Holy Hierarch Acca, Bishop of Hexham

Saint Acca of Hexham

Today in the Holy Orthodox Church we commemorate Saint Acca, the Bishop of Hexham under whom Venerable Bede did most of his work and to whom most of those works were dedicated. Bede had voluble praise for his bishop, the ‘dearest and best loved of all bishops on this earth’, and in particular he commended the breadth and profundity of Acca’s learning, as witnessed by his broad-ranging library of spiritual works.

When Acca was young, he served in the household of Saint Bosa, the Bishop of York. While there, he made the acquaintance of Saint Wilfrið, whose magnetic personality seems to have swiftly won over Acca’s devotion. (It may have helped that Acca was already deeply in sympathy with the Roman Liturgical preferences of Saint James the Deacon.) Saint Acca spent the next thirteen years accompanying Saint Wilfrið on his journeys, faring with him to Rome and to France, and also remaining at his side during his Sussex and Mercian exiles. When Saint Wilfrið was reinstated as Bishop of Hexham in 692, he named Acca – then a priest – as abbot of Saint Andrew’s. Abbot Acca was present at Saint Wilfrið’s repose in 709, and was appointed bishop in Hexham after him in the following year.

Saint Acca proved to be a wise choice of bishop. Possessed of great zeal and energy, he looked first to completing his beloved predecessor’s church-building work. He oversaw the completion of three smaller churches in the diocæse of Hexham whose construction had been begun by Wilfrið, and also procured for the abbey kirk at Hexham numerous beautiful vestments and Liturgical vessels, as well as a rare and ornate altar-cloth of purple silk. In addition, he invited a Liturgical musician from Canterbury named Maban to serve at Hexham Abbey, who there taught Acca and the people how to chant in harmony. Saint Acca himself proved an adept pupil, for his own skills in Liturgical chant were highly praised.

Saint Acca and Saint Bede were closely known to one another and on good terms, and Acca was of considerable assistance to the monastic historian in gaining him access to both sæcular and ecclesiastical historical texts. These were used in Bede’s History of the English Church and People. As mentioned above, Acca was far from lax in keeping his abbey’s library stocked with a great variety of spiritually-edifying works from the Church Fathers and from other Christian authors.

Bishop Saint Acca was not on such close or affectionate terms with the sæcular authorities. In 730, Ceolwulf King of Northumbria was deposed from his throne and forcibly tonsured as a monk by his political foes – of whom, Acca may have been one or at least under heavy suspicion. When Ceolwulf regained his throne, one of his first acts upon being restored was to strip Acca of his bishopric and send him into exile in Scotland. (Acca subsequently became Bishop of Whithorn.) After his repose on the twentieth of October, 740, Saint Acca’s remains were translated to a burial site near the eastern wall of Hexham Abbey.

Around 1030, the sacristan Fr Ælfred Westowe was called from Durham to have Acca’s remains translated from the grounds into a reliquary inside the abbey. The saint’s Liturgical vestments, with which he was buried, were found to be in immaculate condition, free from all decay. These were placed on display within the Abbey. A portable altar was placed above him, bearing the inscription Almæ Trinitati, agiæ Sophiæ, sanctæ Mariæ. Those who attempted to steal these relics were driven off in a terrible and ominous manner, but many wonders were wrought through the relics and shrine of Saint Acca for those poor folk who came to God in singleness of mind. Holy Acca, pilgrim, scholar and kindly bishop, pray unto Christ our God that our souls may be saved!