Holy Virgin Eoforhild, Abbess of Everingham

Saint Everilda’s Church, Nether Poppleton

The ninth of July is the feast day of Saint Eoforhild of Everingham in the Orthodox Church. Eoforhild was a holy mother and founding abbess of monasteries, often mentioned alongside Ósgýð of Chich, Friðuswíþ of Oxford, Modwen of Burton and Ósburg of Coventry. She is also a beloved local saint in the English North.

Eoforhild [also Everild, Everilda or Avril] was a West Saxon girl of high birth, who was baptised sometime shortly after Cynegils of Wessex was, presumably also by Saint Berin of Dorchester. This apparently alienated her somewhat from her family. She had to flee from her parents in order to live the life of celibate sanctity in Christ that she sought. She was joined by two other young women of like mind, named Bega and Wulfhild; and the three of them arrived in York with the intention of founding an abbey for women. The three maidens found a ready and willing ally in Saint Wilfrið of York, who gifted to them a plot of land called ‘Bishop’s Farm’.

Saint Eoforhild founded a monastery here under Saint Wilfrið’s patronage, that was apparently quite successful for a number of generations. Under her rule, the abbey grew into a flourishing community of about eighty nuns. ‘Here,’ as the Catholic hagiographer Fr Alban Butler put it, ‘she trained up many nuns to the perfection of divine love, the summit of Christian virtue, by animating them with the true spirit of the Gospel; and continually encouraged them in the faithful discharge of all the duties and exercises of their holy state, until she was called to God.’ This apparently happened on the ninth of July, sometime around the year 700.

Saint Eoforhild is still the patroness of two churches in the English North, St Everilda’s Church in Nether Poppington and the Church of St Mary and St Everilda in Everingham. Everingham is named for Saint Eoforhild, and has been traditionally associated with the saint. However, the building and the site of the church in Nether Poppington appear to be older and are therefore the likelier candidate for the site of Bishop’s Farm, where Saint Eoforhild founded her original monastery. The cultus of Saint Eoforhild was kept in York unbroken for centuries and survived right up until the Reformation. Holy mother Eoforhild, pray unto Christ our God that our souls may be saved!