construction on a nearby housing development.
Her head was neatly tucked alongside her body, prompting scientists to suggest that she probably had been suspected of witchcraft and had been “shamed,” as was a standard practice, according to archaeologist Paul Wilkinson.
The vicar of the Hoo parish, the Rev. Andy Harding, said “execution in those days would have been for witchcraft” which, real or imagined, was seen then as heresy. “What we do know is that her life came to an horrific end,” he said.
“I felt a need to give her what had clearly been denied to her all those years ago,” he said.
The remains of the girl — nicknamed “Holly,” because her body was discovered beside a holly tree — were placed inside a wicker coffin and lowered into consecrated earth during a joint Anglican and Roman Catholic funeral service.
“I believe that everyone should receive a respectable funeral,” Harding said. “At the end of the day, God will be our judge.”