Remembering Hilda of Whitby

On the Day April 11 627AD

Khen Lim




Hilda of Whitby (Image source: en.wikipedia.org)

In 601AD, Pope Gregory I despatched a mission from Rome to England, hoping to introduce Christianity to the Anglo-Saxons and move them away from paganism. Among them was Paulinus who arrived with the second mission in 604AD and spent two decades before he was consecrated bishop of York.

Then he accompanied Princess Æthelburg of Kent on her journey to Northumbria to marry King Edwin of Northumbria. Eventually Edwin became a Christian to join his newly-married wife in faith to worship God.

In the baptising of the royal couple and members of their court, there was a 13-year-old girl by the name of Hilda who was also converted and baptised on the same Easter Day of April 11 627AD. She was the daughter of Hereric, nephew of Edwin and King of Deira. Hilda would go on to become the founding abbess of Whitby Abbey and also the most influential woman in England at that time.





King Edwin (Image source: geni.com)

Following the defeat and death of Edwin at the hands of the Welsh in the Battle of Hatfield Chase in 633AD, Paulinus fled together with the widowed queen Æthelburg and Hilda before Northumbria was overrun by the neighbouring pagan King of Mercia. They beat a hasty retreat to the Queen’s home in Kent where she founded a convent at Lyminge.

It was there that the Queen remained as well as Hilda and her elder sister Hereswith who became a nun in Gaul (now France). Fourteen years later, in 647AD, a 33-year-old Hilda answered her call and joined her sister as a nun for a year before returning to Northumbria.

Encouraged by Bishop Aidan of Lindisfarne who was the inspiration behind her becoming a nun, she too charge of a small community at Hartlepool where she excelled herself as the second Abbess in the traditions of Celtic monasticism.

Whitby Abbey today (Image source: buildingpanoramics.com)

Ten years later, Hilda became the founding abbess of Streoneshalh, which was renamed Whitby Abbey 200 years later. There she remained to run a double monastery until her death. While she was there, she exercised Christian virtues in peace and charity. All properties were commonly held and everyone studied the Bible and did good works.

English monk and renowned Anglo-Saxon historian, the Venerable Bede (672-735AD) wrote, “she obliged those who were under her direction, to attend so much to reading of the Holy Scriptures, and to exercise themselves so much in works of justice that many might be there found fit for ecclesiastical duties and to serve at the altar.”

Indeed, five men from Hilda’s community became bishops and two of them – John of Beverley, Bishop of Hexham and Wilfrid, Bishop of York – joined Hilda in being revered as saints. Like Hilda, they gave of their lives to the church in the struggle of England under the weight of paganism.



The Synod of Whitby (Image source: wilfrid.com)

In all that time, Hilda’s reputation preceded her. Known throughout the land for her sage advice and widespread influence over the whole of Britain, commoners and even kings called on her. Perhaps the greatest honour was when in 644AD, King Oswiu of Bernicia (612-670AD) sought Hilda’s advice in the arrangements for the highly significant council in English history to be held at the Synod of Whitby where clerics from as far as Wessex debated over whether to adopt the Romish or the Celtic ritual traditions and also discussed the adoption of a method to calculate Easter. Even though Hilda was herself partial to the Celtic form, she acceded to Oswiu’s decision to adopt the Roman rites and encouraged others to practice goodwill and accommodate the change.

As a great enthusiast for learning, Hilda was behind the monastery herder Caedmon’s decision to sing his religious musical works that retold biblical stories in the Anglo-Saxon vernacular. Inspired in a dream to sing in praise of God, Hilda envisioned his gift from God and encouraged him. He later went on in history to become England’s first local poet.

Bede recalls, saying, “All who knew her called her mother because of her outstanding devotion and grace.” She was also a skilled administrator, teacher and as a landowner, she coordinated the many she employed to care for the cattle, farming and woodcutting.



Image source: saintsbridge.wordpress.com

In the final seven years of her life, Hilda had suffered fever although that didn’t stop her from working until she died on November 17 680AD at the advanced age of sixty-six allegedly after receiving viaticum.

A nun named Begu (d.690AD) from Deira who, like Hilda, was also beatified later, wrote that as the bells strangely tolled, she witnessed a vision in which the roof of the dormitory opened and Hilda’s soul was lifted up to heaven by angels upon her death.

Hilda’s name is known widely around the world today. Her role as the patron of education is well remembered not just in England and Scotland but in America, Canada, Jamaica, Argentina, Singapore and India.

In Australia, the St Hilda’s College in the University of Melbourne is also joined by the St Hilda’s Anglican School for Girls in Southport in Queensland and Mosman Park in Western Australia.