ON ST. EBBA THE VIRGIN, ABBESS IN THE MONASTERY OF COLDINGHAM IN SCOTLAND,
In the year DCLXXXIII.
PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY.
This Saint's ancient worship, her Acts, a supplement to them, and the time of her death.
Ebba, V. and abbess in the monastery of Coldingham in Scotland (St.)
BY THE AUTHOR G. C.
Today we must treat of two holy abbesses and virgins of the same name and of the same monastery, On different days among the Martyrologists, of whom one joined the lily of virginity with the laurel of martyrdom. Our Elders on the second day of April, among those passed over or deferred to another day, have the following concerning both those abbesses: Holy Ebba, daughter of Ethelfrid king of the Northumbrians, and sister of holy Oswald the king, abbess of Coldingham, is inscribed in Wilson's Anglican Martyrology of the first edition and in Ferrari's general catalogue. But Camerarius substitutes in her place holy Ebba, abbess and martyr of the same monastery of Coldingham, slain by the Danes together with her nuns; who in the said Martyrology and in Ferrari is set down on the XXV of August. In the second edition of the Anglican Martyrology holy Ebba, abbess and martyr, is placed on the second of April; and the other Ebba on the XXV of August. We found at Rome in the library of the Duke Altemps a manuscript Martyrology of Usuard, once augmented in England, in which at the XXIII day of August there is holy Ebba, abbess in Scotland, of whom at the said day Greven too makes mention in his auctarium to Usuard. Wherefore, because we judge that some Ebba was placed at this second of April only because another Saint was lacking, it will be possible to treat of both on the XXIII or the XXV of August. We have chosen this day for illustrating their Acts, and first indeed we shall treat of St. Ebba, a virgin only, who flourished in the seventh century; but afterwards of the other, who in the ninth century obtained besides the palm of martyrdom.
[2] and from time immemorial, The Saint first in order of time the more recent Martyrologists record, whom I judge it superfluous to transcribe here, and to whom I add in addition the Altemps codex of Usuard, Greven, Whitford, our manuscript Florarium, and other old English writers. From these ancient Martyrologists and historians I gather the immemorial worship of St. Ebba the virgin, which was once so celebrated in England or Scotland that Camden himself, a heterodox man, in his Britannia, which he published at London in the year 1607, in the topography of the bishopric of Durham, page 606, thus wrote: At the Derwent, which has its springs near the apex of the Triangle, nothing notable lies near, except the little village which they now call Ebchester, from Ebba the virgin, born of the royal blood of the Northumbrians, who shone with so great a repute of sanctity about the year of salvation DCXXX that, being enrolled among the Holy Women by a solemn apotheosis, she has several churches dedicated to her in this island, which the common people call S. Tabbs, for St. Ebba's. Then that author, describing the March, a province of Scotland, at page 686 and the following of the same edition, thus again records this holy Virgin: In the neighborhood is Fastcastle, a castle of the Humes, so named from its strength, near the promontory of that St. Ebba who, daughter of Ethelfrid king of Northumbria, her father being captured, seizing a skiff on the Humber, was borne hither safe through the raging Ocean, became renowned for sanctity of life, and left her name to the place.
[3] But let us rather consult the ancient and Catholic witnesses of this public veneration, English historians testifying, who from time immemorial adorned that Virgin with the title of saint. Of these Ralph de Diceto, Dean of London, who among the ten of England
writers was first published in print at London in the year of Christ 1652, in the Abbreviations of the Chronicles at the year of Christ 674, with us column 440, thus writes: Ætheldreda, queen of the Northumbrians, long asking her husband king Ecgfrid that, the cares of the world being left, she might be permitted to serve Christ the king in a monastery, when at length she scarcely obtained it, entered the monastery of holy Ebba, the sister of holy Oswald, and received the veil of a nun from the bishop Wilfrid. Florence, monk of Worcester, in his Chronicle at the year of Christ 672, narrating like things, calls our same Virgin by the name of saint. These testimonies, joined with the announcements of the old Martyrologies, suffice for confidently asserting the immemorial worship of St. Ebba, which nevertheless will in the course of things be confirmed from the Acts themselves, concerning which we shall now forewarn some matters.
