The Church of Saint Mary and Saint Eanswythe stands as in a garden, and is rich in beautiful memorials. In it lies the remains of King Ethelberts' granddaughter. Originally enshrined in a monastic chapel in the cliff top castle of her father, King Eadbald of Kent, they were moved shortly after her death, at the young age of 26 in 640, to the church, to avoid the ravages of Viking raiders and erosion by the sea. They survived the destruction of the town by Earl Godwin in 1050, the destruction of the church by fire in 1217, and the dissolution of the priory in 1535 and remained forgotten but secure until 1885 when discovered in their twelfth century reliquary during restoration of the church by the priest Matthew Woodward, when a fitting shrine was set into the sanctuary wall. They lie today behind the small oak door under the mosaic of St. Peter. Eanswythe's Saint's Day is on 12th September.

St.Eanswythe (Eanswida of Folkestone, also known as Eanswith(a), Eanswide, Eanswyth) is remembered for the simple life in which she gave up all the pleasures of the World. Once, the King of Northumbria asked to marry Eanswythe. At that time her father was building an oratory for her and one of the beams to be used was three feet too short. Eanswythe set the King a task to complete in order to win her hand in marriage. If the Kings gods could, by his prayers, lengthen the beam then she would marry him. The King failed and went away filled with shame. Eanswythe however, approached the beam, made a prayer, and the beam lengthened to the required size. This was the first miracle.
The nearest water to the oratory was a good distance away and had to be brought by hand. Eanswythe therefore went to the spring a mile or so away in the village of Sweeten. Using a stick she made the water follow her, up and down over cliffs and rocky summits, to her Oratory, where it delivered abundant water for men and animals.
In the third miracle the young virgin placed an interdict that the birds should stop settling on the nearby fields and consuming the produce. So it was - the birds obeyed. She performed still further miracles. She restored a blind woman's sight, made a mad man sane and restored health in others from various diseases.

King Eadbald consented to allowing her to found a monastery where she served as its abbess. Hers was the first convent in England. The Abbey was destroyed by the Danes; the church built in its place became an "alien" Priory of Lonlay l' Abbeye(Orne) in 1095; then about 1838 the Monks were moved by William de Avaranches to the site of the present church. Less than a century later a great rebuilding took place. It was finally rebuilt as we see it today between 1856 and 1874.

In art, Saint Eanswythe is portrayed as a crowned abbess with a book and two fish.
The font is 15th Century. The one at the west end of the south aisle is 200 years older. A stone to Rebecca Rogers, a crusader against the chimney tax, is in the church yard. Much of the glass in the church was destroyed by bombing during the second world war but the great west window in memory of William Harvey is still there.