The 25th of August is the feast day of Saint Æbbe of Coldingham, also called Æbbe the Elder to avoid confusion with another Saint Æbbe, also known as Æbbe the Younger. Her feast day as a Saint is on the 25th of August.
Æbbe of Coldingham was an Anglian princess who became a very influential abbess and the founder of monasteries at Ebchester and St Abb’s Head in Coldingham.
Æbbe’s childhood was not unusual for a noble in the Early Medieval period. She was the daughter of King Æthelfrith of Bernicia and Acha of Deira. Bernicia and Deira were the two kingdoms which made up what would become Northumbria. Her father Æthelfrith invaded Deira and deposed Æbbe’s maternal uncle, Edwin, who went into exile.
This wasn’t to last, though. Edwin raised an army and took the thrones of Bernicia and Deira. Æbbe had flee into exile herself with her mother and her brothers. Her brothers were Oswald and Oswiu, who you may remember from our last On This Day post. They would both become kings in their own right.
The family fled to the Gaelic kingdom of Dál Riata, in the west coast of Scotland and the north east of Ireland. While staying there, Æbbe and her brothers converted to Christianity.
Eventually, Æbbe’s brother Oswald took the thrones of Bernicia and Deira. When he died, Oswiu succeeded him. With her brothers on the throne, Æbbe could safely come back home from exile. With her brothers’ support, Æbbe established her monasteries at Ebchester and St Abb’s Head. She had no small influence in the spread of Christianity along the Northumbrian coast.
Æbbe, as a noblewoman and an abbess, was incredibly influential and important politically. Famously, she intervened in a dispute between her nephew, King Ecgfrith of Northumbria, and the Bishop Wilfrid.
Bishop Wilfrid was imprisoned in Dunbar by King Ecgfrith. Wilfrid clashed many times in his life with Northumbrian rulers for several reasons, including his vast estates, lavish projects and ostentatious way of travelling. Wilfrid had also supported King Ecgfrith’s first wife, Æthelthryth, in her desire to become a nun in Æbbe’s monastery.
However, Æbbe was skilled in politics and when on a visit by Ecgfrith, Æbbe convinced him to release Bishop Wilfrid. She also educated Æthelthryth, who later established a religious site on the spot that in now Ely Cathedral.
Æbbe is a fantastic example of the power and influence that could be wielded by women in the Early Medieval period, as well as the slightly tumultuous relationship between religious and secular power at this time.
in 2019, DigVentures announced that a crowdfunded excavation had uncovered the probable site of Æbbe’s monastery in Coldingham.
