Stained Glass of St. Aebba and her half-brother King Oswald at St. Ebba’s Church, Beadnell. Designed by Joseph Nutgens

Celts to the Crèche

Day 27

December 11

Abbess Æbbe of Coldingham

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On this 27th day of our journey with the Celts to the Crèche, we travel with Abbess Æbbe (Abb, Ebba) of Coldingham. She was a daughter of King Æthelfrith of Bernicia and she was a friend of St. Aidan of Lindisfarne (see day 1 of Celts to the Crèche) and of St. Cuthbert.

Princess Æbbe who became an Abbess, established a monastery first at Ebchester  (some say the Ebchester  Monastery is legend). This monastery is said to have been in Durham on the River Dervent and the village church there is dedicated to her. 

Later,  about 640 AD she established a monastery at Urbs Coludi (meaning Colud’s fort), likely a British fort now known as Kirk Hill at St. Abb’s Head. This later  monastery of Urbs Coludi became Coldingham Abbey, a double monastery where men and women lived and worshipped together on the same monastic grounds. Coldingham was located on the the southeast coast of Scotland, north of Lindisfarne.

Interestingly, the remains of the monastery at Coldingham were discovered under or very near the later built Coldingham Priory (a historical house for Benedictine monks), according to the announcement on March 8, 2019 by DigVentures, a U.K.-based group led by archaeologists and supported by crowdfunding. (see Live Science article by Geggel listed in Some Resources below)

Bede (see day 23 of Celts to the Crèche)  honored Æbba for her piety and nobility, and Eddius in his Life of Wilfrid describes her as a very wise and holy woman. Also the Liber Elenesis portrays Æbbe as an Abbess. Yet, Adomnan, an Abbot of Iona and the writer of St. Columba’s biography,  prophesied that Æbba’s monastery would be destroyed by fire because as she got older, he said that her rule over the monastery was too lax. She was so distraught over this prophecy, that he promised her the fire would not happen until after she died. The monastery did later burn to the ground after her death. Æbbe’s  valuable work on the borders between SE Scotland and NE England helped transform this rather “wild and wooly” area of this isle into a place known for a deep faith in God.

You may desire to continue reading more about Æbbe or go on to the Meditation towards the end of this page.

Her Family: Æbbe was the  daughter of King Æthelfrith of Bernicia (northern part of Northumbria) and either Acha or Bebbe of Deira (southern part of Northumbria).  Michelle Ziegler of the website, Heavenfield thinks that Bebbe was likely her mother since her name is so similar to her mother’s.

When Æbbe was young, her father was killed in battle and she and her mother (or step-mother) Acha and her half-brothers, the future King Oswald and King Oswiu fled to the lands of the Dal Riata in western Scotland where they became Christians. 

Ætheldreda at Coldingham Monastery. Abbess Æbba educated her niece, the ex-Queen Ætheldreda, one of the daughters of the famous King Anna of East Anglia and the first wife of King Ecgfrith at Coldingham. While at this monastery, Ætheldreda received the veil and habit of a nun from Bishop Wilfrid.  After a year at Coldingham, Ætheldreda moved to East Anglia where she established the famous Ely Abbey and Cathedral.

St. Cuthbert by Aidan Hart. It is said that otters licked his feet as he stood in the icey waters to pray for hours on end. Icon writer unknown.

A Visit from St. Cuthbert. Abbess Æbbe invited St. Cuthbert, the Prior of Melrose  and later the Abbot/Bishop of Lindisfarne (see day six of Celts to the Crèche) to visit her monastery to instruct the community. He generally avoided the society of women, but thought so highly of Æbbe that he came to stay at her monastery. We do know that he also visited Abbess Æfflæd of Whitby several times.

At night Cuthbert would disappear to bathe and pray in the sea, to stop himself succumbing to temptations of the flesh. Very early one morning, a monk from Æbbe’s monastery spied him praying and singing psalms in the sea. As St. Cuthbert came ashore, he saw two otters quickly bound out of the sea and join Cuthbert licking his feet dry. The most likely location for this event is Horse Castle Bay at the base of the Kirk Hill.

Coldingham Breviary: Beatus Page, probably made about 1275 at Durham for Coldingham Abbey. British Library, Harley 4664

Prophecy about Coldingham. According to Bede, in Æbbe’s senior years, her rule became lax and her many royal nuns and monks probably took advantage of the situation. Bede considered it an act of divine judgment that Coldingham burned down. He included the story of how Adomnan, who had been a monk at Coldingham and later the Abbot of Iona reproved the community for spending their time weaving fine clothes, making friends with strange men, feasting, drinking and gossiping, instead of praying and studying. Adomnan prophesied that the monastery at Coldingham would burn down as the morals were so lax. Abbess Æbba was so disheartened to hear the news and in such despair, that Adomnan assured her Coldingham would not burn down in her lifetime. Bede said he received this source of information from a priest named Eadgisl who lived there for awhile. He attested that they were unconcerned with their souls’ welfare, being “sunk in slothful slumbers or else awake for the purposes of sin.”

Place of Resurrection: Æbbe likely died at Coldingham on or near August 25th, 683. Sometime after her death, the community fell into greater disorder than ever and through carelessness, the monastery caught light and was burnt to the ground. The monastic site was abandoned, and by the first half of the 8th century, as Bede confirms, the site was deserted.

