ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN APRIL Saints celebrated on the 2nd of April WELCOME! 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 m...