Saint Hilda of Whitby, and others.

[winsome]

 Today is the feast day of Saint Hilda of Whitby which reminds me of the legacy we have of great Saints in the North East of England in the 7^th century..

Saint Hilda of Whitby was born in 614 and was brought up in the court of King Edwin of Northumbria. In 627 Edwin and his entire court were baptised Christians, including Hilda. In 633 Northumbria was overrun by the pagan King of Mercia and Edwin was killed. His wife, along with Hilda and Paulinus, their chaplain and Bishop of York, fled to the Queens home in Kent.

Saint Bede (672/3 – 735) recalls the baptising of King Edwin by Saint Paulinus
"King Edwin, therefore, with all the nobility of the nation, and a large number of the common sort, received the faith, and the washing of regeneration, in ... the year ... 627, and about 180 after the coming of the English into Britain. He was baptised at York, on the holy day of Easter, being the 12th April, in the church of St Peter the Apostle, which he himself had built of timber, whilst he was catechising and instructing in order to receive baptism."

At the age of 33 Hilda returned to Northumbria at the behest of Bishop Aiden of Lindisfarne and set up a convent. The whereabout of this convent is unknown but later she founded an Abbey at Whitby and became the Abbess. It was a double monastery with both men and women. The men and women lived separately but came together for Mass and other religious services.

The Abbey at Whitby became important for another reason.

In the early 7^th century England was mostly pagan. In 604 the son (Oswald) of the pagan king of Northumberland fled when his uncle killed his father to gain the throne. He spent many years at the monastery in Iona, an island off the Scottish coast, where monks from Ireland had settled. He converted to Christianity. In 633, his uncle died and Oswald became king of Northumbria. In 634 he invited the monks to send missionaries from Iona to convert his kingdom, led by Aidan. Thus began a line of great Saints such as Aidan (died 651), Cuthbert (634-687) and Bede (672/673 –735)

In the south Pope Gregory had sent Benedictine monks, led by Augustine, to convert the English. He landed in 597 in Kent and made Canterbury his base. By 625 his mission had spread north, founding a diocese at York. Then the two branches of Catholicism met and disputes arose because of different liturgical practices and different calendars. A great synod was held at Whitby in 664 to settle the differences and agreed that the Roman calendar and practices should be adopted by all.

The ruins of Whitby Abbey are still there and I have visited them, as well as Lindisfarne where Aiden and Cuthbert once were. I've also visited the ruins of the monastery where Saint Bede lived in Jarrow.  I find it quite moving to visit these places where these ancestors in our faith lived.


Although I live in the North West (not North East) our parish church is dedicated to Saint Oswald, King and Martyr. After fleeing Northumbria as a child (as noted above), Oswald returned to Northumbria in 633 and was crowned king. Throughout his eight-year rule Oswald established law and order, and fought physically and spiritually to benefit his people In 642 he led his forces against King Penda of Mercia at the battle of Maserfeld where he was killed and his body dismembered. His followers recovered his head and his brother, Oswy, sent the holy relics to Lindisfarne where it became an object of veneration during the life of St. Cuthbert.

He was canonised in 692 and his feast is kept on 5th August. During the Viking raids in 875 the monks fled from Lindisfarne and carried their relics with them, including the body of St. Cuthbert, the head of St. Oswald and the Linldisfarne Gospels through many flights and wanderings over many decades. Eventually, after nearly 200 years they were interred in the new church at Durham.