ST EBBA, ABBESS, AND HER COMPANIONS, MARTYRS

ST EBBA, ABBESS, AND HER COMPANIONS, MARTYRS - 2 APRIL

SAINT EBBA, ABBESS, AND HER COMPANIONS, MARTYRS

Saint Ebba of Coldingham

In the ninth century Saint Ebba [Æbbe, Abb] governed the great monastery of Coldingham, situated in Merch, or the Marshes, a province in the shire of Berwick, which was for some time subject to the English, at other times to the Scots.

THE LARGEST MONASTERY IN SCOTLAND

This was at that time the largest monastery in all Scotland, and had been founded by another St Ebba, who was sister to St Oswald and Oswi, kings of Northumberland.

THEY PRESERVED THEIR CHASTITY

In the year 870, according to Matthew of Westminster, or rather in 874, according to the Scottish historians, in an incursion of the cruel Danish pirates, Hinguar and Hubba, this abbess was anxious, not for her life, but for her chastity, to preserve which she had recourse to the following stratagem: Having assembled her nuns in the Chapterhouse, after making a moving discourse to her sisters, she, with a razor, cut off her nose and upper-lip, and was courageously imitated by all the holy community. The frightful spectacle which they exhibited in this condition protected their virginity. But the infidels, enraged at their disappointment, set fire to the monastery, and these holy virgins died in the flames spotless victims to their heavenly spouse, the lover and rewarder of chaste souls.

NOTE:

The monastery of Coldingham was burnt by John, king of England, and after it was rebuilt retained only the rank of a priory till the change of religion. A nephew of bishop Lesley, a Scottish Jesuit, tells us, in the lives of Scottish Saints, which he compiled in Latin, that he found the ruins very stately when he took a survey of them in 1610.

Source: Fr Butler's Lives of the Saints - 🎨 The self-mutilation of Saint Ebba and her community. Plate from Ecclesiae Anglicanae Trophae (1584), after murals by Niccolo Circignani in the chapel of the Venerable English College, Rome.

PRAYER:

Grant, we beseech you, almighty God, that the venerable feast of Saint Ebba and Companions may increase our devotion and promote our salvation. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever. Amen.

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