St Ethelburga of Barking (there are two other St Ethelburgas!) lived until 675AD. She was the first Abbess of the great Benedictine Abbey at Barking In Essex (of which little remains), one of the first religious houses for women in the country.

She epitomises for us a strong woman who exemplifies virtues of committed social action and self-sacrifice.

East window - using fragments of the previous window: Artist: Helen Whittaker (Barley Studios)

The Abbey was founded by her brother Erkonwald who later became Bishop of London and was beatified (Bishopsgate, where St Ethelburga's Centre now stands, was so-called after him). She is especially noted for her heroic conduct in caring for the sick during an outbreak of the plague in 664 which eventually killed her and most of her community.

During this time she is said to have had a vision of a light "brighter than the sun at noonday" which inspired her and her community to works of great compassion in caring for others.

The Venerable Bede wrote of her: "Her life is known to have been such that no person who knew her ought to question but that the heavenly kingdom was opened to her, when she departed this world."

• More about St Ethelburga

• More about Barking Abbey