Kirk Hill at St Abb’s Head, Scotland
The twenty-fifth of August may be a warm summer day, but it is the feast-day in the Orthodox Church of the first abbess of Coldingham, Saint Æbbe the Elder. This northern English Church mother is associated with some of the greatest saints of the English north, including Saint Wilfrið of York, Saint Æþelþrýð of Ely, Saint Cuðberht of Lindisfarne, her sister-in-law Saint Éanflæd and, of course, her brother Saint Óswald. In Saint Æbbe the Celtic asceticism meets and clashes with the outward Celtic gentleness: for, while she was tirelessly strict and demanding upon herself, she was – even to a fault – indulgent toward others. This led to some unfortunate excesses at the monasteries she founded.
Saint Æbbe was born to the fearsome heathen chieftain, Æþelfrið King of Bernicia, and his wife Acha of Deira – whose personal union forged the beginnings of a united Northumbria. Æþelfrið was killed by an East Anglian army led by Rædwald in support of his brother-in-law Éadwine, and all of Æþelfrið’s children, including Éanfrið, Óswald, Óswiu and Æbbe, had to flee northward and westward into Dál Riata. While enjoying the hospitality and protection of the Scottish king, all of these Northumbrian princes (and princess) in exile were converted to Christianity.
While in Scotland, Æbbe was pursued by an unwanted but persistent suitor named Aidan. Though the match was favourable to her brothers who saw in Aidan a valuable political ally, Æbbe, being watchful of her virginity, had no mind to marry at all. She took the veil from the Scottish Saint Finan (later of Lindisfarne) and became a nun. However, this did not put Aidan off. He pursued her, thinking to force her into marriage. She fled him to Kirk Hill at St Abb’s Head, where she took shelter on the high rocks. The high tide cut off Aidan’s pursuit with impassable breakers. By Saint Æbbe’s prayers, God preserved her by holding the tide at its highest ebb for three days, until at last Aidan gave up in frustration. Seeing her resolution, her brother Óswiu gave her an additional piece of land at Ebchester, which she used to found another monastery.
But Saint Æbbe founded her main double monastery on Kirk Hill, and her monks and nuns lived in humble, separate cells made from wattle and thatch. Another conflicting story about the foundation of the monastery at St Abb’s Head goes thus: during one of Northumbria’s incessant wars, Saint Æbbe was captured by the enemies of Óswiu King. She managed to escape, however, in a boat which she sailed up the coast alone. Coming around the eastern coast of Scotland, she was guided safely to shore by the chanting, so it seemed to her, of monks. They were finishing one of the offices in their little kirk, and saw the boat come ashore when they came outside. It was guided through the treacherous breakers as though preserved by some superhuman hand. When Saint Æbbe made land, the monks swore to obey her as clearly this was a holy woman of some influence with God.
Saint Æbbe was greatly respected by the other Northumbrian saints, including those as disparate in disposition and temperament as Saint Wilfrið and Saint Cuðberht. Indeed, she became fast friends with the latter, who came – despite choosing not to spend a great deal of time in the company of the opposite sex – to visit her at her monastery. It was she, in fact, who made for the saint the linen garment in which he would eventually be buried.
Saint Æbbe, probably remembering her own experience with Aidan, also gave shelter to Saint Æþelþrýð, who sought to become a nun. Her husband, Ecgfrið (Saint Æbbe’s nephew), pursued her to St Abb’s Head, where the wonder of the rising tide and the breakers which had preserved Saint Æbbe from Aidan’s attentions repeated itself for Æþelþrýð. It was here that Ecgfrið reluctantly agreed to separate from his wife, who entered the conventual life with the blessing of Saint Wilfrið and ultimately established a cloister at Ely. This whole episode caused a great deal of bad blood between Ecgfrið and Wilfrið, and the former to begin persecuting the latter. It so happened that Ecgfrið visited St Abb’s Head later along with his new wife Eormenburg, and while she was there Eormenburg went into convulsions and fits that were thought to be the work of demons. Saint Æbbe healed the king’s wife, but rebuked Ecgfrið sternly and told him that Eormenburg had been thus visited because they had imprisoned Saint Wilfrið for nine months and robbed him of a reliquary he treasured – probably containing some of the relics of his beloved martyred master Saint Ennemond. Ecgfrið promised to release the bishop and restore his reliquary; once he had done so, his wife recovered.
Saint Æbbe’s double monastery was blessed for some while by her own personal observances and her keeping of a strict rule of asceticism. However, many of her spiritual children – coming as they did from high-born English backgrounds – were unruly and lax in their observances. They drank and feasted heavily; they spent hours in idle talk; and monks and nuns even cohabited together in shameful fashion. While he was there, Saint Adamnán of Iona received a fearsome vision, that the priory would suffer fire and be burnt to the ground on account of the monks’ sins. He duly told Æbbe of this, who for her own part was deeply distressed. Adamnán comforted the holy abbess, however, saying that on account of her own holy life that this dreadful thing would not come to pass as long as she was alive. But it so happened that after her repose, one careless monk forgot to put out a candle, and a spark lit among the thatch, and the whole complex went up in flames. Saint Æbbe’s cloister at Kirk Hill was later rebuilt, however, under a stricter rule and only for nuns.
Saint Æbbe reposed in the Lord at her abbey at Coldingham on the twenty-fifth of August, 683. Although her monastery was destroyed soon after her repose, her efforts in bringing Christianity to Northumbria were by no means forgotten, and even after the site was deserted by monks, Kirk Hill was the site of pilgrimage for many local people who came in faith seeking healing. Holy Mother Æbbe, gentle nun and witness among the Northumbrians, pray unto Christ our God for us, your wayward children!
St Ebba’s Church, Ebchester
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