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About
our patron, St Hilda of Whitby |
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Saint Hilda, or Hild, to give
her the correct Anglo Saxon
name, meaning battle, was born
in 614 AD into the Royal House
of Northumbria. Hilda herself
became a ruler of both men and
women in the monastery she
founded at Whitby, which became
a
great centre of English learning
and literature. Caedmon, the
first English poet, was a
labourer there. No fewer than
five of her monks became
bishops. The Church in England
was at that time torn by
division over the differences
between the traditions of the
Celts whose missionaries had
brought the gospel to the North
and West of England, and the
Roman practices introduced in
the South and East by
missionaries from continental
Europe.
One particular problem was the
inconsistency of the two
traditions over determining the
date of Easter. A special Synod
was held at Whitby in 664 to
settle the matter. The
supporters of the newer Roman
custom eventually won.
Hilda
herself, who personally much
preferred the Celtic tradition,
in which she had grown up,
nevertheless used her moderating
influence to persuade those who
had lost the argument, to accept
their defeat gracefully and to
live peaceably with those from
whom they had differed. Her role
as peacemaker at a pivotal time
in the history of the Church in
England has a lot to teach us
today.
Hilda died in 680 AD and it is
thought she was buried in
Whitby.
A 12th century chronicle tells
us that Edmund 1st in 944, had
the bones of Hilda, together
with those of Bishop Aidan,
taken to Glastonbury, where he
himself was to be buried.
Used by Kind Permission from
Peter Stokes, St Hilda's Church,
Warley Woods
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