'All who knew her called her mother' - November 18
Today’s Readings: Feast Day of Hilda of Whitby: Psalm 122; Ephesians 4:1-6; Matthew 19:27-29
Today’s Reflection
“All who knew her, called her mother,
because of her outstanding devotion and grace.” —Bede
The woman whose life we are celebrating today, Hilda, was born in 614 in Northumbria, which today is Yorkshire in the north of England. I first heard of Hilda when I visited Yorkshire in 2013. My college roommate Lisa and her husband John had relocated to England for work for a few years; while on sabbatical from my university, I decided to go visit them along with Karen, another college friend.
Lisa had been writing a blog of all their road trips around the UK, and her photographs of the ruined abbeys at Rievaulx and Whitby in Yorkshire had captured my imagination. We arrived in Whitby on a very blustery September morning; the ruins that stand on the cliff looking over the North Sea and the town of Whitby are old, but are in fact of an abbey built later, in Norman times, but on the same site as where Hilda founded an abbey centuries before, in the 600s.
Her name Hilda or Hild derives from the Saxon word for battle, or in Anglo-Saxon Hilda means heroine or in Old German it means the warrior woman. This is an appropriate name for her, as she was born during a time of many wars and power struggles amongst those who wanted to rule over the various regions of what we now think of as Britain. Amidst all this conflict and chaos, Hilda’s father Prince Hereric was forced to go into exile while Hilda was an infant. During this time, Hilda’s mother Lady Breguswith had what has come to be seen as a prophetic dream, which the historian Bede recounts in his History of the English Church and People:
“[Hilda’s] life was the fulfillment of a dream which her mother Breguswith had when Hilda was an infant, during the time that her husband was living in banishment under the protection of the British king Cerdic…. In this dream she fancied that he was suddenly taken away, and although she searched everywhere, she could find no trace of him. When all her efforts failed, she discovered a most valuable jewel under her garments; and as she looked closely, it emitted such a brilliant light that all Britain was lit by its splendor.”
This dream was fulfilled in her daughter, whose life afforded a shining example not only to herself but to all who wished to live a good life.
Not long after this dream, Hilda’s father Hereric was poisoned to death. Hilda, her older sister, and her mother are thought to have lived under the protection of King Edwin, through which Hilda would have had met the many people coming in and out of his court, including members of the early Christian religious communities asserting their influence around England, Wales, and Ireland.
King Edwin married Ethelburga of Kent, which is in the south of England, to which Augustine had been sent to establish the Roman church in what we know today as Canterbury. So, Ethelburga was a Christian and when she moved north to marry Edwin, she did so with the understanding that she would retain her Christian faith and bring along a priest, Palinius. When Hilda was about 13 years old, Edwin and his whole household, and many others around what is now York were baptized on the site of what is today York Minster.
When Hilda was 33 years old—halfway through her life—she took monastic vows. She had thought at first she would live as a monastic in France, but she was persuaded by Aidan of Lindisfarne to remain in Northumbria and work to build up the church there. She began at Hartlepool, and then was tasked to begin a house at Streanshalch, now known as Whitby, and later another at Hackness. The abbey at Whitby was a double house, which means it was both men and women—and Hilda was the abbess for all of them.
What kind of abbess was Hilda that Bede would describe her in such glowing terms—that in her mother’s dream Hilda was signified by a jewel shining its light to illuminate all of England? First, we know Hilda was a church planter—she founded three abbeys or houses, the last one in the final year of her life as her health was failing. Second, we know Hilda was a mentor to many, including to Caedmon, the shepherd turned poet. Many future priests, and five bishops, were spiritually formed in her abbey. Third, we know Hilda was a wise woman and advisor—people sought out her counsel, so much so that her abbey was site of the Synod of Whitby in 664, at which decisions were made concerning whether the church in England should follow the Roman or the Celtic tradition.
Like a multi-faceted jewel, Hilda’s different dimensions or facets allowed the light of Christ to shine out in different directions, magnified through the houses she founded and led, the people in whose lives she invested her time and care, and the leaders whom she influenced through her wise counsel.
Becky+
Questions for Reflection
Who has been a Hilda-like figure in your life, someone who has been a channel of godly wisdom and insight?
Collect for Hilda of Whitby
O God of peace, by whose grace the abbess Hilda was endowed with gifts of justice, prudence, and strength to rule as a wise mother over the nuns and monks of her household: Raise up these gifts in us, that we, following her example and prayers, may build up one another in love to the benefit of your Church; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.