Coldingham Priory was reestablished in 1098 by King Edgar of Scotland. 

Coldingham Breviary, likely made at Durham with an illuminated initial showing a monk chanting. British Library. Harley 4664

The early work of Æbbe in establishing the Christian religion in southeast Scotland was not forgotten. In a book written about c.1200 by the monks of the reestablished Coldingham, they tell of many pilgrims visiting the Kirk Hill and the spring at Well Mouth, located at the top of the beach now called Horse Castle Bay. It is interesting, that among other gifts, King James IV bestowed revenues from the priory at Coldingham on his new queen, Margaret Tudor in 1503.

                                    Stained glass panel by Joanna C. Scott
                            “Pil grims at the Waters of the Spring of St Ebba”

The reestablished Coldingham Priory is in the center of Coldingham. There is a piscinae or stone basin for washing vessels and vestments used in the Mass. It is thought to be from St. Æbbe’s original Coldingham Monastery.

From Coldingham Lapidarium. In the photo below, notice the large oval shaped stone basin underneath center. It is likely from the original Coldingham Abbey. This is a close-up view of the stone basin probably used to wash religious garments. Photos by B. Keeling from Senchus, Sept. 15, 2011 post.

Meditation

Feast Day,  August 25

Our hearts go out to this wise woman whom many notables of royalty came to visit and ask her for advice. Somewhere along the way, the “inmates took over the prison.” There is no telling what caused this, whether in her senior years, she was just too tired or too ill to “keep an eye” on things and expected her monks and nuns to be mature enough to behave. Or perhaps, there was some sort of political correctness going on that made her have to “back off” of keeping her community in line. So, for 1400 years, this noble woman has had her reputation as an Abbess tarnished by Bede’s including the condemnations of Adomnan and Cuthbert.

Yet, her valuable work on the borders between NE Scotland and SE England helped transform this rather “wild and wooly” area of this isle. We do not know how many monasteries there were in the 7th c. in that area, likely not many. She was brave and courageous to set up a place for Christ in that area. For almost 1400 years, since her resurrection, this area of the UK has considered itself Christian, because of spiritual leaders like Æbbe, Aidan, and Cuthbert. A phoenix of a powerful Christian presence and witness arose from the ashes. Instead of ministering from within a monastery, after the fire, monks and nuns were scattered throughout the region sharing the Gospel of God’s love and grace.

May you rest in peace dear Abbess Æbba and thank you for your good work in bringing the gospel of Jesus Christ to southeast Scotland and northeast England. We join with Bede, Eddius, and Cuthbert and the Communion of Saints is saying, “well done, good and faithful servant.”

Prayer: O God, thank you for Abbess Æbba and for her good work in establishing a monastery in the wild places of the eastern borders of Scotland and England. Help heal her broken heart and all those hearts that have been broken in life through tarnished reputations and through circumstances that are often not of our own making or beyond our control. Amen.

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© Brenda G. Warren and http://www.saintsbridge.org, 2018-2029. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this site’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Brenda G. Warren and http://www.saintsbridge.org (Celts to the Creche) with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

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Some Resources:

Abbess Æbbe of Coldingham. http://hefenfelth.wordpress.com/2007/11/21/pw-abbess-Æbbe-of-coldingham/. Michelle Ziegler.

“Æbbe” at Undiscovered Scotland. 

Arnold-Forster, Frances Egerton. Studies in Church Dedications: Or, England’s Patron Saints, Volume 2. London: Skeffington & Sons, 1899. (St. Ebbe of Coldingham dedications). 

Bartlett, Robert, ed. and trans. The Miracles of St.Æbbe of Coldingham and St. Margaret of Scotland. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 2004.

BBC News. 30 May 2018. South Scotland. Hopes high of unearthing lost monastery in Coldingham.

BBC News. 08 March 2019. South Scotland. Home of 7th Century Princess Unearthed in Coldingham. 

Bede. Ecclesiastical History of the English People. Book IV. Chapter 25.

Brown, Michelle P. How Christianity Came to Britain and Ireland.  Oxford, UK: Lion Hudson, 2006.

Dales, Douglas. Light to the Isles: Mission and Theology in Celtic and Anglo-Saxon Britain. Cambridge, James Clarke & Co., 1997.

Dig Ventures. June 19-July 1, 2018. Archaeological dig at Abbess Aebbe’s double monastery of Coldingham.

Dig Ventures. Coldingham Priory.

Dig Ventures. Coldingham Talks: Chris Bowles. Youtube. June 30, 2018.

Eckenstein, Lina. Women Under Monasticism. 1896. Good Press, 2019 reprint.

Eddius, Stephanus. “Life of Wilfrid” in The Age of Bede, trans. by J. F. Webb and edited by D. H. Farmer. London: Penguin Books, 2004.

Geggel, Laura. Monastery of 7th-Century Scottish Princess (and Saint) Possibly Discovered.  Live Science, March 11, 2019.

Hillary Powell on the Life, Legend, and Landscape of Saint Aebbe. July 4, 2018.Youtube.

Leyser, Henrietta. Beda: A Journey Through the Seven Kingdoms in the Age of Bede. London: Head of Zeus, 2015.

Rees, Elizabeth.  Celtic Saints: Passionate Wanderers. New York: Thames and Hudson, 2000.

Yorke, Barbara. Nunneries and the Anglo-Saxon Royal Houses. London, UK: Continuum, 2003.