Holy Hierarch Ealhmund, Bishop of Hexham

The Abbey Kirk at Hexham

Today in the Holy Orthodox Church we celebrate another Northumbrian saint, the relatively-obscure Ealhmund, Bishop of Hexham. Successor in office to some rather illustrious English Orthodox saints, like Holy Father Cuðberht, Holy Father John of Beverley and Bishop Saint Wilfrið (who founded the abbey kirk at Hexham in which Saint Ealhmund served), Saint Ealhmund spent thirteen years in that office. Very little is known of his life other than that; the records were destroyed by waves of invasion by the Danes and the Scots. However, he was held in deep veneration by the folk of Hexham soon after his death. He was buried alongside Saint Acca outside the church, and there his relics stayed for two and a half centuries.

In the year 1030, a sacristan of Durham named Fr Ælfræd Westowe undertook to translate the relics of Saint Acca from the church grounds into a reliquary, placed in a state of honour within the church. This was done. About two years later, a vision appeared to a certain Northumbrian named Dregmo, who lived near the church at Hexham. In this vision, Saint Ealhmund appeared in his bishop’s robes and with a crozier in his hand, and he prodded Dregmo to attention with it. He asked Dregmo to go to Ælfræd Westowe and bid him translate his own relics also into the church at Hexham. When Dregmo asked who he was, the apparition proclaimed himself to be Saint Ealhmund, the fourth bishop of Hexham after Saint Wilfrið, told him his bones had rested near those of Saint Acca, and furthermore bade Dregmo to be present at the translation with Ælfræd.

The vision ended, and when Dregmo awoke he went straightaway and informed Ælfræd Westowe of everything Saint Ealhmund had related to him in the proper order, including the location of his bones. The priest went gladly to Hexham, assembled the folk there, told them what had happened, and set a day for the translation. When that day came they lifted Saint Ealhmund’s bones from the tomb with care, wrapped them in linen, and set them on a bier. Since the hour was too late for the Divine Liturgy to be celebrated, the bones were left on the porch at the west end of the Church for the night.

During the night vigil, the priest of Durham stole into the Church while the others slept, and robbed Saint Ealhmund of one of his finger-bones. The following morning, when the priest undertook to move Saint Ealhmund’s bones into their reliquary, he found them far too heavy for any man to lift. He withdrew himself, thinking he was unworthy. All the men of Hexham tried to lift the bones, but by the same ominous wonder none were able – it was like any one man trying to lift the church itself off its foundations. No one was found able to lift the bones. Meanwhile Fr Ælfræd, still ignorant that he was the cause of this omen, instructed the faithful to pray God to reveal the cause.

Once again the vision of Saint Ealhmund came to Dregmo, and he rapped him awake with his crozier, and scolded him sternly:

What is this that you undertook to do? Were you going to bring me back into the church harmed, when I served God and Saint Andrew here whole in body and soul? Go, therefore, and witness in the sight of all folk that what has been taken recklessly from my body should be brought back again, or else you will never be able to take me up from this place in which I now am.

When he had said this, he took Dregmo and led him to where his body lay, and showed him where one of his hands was missing a finger-bone. On the following day, Dregmo stood in the throng and told them all that Saint Ealhmund had said, bidding the thief come forward and make good what he owed. Stricken and ashen-faced, Fr Ælfræd came forward and prostrated himself upon the floor of the church, owning himself to be the thief. He begged the forgiveness of the folk, of God and of Saint Ealhmund, and restored the finger-bone to its rightful place. When this was done, he and his deacons were able to lift the saint’s bones with nigh no effort at all, and set them in their rightful state of honour in the church. This happened on the sixth of August, 1032.

Later, Fr Ælfræd Westowe asked openly, and was granted, the right to translate back to Durham a portion of the relics of Saint Ealhmund, along with those of Saint Acca, Saint Bede, Saint Óswine, Saint Boisil, Holy Mother Æbba and Saints Billfrið and Balthere. Holy Hierarch Ealhmund, pray to God for us!