[4] John Capgrave, of the Augustinian Order, in the Catalogue of the Saints of England, gathered the deeds of this St. Ebba from various ancient monuments which are found in venerable Bede and in the biographers of St. Cuthbert and of St. Etheldreda the queen. this noble Virgin is honored, Yet that collector at the beginning of the Acts raises a genealogical question, which we do not wish to examine with more labor, since it suffices for us that venerable Bede in the Life of St. Cuthbert, with us in tome 3 of March, page 102, wrote the following: When therefore the holy man was growing up in that same monastery in virtues and signs, and the fame of his works was becoming frequent round about, there was a woman consecrated and mother of the handmaids of Christ, by name Ebba, governing the monastery which is situated in the place which they call the city of Coludi, honorable to all alike for religion and for nobility; for she was the uterine sister of king Oswin (certain manuscripts wrongly read Oswiu, as our Elders observed in the Annotations in the same place). More clearly, therefore, Thomas, monk of Ely, in the Life of St. Etheldreda, with us in tome 4 of June, page 505, hands down these things concerning St. Ebba's kinship: The powerful queen entered the monastery of holy Ebba the abbess (who was the paternal aunt of king Ecgfrid, and the sister of the kings holy Oswald the martyr and Oswin), set in the place which they name the city of Coludi. Finally, venerable Bede in the Ecclesiastical History of the English People, book 4, chapter 19, also calls this same Saint of ours the paternal aunt of king Ecgfrid.
[5] Besides, Capgrave in the Acts to be published after this Commentary, number 3, doubts whether our Saint was the first to begin to establish the norm of the monastic life in this place, or found it established before by others. whose Acts Capgrave gathered, The same doubt is proposed in tome 2 of the Monasticon Anglicanum, column [ ], where the monastery of Coludi or Coldingham is reviewed in the first place among the monasteries of Scotland. We have not at hand certain documents by which we might resolve this doubt. But at least Hector Boece indicates that this monastery is older, when in the History of the Scots, book 9, with us folio 172, he relates these things: Ebba, the only daughter of Ethelfrid, being captured, escaping her ravisher by divine help, a skiff being seized, was borne down the Humber into the sea without human help, and at length, being set on land at the mouths of the Forth at the promontory which from her has borne to us the name of Ebba, the sacred veil being received from the bishop of the place, was numbered among the nuns living there. Being made at length mother and superior of the sacred virgins, offering herself as a model of virtues to be imitated by all, she happily persevered with approved manners and a holy institute of living to the end of her life.
[6] who nevertheless omitted The aforesaid collector of the Acts makes no word about a certain memorable deed of St. Ebba's which is read among the fifteen English writers whom Thomas Gale published at Oxford in the year of Christ 1691, where Eddius Stephanus, a coeval, in the Life of St. Wilfrid I, bishop of York, chapter 38, has the following: Meanwhile the king with his queen, rejoicing and feasting daily through cities and castles and villages, going about in worldly pomp, at a certain time came to the monastery which is called Colodesburg, over which there presided a most holy mother of a household, by name Æbbe, the most wise sister of king Oswin. For there the queen that night was seized by a demon, like Pilate's wife, and, exhausted by many scourgings, scarcely waited alive for the day. But when the next day dawned, presently the most wise mother of the household, coming to the queen, and seeing her limbs contracted and bound tightly together into one, and without doubt dying, went to the king, and recounted to the king with tearful voice whence, according to her understanding, this pitiable evil had come upon her, saying boldly: I know, and truly know, that thou hast cast Wilfrid the bishop, beloved of God, from the seat of his episcopate without the guilt of any crime, and, being driven into exile, he went to the Apostolic See; and when he returned thence with the writings of the Apostolic See, which has with holy Peter the apostle the power of binding and loosing, thou, unwisely despising them, didst despoil him, while, adding evils to evils, thou didst shut up the Saint in prison.
