Tuesday, November 18, 2014
(Hilda, Abbess of Whitby)
James 3:1-13
Today, we remember Hilda, Abbess of Whitby (614-680). Most of our knowledge of this remarkable woman comes from the historian Bede who writes: “So great was her prudence that not only ordinary folk, but kings and princes used to come and ask her advice in their difficulties, and take it… [She] was not only an example of holy life to members of her own community. She also brought about the amendment and salvation of many living at a distance, who heard the inspiring story of her industry and goodness.”
Born to a royal family in Northumbria, she was baptized at age thirteen, and entered monastic life at thirty-three. She is known for her gifts of administration and pastoral care. Under her direction, the monastery she founded in Whitby, housed both men and women, became a center of learning, and produced five bishops.
She is known for her humility. She befriended and encouraged the young stable boy, Caedmon, who wrote religious poems in Anglo-Saxon, still recognized today.
Hilda was also a woman of “uncommon common sense,” as Sam Portaro writes in his companion to the lesser feasts and fasts. When a synod was held in Whitby in 664 to settle disputes about the dating of Easter, Hilda mediated two factions of the English Church and brought about a lasting peace. Although sympathetic to the Celtic tradition, she submitted to the Roman position that was predominant at the synod.
We have much to learn from Hilda of Whitby about being detached from liturgical preferences when the unity of the community is at stake, and about being open to the most humble around us.
- David Shumaker
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