09 — Veneration and Legacy
The afterlife of Hilda and her house: the fate of Whitby after her death — its flourishing, its destruction by the Vikings in the ninth century, and its refoundation as a Benedictine abbey after the Norman Conquest; the growth and dispersal of her cult; and a sober final assessment of Hilda as the great mother-figure of the English Church and patron of learning, weighed against the thinness of the record.
Tradition: Pan-Orthodox (pre-Schism; Celtic-Roman; abbess of Whitby)
Hilda died on 17 November 680, after six years of illness borne, Bede says, without ever ceasing to give thanks. Her monastery continued for some two centuries as a centre of learning and a royal mausoleum, until the Danish incursions of the later ninth century swept it away; the ruins on the headland today are those of the Benedictine abbey refounded after 1078. Her cult, attested from soon after her death and spread by the translation of supposed relics, made her one of the best-loved of the Anglo-Saxon saints. These files trace the abbey’s fortunes and the cult, and close with an assessment that honours her greatness while keeping faith with the limits of the evidence.
Files in This Section
| File | Description |
|---|---|
| Whitby after Hilda | The monastery after 680 — its continued learning and royal burials; the Viking destruction of the ninth century; the Benedictine refoundation after the Conquest; the dispersal of relics and the medieval cult. |
| Legacy and Assessment | Hilda as the mother-figure of the English Church and patron of learning; her standing in scholarship and devotion; a sober assessment that weighs the warmth of Bede’s portrait against the singleness of the source. |
See Also
- Bede on Hilda — the source whose limits the assessment weighs
- The Orthodox Reception — her veneration in the Orthodox Church today
- A Woman of Authority — the legacy of her leadership for the history of women in the Church
- St. Cuthbert of Lindisfarne — the Northumbrian saint whose cult outlasted the same Viking age
- The Church Calendar — the commemoration of the saints
References
- Bede. Ecclesiastical History of the English People. Ed. and trans. Bertram Colgrave and R. A. B. Mynors. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1969. (IV.23.)
- Yorke, Barbara. Nunneries and the Anglo-Saxon Royal Houses. London: Continuum, 2003.
- Cubitt, Catherine. Anglo-Saxon Church Councils c.650–c.850. London: Leicester University Press, 1995.