[7] her illustrious deed, And now, my son, do according to thy mother's counsel; break his bonds, and the holy relics which the queen drew from the neck of the despoiled man, and, leading them through the cities to her own ruin like the ark of God, send them to him by a faithful messenger; and if thou wilt not (which were best) have him in his episcopate, let him go free from thy kingdom with his own, and depart whithersoever he will. Then, according to my faith, the queen shall live in life and shall not die; but if thou refuse this, God being witness, you shall not be unpunished. Then the king was made obedient to his most chaste mother, and granted our most holy priest, being released, freely to depart from him with the holy relics and with his companions gathered together; and the queen was healed.
[8] which we have dug out from elsewhere; Eadmer, monk of Canterbury, in the Life of St. Wilfrid, which Our Elders on the XXIV day of April published alone in our Work, since they then still lacked the lucubration of Eddius Stephanus, the coeval writer, in tome III of April, page 304, sets forth the same matter in other words; but in the same place he seems wrongly to attribute that counsel to the king's carnal mother, when there, after other things, he thus writes: The king was present, exceedingly troubled, and, kindled with a mighty fire of fury, was sending forth wind from his nostrils like smoke; whom also his mother addressed with such a voice: Now at length, son, now at length be mindful of thyself. Divine vengeance afflicts, as thou seest, thy wife whom thou lovest too much. And I confess, believe me, that she well deserved to be worn out by such a punishment, in that, kindled with diabolical indignation, she did not fear to pursue Wilfrid the servant of the Lord with wondrous afflictions. Eadmer, a more recent biographer, on account of the name of the mother and of the son, which both are also expressed in the ancient Acts of St. Wilfrid, doubtless thought by error that this admonition was given by the king's very carnal mother, whereas nevertheless St. Ebba the abbess and the paternal aunt of king Ecgfrid gave it, who can be called his spiritual mother, and who at the beginning of the Life to be published below is called mother of the kingdom.
[9] And so, on account of the authority of Eddius Stephanus, a contemporary witness, we confidently ascribe to our holy Virgin this excellent deed, and confirm. which is omitted in her Acts, and which William of Malmesbury in the Work On the Deeds of the English Bishops, book 3, with us page 264 of the Frankfurt edition, confirms among the deeds of St. Wilfrid in these words: What meanwhile of queen Ermenburga, the tinder and kindler of all the evil? She was continuing days and nights in banquets, and was leading about in triumphal pomp the bishop's chrism-box, rejoicing in the rich spoils. But when on a certain night she had been lodged with the abbess Ebbe, her husband's paternal aunt, the devil being poured into her whole marrow, she began to think strange things and to say mad things. The Abbess, roused by her cries, ran up, gently asking what sickness she had. She answered nothing (for already the straits of her condition had closed her voice): then the Handmaid of God, understanding the cause, was the mover with her nephew that he should give back the most blessed man's chrism-box; that he himself should be reinvested with all his own according to the Apostolic precepts; which he should do, if he wished his consort safe. But if the royal spiritedness should think it right to persevere in evil, let him give back what he had taken, and let him allow the man himself to go free. It was done, and the queen then indeed recovered beautifully, and after her husband's death, her habit being changed, religiously repented of the deed.* Now it remains to say something briefly concerning the time in which our Saint departed from the living.
[10] Capgrave in the Acts to be published below, number 12, openly assigns the year of her death in these words: This Saint died in the year of Christ 683, Holy Ebba the virgin at length, full of virtues and good works, passed over to the Lord four years before the aforesaid holy father Cuthbert, on the eighth of the Kalends of September, in the year of the Lord six hundred and eighty-three. This chronological arrangement agrees excellently with the death of St. Cuthbert, which Our Elders at the XX day of March, following other authors, fixed at the year of Christ 687. Hence Mabillon too, among the Acts of the Saints of the Benedictine Order, in the notes on the Life of St. Etheldreda, which he published in the second century of his Order, bound the death of today's holy Virgin to the year 683. But since the burning of the monastery of Coludi or Coldingham took place after St. Ebba's death, as venerable Bede in the Ecclesiastical History of the English People, book 4, chapter 25, testifies, Ussher erred in the chronological index to the Antiquities of the British Churches, where he places that burning in the year of Christ 681. We too above, at the beginning of this Preliminary Commentary, assigned in the margin to the death of our holy Virgin the year of the Lord 683, upon which most chronologists agree, even though the collector of the Anglican Martyrology in both editions deferred her to the following year.
