ON ST. SEBBI, KING OF THE EAST SAXONS,
AT LONDON IN ENGLAND,
About the year 693 or 694.
A HISTORICAL-CRITICAL COLLECTION.
Of his cultus and deeds.
Sebbi, king, at London in England (St.)
BY J. S.
St. Sebbi — or, if we prefer to inflect the name in Latin, Sebbus — king of the East Saxons in Britain, the venerable Bede and other ancient writers greatly praised. His cultus from the calendars, His memory I have not indeed found in the ancient calendars, but various more recent martyrologists record him, and with them Baronius in the Roman Martyrology on the XXIX of August in these words: In England, St. Sebbi the king. The English Martyrology, printed in the year 1608, has a eulogy in English, of which this is the beginning: At London, the deposition of St. Sebbi, king of the East Saxons and confessor, who, when he had administered that kingdom for thirty years in great peace and tranquillity, became a monk in the monastery of SS. Peter and Paul at London. It adds that he died with notable sanctity and was buried at London in the church of St. Paul, and that his body is there kept in a marble monument with great veneration. It adds also that he shone with miracles, which is omitted in the edition of the year 1640. The Benedictines inserted the same Saint into their Menologies, among whom Wion in the Lignum vitæ on the aforesaid day has thus: In England, St. Sebbi, king, monk, and confessor.
[2] Alford in the Anglo-Saxon Annals, vol. 2, and from the elevation of his body: at the year 693, number 13, illustrates the Saint's tomb, and at the same time refutes a petulant heretic who had dared to mock the miracle related by Bede concerning the Saint's sarcophagus, which grew by a miracle while the Saint's body was being buried. Take his words: St. Sebbi's tomb is seen to this day at the north wall of Paul's church, enclosed with railings: but whether it be the same of which mention is made here (in Bede) may deservedly be doubted. For that which so grew by miracle was to be buried and laid in the earth, not to be carried forth and set in the sight of the peoples. That one, then, was humbler and of common stone; this nobler one, which is seen today and of rich marble, he elegantly says is a different one. Whence the gibe and jest of John Speed, asserting that the sarcophagus, produced by a miracle, has now by a new miracle been shrunk and does not exceed five feet in length, falls upon the head of him who coins it. For we know that the relics of the Saints were wont by our forefathers to be honored not immediately upon death, but after their sanctity had been long proved and attested. Then were Sebbi's bones raised and laid in a more elegant casket, and, the flesh being consumed, there was no need that the sarcophagus should be made of the original length. Hence it is sufficiently gathered that the body was formerly raised; but when, or on what occasion, this was done I do not find. Now let us proceed to the Saint's deeds.
[3] He was king of the East Saxons with Sighere, Bede in book 3 of the Ecclesiastical History, chapter 30, has thus to our purpose: At that same time the province of the East Saxons, after Swithelm (of whom we spoke above), was ruled by the kings Sighere and Sebbi, although they themselves were subject to Wulfhere, king of the Mercians. The kingdom of the East Saxons, whose metropolis was London, William of Malmesbury briefly describes in The Deeds of the Kings of the English, chapter 6, in these words: The kings of the East Saxons ruled in Essex and Middlesex and half of Hertfordshire, and there was and is there a bishop of London. This is that maritime part of Britain which lies over against our Belgium.
[4] whose brother he was not, but his uncle: The genealogy of Sebbi the same writer explains in the same chapter, as also that of Sighere, when he writes thus: He (king Swithelm) being dead, Sighere son of Sigebert the Little, and Sebbi son of Seward, held the kingdom. Both these fathers likewise had been kings, but both heathen. And Seward, who, reigning with two brothers, had restored idolatry among the East Saxons and was afterwards slain, was the father of Sigebert the Little, so that Sebbi was the uncle of Sighere, not his brother, as Harpsfield wrongly calls him in the English History, century VII, chapter 12. But when the kings Sebbi and Sighere had died, the kingdom came to the two sons of Sebbi, as the praised Malmesbury affirms, writing thus: Yet nevertheless Sebbi, when his colleague (Sighere) was dead, himself also in the 30th year voluntarily withdrew from the kingdom, becoming a monk (as Bede reports): his sons Sigehard and Senfred reigned after him.
[5] These things being observed, let us hear Bede again. Which province, Sighere falling away to idols, Sebbi perseveres in piety: when it was pressed by the calamity of the aforesaid mortality, Sighere with his part of the people, forsaking the sacraments of the Christian faith, turned to apostasy. For both the king himself and very many of the common people or of the nobles, loving this life and not seeking the life to come — or even not believing that it exists — began to restore the shrines which had been abandoned and to adore images, as though by these they might be defended from the mortality. But his colleague and co-heir of that same kingdom, Sebbi, with all his people, kept the faith he had received with great devotion, and (as we shall say in what follows) completed a faithful life with great happiness. Bede subjoins how Sighere with his subjects was brought back to piety through bishop Jaruman, whom Wulfhere or Wolferus, the aforesaid king of the Mercians, had destined thither.
