Our mother among the saints, Venerable Hildalíþ of Barking

The holy saints of Barking; Holy Mother Hildalíþ at centre

Today in the Orthodox Church we celebrate another of our Old English holy mothers, Hildalíþ the second Abbess of Barking, one of the earliest monastics in England. Successor to Æþelburg the sister of Eorcenwald the Bishop of London, little is known of Hildalíþ before she was brought from abroad to serve Æþelburg as her tutor, though she did take her vows in a Frankish convent prior to landing in England.

Saint Eorcenwald, of royal Lindsay heritage, was particularly taken with the Rule of Saint Benedict, and sold his share of the family fortune in order to found two communities dedicated to the holy communal life in England: for men, he established the Abbey of Saint Peter at Chertsey in Surrey, and for women he established the Abbey of the Blessed Virgin at Barking. Saint Eorcenwald’s sister Saint Æþelburg was placed at the head of the abbey at Barking, and her brother immediately set about trying to find a tutor and adviser for her, in the monastic life to which neither of them were yet accustomed.

Hildalíþ was selected from her cloister in France. Saint Eorcenwald selected her for her fitness to teach Saint Æþelburg as she undertook the life of a bride of Christ, as demonstrated in her home convent in France. Hildalíþ had shown there both a motherly care for her younger sisters, and a thirst for holy and divine knowledge: she was an avid reader of the Scriptures and of the Church Fathers. She directed Æþelburg admirably, it seems, for the young sister of the bishop of London achieved a holy and disciplined mode of life, and met her repose in blessedness. Hildalíþ thereafter became the mother-superior at the Abbey at Barking; and she was indeed a mother and a mentor to other saints, including Saint Cúþburg, the West Saxon widow of Ealdfriþ the king of Northumbria, who became a nun upon her husband’s death and who afterward would become the foundress of Wimborne Minster in Dorset.

As historian-laureate of the English Church, Saint Bede the Venerable notes that Mother Hildalíþ, as abbess, showed ‘exemplary conduct, in the observance of regular discipline, and in the care of providing all things for the public use’. Saint Ealdhelm devoted his Latin work De Laude Virginitates to her; Saint Boniface referred to her as a worthy teacher in his correspondence; and she was also highly-regarded by the English saints who followed her, Saint Dúnstán of Canterbury, Saint Æþelwold of Winchester and Saint Ælfheah of Canterbury.

Holy Mother Hildalíþ, Abbess of Barking, pray to Christ our God for us sinners!