[11] although various days are assigned to her death, There is not so great a concord of authors about the day of her death, if the Martyrologists wished by their yearly announcement to indicate St. Ebba's death-day: for in the first edition of the Anglican Martyrology she is set down at the second day of April, but in the other at the twenty-fifth day of August. Besides, Menard and Bucelin celebrate the yearly memory of St. Ebba on the XXIX day of August. Certain writers record the same Saint on other days of August, as may be seen among those passed over or further deferred in the preceding tome of this month. Further, we do not know whether the Martyrologists on these different days wished to indicate the Saint's death-day, or rather the yearly memory of some translation or elevation of the sacred relics, of which there will be treatment in the Acts below.
[12] out of which we have chosen this present one. But whichever be the true day of her death, we have wished to satisfy Our Elders' promise, and today we illustrate a twofold holy Abbess of the same name and monastery, after the example of Arthur du Monstier, who in his Gynaeceum thus announces both those holy Virgins on the XXV day of August: At the monastery of Coldingham of the Benedictine Order in Northumbria, a province of England, of the holy virgins and martyrs Ebba the abbess and the rest of the nuns of the same place, who, contending with wondrous constancy and mighty fervor of Spirit for the keeping of chastity and the guarding of religion, flew as victors to the heavens… At Coldingham, the birthday of holy Ebba, virgin and abbess
of the same Order, sister of holy Oswald king of England and martyr, who shone with so great a glory of sanctity that lovers of piety, being moved by this, ran together to her from every side as to a living mirror of all religion, whom she conveyed safe into the harbor of salvation. Now it only remains that we subjoin to this Preliminary Commentary the Life of St. Ebba the elder, illustrated with the customary annotations, being about to examine afterwards on this day the deeds of the other Saint of the same name and the younger.
Annotations* that is, a reliquary
LIFE
John Capgrave the collector
From the New Legend of the Saints of England, which was printed at London in the year 1516, folio XCIX and following.
Ebba, V. and abbess in the monastery of Coldingham in Scotland (St.)
BHL Number: 2358
from Capgrave.
This noble Virgin, Holy Ebba the virgin, sprung of royal offspring, was the sister of king Oswiu a of the Northumbrians, and the paternal aunt of king Ecgfrid. In whose times she shone forth as it were the mother of the kingdom, and the ornament of so great a nobility. For the histories hand down that Ethelfrid, son of Ethelric, son of Yda king of the Bernicians, begot from Acca, daughter of Ella king of the Deirans, seven sons and one daughter, namely holy Ebba the abbess. But others, and more truly, as is had above in the life of holy Oswald, assert that Eanfrid and Oswald were begotten of Acca the queen, but that Oswiu and the rest were procreated of concubines b.
[2] In those days the highest free-born quality of nobles was reckoned to be that in which the service of Christ was approved, nor did they believe that they had attained any glory of loftiness who had not been established to have put on the humility of the Lord's Cross. Both households of the Lord then — namely the assembly of a sacred multitude of men, and an innumerable choir of virgins — were warring scattered through England, and, living in one place under the governance of one father or mother, divided among divers monasteries, girded with the sword of the spirit against the powers of darkness, they carried on the battles of chastity. fleeing the marriage of the king of the Scots, Following the footsteps of these with untiring steps, the blessed virgin Ebba despised the kingdom of the world and all the adornment of the age together with the flower of her youth, for the love of the Son of God, whom she loved with a clean heart, and she received the veil of holy converse from holy Finan c, bishop of Lindisfarne. She preferred the Lord's service to nobility, spiritual poverty to riches, voluntary abjection to honors. Sprung indeed of illustrious birth, she conquered the world by faith, and beauty by her manners, and her sex by her virtues.