[6] Alford at the year 664, number 37, affirms that Sebbi also had his part in the said conversion of Sighere, it is uncertain, however, whether he labored for Sighere's conversion. writing thus: Nor did Sebbi's piety stand still in one part of the kingdom: who, going further, endeavored to bring back Sighere, the partner of his kingdom, to Christ, being more zealous to extend the faith than his crown. For that most pious prince grieved that the limbs of almost the same body and commonwealth should be so dislocated and torn asunder from one another by so shameful a divorce; and that meanwhile there should be lacking a learned hand which could and would heal the evil. He therefore warns Wolferus, king of the Mercians (for the East Saxons for the most part obeyed him), that the province was imperiled by a most perilous disease and was near to ruin, unless some were sent as soon as possible who might be able to uphold it as it tottered. These things Bede does not affirm, and therefore they are indeed likely on account of Sebbi's piety, but not to be asserted as certain, since they are destitute of the authority of the ancients. No more do I find among the ancients what Alford subjoins concerning a bishop sought for the people of London through Sebbi: for Malmesbury, whom he cites, in book 2 of The Deeds of the Bishops of the English, only reports that Wine was brought in as bishop by Wulfhere, king of the Mercians, without any mention of Sebbi.
[7] That deed therefore being omitted, I return to Bede. For he in book 4, Bede narrates the Saint's virtues, chapter 11, commends our Saint more fully with this eulogy: At that time there presided over the kingdom of the East Saxons (as that same little book also teaches) a man much devoted to God, named Sebbi, of whom we made mention above. For he was greatly intent upon religious acts, frequent prayers, and the pious fruits of almsgiving; preferring a private and monastic life to all the riches and honors of his kingdom, which long since he would have taken up, leaving his kingdom, had not his wife's obstinate mind refused a separation. Whence it also seemed to many (as has been often said) that it were fitter that a man of such a mind should be ordained bishop rather than king.
[8] And when he had spent thirty years in the kingdom, a soldier of the heavenly kingdom, his monastic life begun in his last sickness, he was seized with a very great infirmity of body, of which also he died; and he admonished his wife that at least then they should together devote themselves to the divine service, since they could no longer together embrace the world, or rather serve the world. Which when he had with difficulty obtained from her, he came to the prelate of the city of London, by name Waldhere, who had succeeded Erconwald; and through his blessing he received the habit of religion which he had long desired. And he brought to him also no small sum of money to be distributed to the poor, reserving nothing at all for himself, but desiring rather to remain poor in spirit for the kingdom of heaven. And when, the aforesaid sickness growing heavy, he perceived that the day of his death was at hand, that man of royal mind began to fear lest, coming to death and afflicted with so great pain, he might utter something unworthy of his person with his mouth or do it by the motion of his other limbs. Whence, calling to him the bishop of the aforesaid city of London, in which he was then staying, he asked that no more should be present at his death than the bishop himself and his two attendants.
[9] the vision shown him, and his pious death, And when the bishop most willingly promised that he would do this, not long after that same man of God, when he had given his limbs to sleep, saw a consoling vision which took from him all the anxiety of the said solicitude, and moreover showed him on what day he should end this life. For he saw (as he himself afterwards related) three men come to him, clad in bright raiment, one of whom, sitting before his little bed, while those companions who had come with him stood by and asked concerning the state of him whom they had come to visit in his sickness, said that his soul would go forth from the body both without any pain and with a great splendor of light; and he also intimated the third day thereafter as that on which he should die. And both these things, as he learned from the vision, were so fulfilled. For on the third day thereafter, at the completion of the ninth hour, suddenly, as though lightly falling asleep, he sent forth his spirit without any sense of pain.
[10] and his burial made noble by a miracle: For the burial of his body they had prepared a stone sarcophagus; but when they had begun to lay the body in it, they found that it was longer than the sarcophagus by the measure of a palm. Hewing therefore the stone as much as they were able, they added to the length of the sarcophagus about the measure of two fingers; but not even so did it contain the body. Whence, the burial becoming difficult, they thought either to seek another coffin, or if they could, by bending it at the knees, to shorten the body itself, until it should be contained by that coffin. But a wondrous thing, and wrought only from heaven, forbade that any of these should be done: for suddenly, the bishop standing by and the son of that same king, Sighard, who reigned after him with his brother Suefred, and a not small crowd of men, that sarcophagus was found of a fitting length for the measure of the body, so that at the head a pillow also could be laid in; but at the feet the sarcophagus exceeded the body by the measure of four fingers. And he was laid in the church of the blessed Doctor of the Gentiles, by whose admonitions being taught he had learned to hope for heavenly things.
[11] the year of his death is not altogether certain. Alford at the year 693 reports the different opinions concerning the time of this death in this manner: The year of the holy King's death is rather obscure, and cannot be constantly defined. Capgrave, recounting the kings who were monks, has this concerning St. Sebbi (in Cuthbert, folio 78): "About the year of the Lord six hundred and seventy, moreover, Sebba, king of the East Saxons, after the thirtieth year of his reign, leading a monastic life, learned the day of his death by an angelic revelation." Baronius, as he subjoins, narrates Sebbi's death at the year 672, and seems to hint that he died of the plague, which Alford deservedly disapproves, going on thus: Harpsfield places Sebbi's death in the year of the Lord 683. But far more rightly others, from the Savilian Annals, from the deeds of the bishops of London, and from the thirty years' reign, assign his death to the year of Christ 693. This latter opinion, which Alford embraces, is confirmed from the death of St. Erconwald, bishop of London, whom Waldhere is above at number 8 said to have succeeded. For Henschen on the XXX of April, in the preliminary Commentary to the Acts of St. Erconwald, number 4, proves that that Saint died about the year 693, and among other arguments alleges that Waldhere was consecrated bishop in that same year 693. And so, since Bede says of our Saint, He came, being now sick, to the bishop of the city of London by name Waldhere, who had succeeded Erconwald, he hints by the manner of speaking that Waldhere had not long been bishop when these things were done, and therefore that Sebbi likely died in that same year 693, or certainly not many years later. In the Annals which are appended to the Writers of English Affairs, the beginning of his reign is set in the year 664, its end in the year 694, which from what has been said is likely enough.