[3] But she was sought in marriage by a certain tyrant of the Scots, king Aedan d. She embraces the monastic life, Who at length, plotting her seizure on account of her contempt of him, and pursuing her at once with love and with violence, she is handed down to have fled to Mount Coludi e, that is, Coldingham, and at her prayers the sea, rising up on high from the south, running across the channel of the valley below, withstood the enemy for three days with continuous waves, and, the Lord cooperating, afforded the virgin the protection of a fortification. For that mount has two springs, for the solace of her solitude and eremitical converse. For one at its roots is wet with perpetual water; the other at its summit sometimes dries up in the summer heats. By the salutary drinking of these, through the merits of St. Ebba, many weak and infirm persons have obtained their former soundness: for from these the blessed virgin Ebba and the citizens of her congregation were wont to drink. Whether in the waste of this desert she, being anticipated by the Holy Spirit, was the first to establish the cult of religion, or found it established by the zeal of predecessors, is uncertain f. But nothing is more true than that she there lived soberly, justly, and piously, and bore her blessed spirit to heaven, the clod of her holy body being left to the earth.
[4] But she built another monastery of women, from the gift of her brother Oswiu, beside the bank of the river Derwent g, and founds another monastery, and gave it from her own name the word Ebbecestre, that is, Ebba's castle. Of what quality and how great this was once in itself, while it stood, it now plainly teaches from its own ruins. For, the state of the times being changed, as it is wont to be, its inhabitants being slain by the abominable princes Ynguar and Hubba, it was overthrown, and changed into a very great waste of woods and pastures of animals, as is seen today.
[5] For in the monastery of Coludi she presided over a congregation of men and of virgins, and she shines with various virtues. and both had dwellings adjoining there, who, brought together by a divine covenant, with the utmost gladness of soul and spirit rejoiced to live under her, who showed herself by an admirable grace of discretion both a mother to the girls by the urgency of exhortation and a father to the men by the constancy of her mind. For of this holy Ebba that noble virgin Etheldreda was once a disciple, now the glory of the men of Ely h; she subjected herself to the rudiments of so great a mistress. The blessed father Cuthbert too i, although from infancy he avoided the company of women as a kind of plague, was wont to come to converse with her, and to stay some days for the instruction of the inhabitants.
[6] But at length, at the instigation of the kindler of all evil, the dwellings which had been made for prayers, readings, and other exercises of the spiritual life When the inhabitants of the monastery of Coludi were changed into chambers of revelries, gossipings, and other allurements. The beauty of the virgins enticed the men, and the restless desire of the men drew the virgins, and, like stars falling from heaven, they were wrapped in the filth of pleasures. But this injury of offenses against God was, as it were, wholly hidden from holy Ebba. But in the year from the incarnation of the Lord six hundred and eighty k the monastery of virgins which they name the city of Coludi, that is, Coldingham, was consumed by flames through the fault of carelessness. Which nevertheless all who knew could most easily perceive to have happened from the malice of those dwelling in it, and especially of those who seemed to be the greater.
[7] gravely offended God by their sins; Yet an admonition of the divine goodness was not lacking to those who were to be punished, whereby, being corrected by fastings and weepings and prayers, they might have turned away from themselves the wrath of the just judge after the fashion of the Ninevites. For there was in that same monastery a man of excellent sanctity, by name Adamnan l, a Scot by race, who in his youth had committed some crime, which he knew was to be punished by God more grievously with eternal torments if the reconciliation of a priest and the remedy of penance should not come to his aid. He therefore consulted a certain presbyter of great religion, and, disclosing his crime with groaning, said: I am, he said, rather young, vigorous in body: whatever thou shalt impose upon me I will gladly bear, provided that I be made safe on the day of the Lord; if thou shouldst bid me continue in prayers standing the whole night, if to pass an entire week in abstaining. To whom he said: It is much; but it is enough to keep a two days' or three days' fast. Do this, until I return, and then I will more fully show what thou oughtest thereafter to do.
[8] St. Adamnan knew by divine revelation, The priest therefore went off into Ireland, whence he drew his origin, and in that same year departed from human affairs. Which being learned, Adamnan, so long as he lived, took food only on the Lord's day and on the fifth weekday, adding besides this of his own will, that he passed whole nights in supplications to the Lord with much devotion, often keeping watch. And what he had once begun for the cause of divine fear on account of his guilt, he now, being delighted for the cause of divine love, always did thereafter, and what had come about from the necessity of amending his depravity he was converting into the use of a voluntary custom. He at length, considering the buildings of the monastery loftily erected, dissolved in tears, showed the sadness of his heart with his countenance as index. Which a companion beholding, asked why he wept; and he said: All these buildings which thou seest, it is at hand that a consuming fire turn them to ashes.
[9] that that monastery was to be consumed by flames, When that brother had related this to holy Ebba, Adamnan being called, she inquired whence he knew these things. Who said: Lately, being occupied with nightly vigils and psalms, there stood by me one of unknown countenance, charging me not to fear, and, addressing me as with a familiar voice, said: Thou doest well, he said, who at the time of nocturnal rest hast chosen not to indulge in sleep but to press on with vigils and prayers; and I said, I know that it is much needful for me to press on with salutary vigils and diligently to entreat the Lord for my errors. Thou sayest truly, said he, for it is needful for thee and for many to redeem their sins by good works, and, when there is a ceasing from the labors of temporal things, then to labor more freely for the appetite of things eternal: yet very few take care to do this. Indeed, just now, going through this whole monastery in order, I have inspected the huts and beds of each, and I have found no one out of all, save thee, occupied about the soundness of his own soul. But all utterly, men and women, either lie torpid in idle sleep, or keep watch for sins: for the little houses too which had been made for praying or reading are now converted into chambers of revelries, drinkings, gossipings, and the rest of allurements.
[10] Whence for the inhabitants of this place, and for the place, a grievous vengeance from heaven has been prepared with raging flames. as indeed came to pass To whom the abbess said: And why didst thou not wish to reveal this to me sooner? And he said: I feared, out of reverence for thee, lest perchance thou be too much troubled; and yet thou hast this consolation, that in thy days this stroke has not been permitted by God to come upon us. This vision being divulged, the inhabitants of the place began for a few days to fear somewhat, and to chastise themselves, their crimes being intermitted. For behold, on account of one man's merit the destruction of the whole is put off. Great indeed was that holy Mother's merit before God, for whose consolation the Lord deigned to teach through his servant concerning the desolation of her place. The holy Virgin being at length translated to the heavens, the disasters of the aforesaid vengeance enveloped those who had returned to their former filth m.
[11] These things therefore I have resolved to insert in this place, that I might admonish the reader of the works of the Lord, after the holy abbess's death, because he is terrible in his counsels above the sons of men, lest perchance at some time, while we serve the allurements of the flesh and less dread God's judgment, his sudden wrath seize us, and either, justly raging, afflict us with temporal losses, or, examining more strictly, carry us off to perpetual perdition. Thereafter that place was turned into the solitude of a desert, and those who had remained loosed in heart were dispersed through divers places, fear compelling them. And what befell them for ruin profited many for chastisement and remedy. It is clear therefore how much even the cohabitation of good women is to be avoided. Weigh how many battles the malignant spirit has brought upon the servants of God by familiarity with them, how many cities he has set on fire, how many monasteries he has overthrown, how many hearts, in fine, lofty and raised to heaven by contemplation, he has bent by their mere sight to the depth of iniquity.
[12] And so blessed Cuthbert, then living on the isle of Farne, who died in the year of Christ 683, the confusion made in the house of the Lord through women being understood, is believed, even if it is not read n, to have founded a celebrated decree to be observed by his servants by a perpetual law, by which he forbade to them not only the company of women in the presence of his own body, but also cut off their entrance, and approach, and sight. Holy Ebba the virgin at length, full of virtues and good works, before the aforesaid father holy Cuthbert
passed over to the Lord four years, on the eighth of the Kalends of September, in the year of the Lord six hundred and eighty-three o, and in her monastery her body is committed to the earth with great honor.
[13] For in the city of Coludi, after the courses of many times, her sepulchre was found by shepherds. and whose relics long afterwards were honorably placed in a church, Which, when, touching it, they tried to open it, they were struck with sudden blindness and were driven about for a long while with mad motions. The inhabitants of the place therefore bore it into the church of holy Mary, and reverently laid it down at the southern part of the altar. Now that sepulchre was of wood, and when it had been broken at the foot-end by a certain brother, and, his hand being put in, he touched the linen and the bones, being suddenly seized with pain of the limbs, within a few days he is brought to his last moments. Which the brethren having learned, they closed it about with stone on every side, lest in future someone, presuming like things, should happen to incur the holy Virgin's indignation and wrath. But the blessed Virgin appeared to a certain brother, charging that without fear they should lift her bones from the tomb, and translate them with all honor into a newly constructed place. And so, the sepulchre being broken, gathering the bones, for the greatest part reduced to ashes, they honorably placed them in the place which the holy Virgin had charged.
[14] where to the sick and afflicted, A certain young girl, subject to phantasms, by the vexation of demons lost the sight of one eye, the hearing of one ear, and utterly for fifteen days the office of her tongue. She, sleeping in the holy Virgin's oratory from weariness, saw a snowy dove come down upon the altar and stand. But waking, she felt herself perfectly healed. When a certain woman struck with blindness had been brought to the Virgin's oratory, there appeared to her in sleep a certain virgin clothed in white garments, saying: Grievous troubles from blindness hast thou endured until now; but, going down to my spring, delay not to be washed, that thou mayest be healed. Which being done, she departed healed with joy. When the bone of a certain goose was fixed in a young man's throat, and his neck turned to a swelling, when, being washed from the Virgin's spring, he had poured forth prayers in the oratory, being suddenly made whole, he was utterly ignorant whither that bone had gone.
[15] imploring her patronage, To a certain contracted man the holy Virgin, appearing in sleep, handled his weak limbs with her hands so strongly as if she were tearing away some limb. Whence, crying out for exceeding pain and waking, he found himself healed. A certain woman, dumb and vexed with a swelling of the neck, the holy Virgin, appearing, put her fingers into her mouth, and, touching her tongue, healed her. To another, deaf and dumb, she restored hearing and speech. She freed a woman vexed by a demon, and made another, struck with blindness, see the light of heaven. Certain women came to the spring of Coludi, as they were from a different place, so were they also in merit: for while some found no water in the spring, the rest deserved to fill their vessels. And when the others, not believing, asked with indignation that the water be shown them, their vessels being tilted, they were found empty. And when they had come home, they saw all their vessels filled with water. To a certain dumb man she gave speech, and to a blind woman the light of her eyes: appearing in the likeness of a dove, and going over her belly with frequent beating of wings, she healed a woman with dropsy: another woman with dropsy she restored to health, she raised a lame man, and gave light to three blind persons.
[16] various benefits are conferred. A girl, dumb and contracted, being brought to blessed Margaret [p] the queen, received her gait. To whom the blessed queen, appearing, charged that, going to holy Ebba, she should receive speech. Whither, when she had come, blessed Ebba, appearing to her, stroking her eyes and face with gentle hand, and drawing it across her lips, said: Arise, for thou hast received speech. And, being healed, arising, she blessed God. A certain young man, for many years dumb and marvelously swollen, received at the tomb of holy Margaret the queen a remedy for the swelling of his belly, and, as he came to holy Ebba's oratory, the blessed virgin, exceedingly beautiful, appearing to him, placed her finger in his mouth and departed. He, waking, when he had seen himself healed, holy Ebba appeared to him again, charging that he should hasten as a pilgrim to blessed Thomas the martyr [q]. Now Mount Coludi, or the monastery of Coludi, anciently famous, is a certain place in Scotland six miles distant from Berwick toward the north, situated above the sea, called in our times by the inhabitants Coldingham, and inhabited by the monks of the church of Durham [r].
ANNOTATIONS.
p. Doubtless this is holy Margaret, queen of the Scots, whose Acts Papebroch illustrated at the X day of June, in tome 2 of that month, page 320 and following.
q. Most probably there is here indicated St. Thomas, bishop of Canterbury, whose excellent martyrdom will have to be examined on the XXIX day of December by our successors. Further, from the age of St. Margaret and St. Thomas of Canterbury we gather that these miracles happened in a more recent century.
r. Concerning the foundation of the monastery of Durham and its donations, consult the Monasticon Anglicanum, tome 1, page 38 and following.