ON ST. ETHELBURGA OF BARKING, VIRGIN AND ABBESS, IN ENGLAND,
AS THE 7TH CENTURY WAS GROWING OLD.
PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY.
The memory of the Saint in the Martyrologies: her cult: she becomes abbess in the monastery built by St. Erconwald: the time of her death.
Ethelburga, virgin, abbess of Barking in England. (S.)
BY J. B. F.
That Berchingum — called Berecing by Bede, by others Birchingum, but commonly Barking — Concerning the Saint, who is inscribed in the Martyrologies mentioned here. in the province of the East Saxons, or Essex, near the river Thames, eight miles below London, as Malmesbury witnesses, was formerly an illustrious monastery, built by St. Erconwald, bishop of London, before he ascended the said chair, as a favour to St. Ethelburga, his sister, our Predecessors have already written in our Work at the 26th day of January, in the Commentary on the Acts of St. Tortgith. The first superior of this convent with the dignity of Abbess, St. Ethelburga, whom some call Edilburga, others Athelburga, is commemorated on this day by few martyrologists, and those more recent, and first of all by Molanus in these words: In England, of St. Ethelburga, virgin and abbess. In these words Greven also announces her. Bellinus celebrates the Saint in these words: Of St. Athelburga, virgin and abbess. Ménard, in the Martyrology of the Saints of the Order of St. Benedict, relates more of her thus: In England, of St. Edilburga, sister of St. Erconwald, bishop of London, who shone with many virtues and signs. Wilson, in the English Martyrology, adorns the Saint with the following elogium, rendered here by me in Latin: On the 11th of October, in the town of Barking in the province of Essex, the Deposition of St. Edilburga, abbess, sister of St. Erconwald, bishop of London, who had placed her over the monastery built by him in the said town of Barking, near the river Thames, where she, in all sanctity and love of monastic discipline, rendered her soul to the heavenly Bridegroom in the year of Christ six hundred and seventy-six.
[2] But since the Martyrologies just mentioned, in which Ethelburga stands inscribed, are, as we have said, very recent, and therefore not sufficient for proving her ecclesiastical cult, and enjoys ecclesiastical cult, it is necessary that, before we speak of certain things pertaining to our Saint, we prove to the reader from elsewhere
that Ethelburga has enjoyed ecclesiastical cult already from a very long time, and that a place is accordingly to be given her in our Work. First of all, the English Missal of the convent of Jumièges, written seven hundred years ago, presents the name of St. Ethelburga; then her Office, comprising twelve proper Lessons, which the nuns of the said abbey were accustomed to recite every year on the 11th day of October in honour of St. Ethelburga, makes us certain that our Saint was honoured with ecclesiastical cult in the church of Barking up to the times, hostile to religion, of Henry VIII, king of the English. That Office — which, excerpted, as it states, from a very old manuscript codex of the Cottonian Library in London, under the bust of Otho, Mr. Dugdale transmitted to our Predecessors in the year 1678 — since it contains nothing besides what we shall subjoin to this Commentary, I did not think it worth the trouble to transcribe here. Since these things sufficiently prove that our Saint obtained from a very long time in the said church the honours customarily paid to the Saints, we have judged that a place is to be given her in our Work.
[3] various writers have written, who all, that she Various writers have handed down to posterity the chief deeds of St. Ethelburga, among whom, of those hitherto known, the first place is held by the venerable Bede, who, in book 4, chapter 6 of the Ecclesiastical History of the English People, about to speak of her illustrious deeds, prefixes this brief elogium of the saint: Edilburga, having undertaken the government of the monastery, showed herself in all things worthy of her brother the bishop, both by living rightly herself and by taking counsel regularly and piously for those subject to her, as heavenly miracles also were evidence. Then in the following chapter he indicates in these words the monuments from which he drew what he narrates: For in this monastery many signs of virtues were wrought in the time of Edilburga, which are held written down by many, by those who knew them, for the memory and edification of those who follow. Of which we too have taken care to insert some in our ecclesiastical history. John Capgrave, in the New Legend of the Saints of England, edited the Acts of our Saint augmented with certain things which are not found in Bede. Selecting the chief things from these sources, Mayhew and Bucelin composed an elogium of St. Ethelburga; and since their compositions comprise only what is found in Bede and Capgrave, we do not judge it necessary to place them before the reader's eyes. The Acts of the Saint which we have just said were edited by Capgrave we shall reprint below, and we shall advise the reader in the Annotations about the additions lacking in Bede which, drawn from elsewhere, are narrated in the Acts in Capgrave.
[4] [judge that she undertook the government of the monastery of Barking, founded by Erconwald, about the year 666.] Although, for the scarcity of monuments, we cannot determine for certain the year in which St. Ethelburga first governed the monastery of Barking with the dignity of Abbess, or in which St. Erconwald built the said convent, yet ancient monuments concerning the foundation of the monastery of Chertsey, also founded by the said Saint, recorded in the Monasticon Anglicanum, seem to indicate the time about which this happened; in which the following Prologue is prefixed before the tables of foundation: In the year from the Incarnation of the Lord 666, the glorious Egbert reigning as king of the English, the house of Chertsey was founded by Frithwald and by the venerable father Erkenwald, whose life and conversation is read to have been so most holy that, searching in the inner man the riches of heavenly glory, he put after him all things perishable and secular. Now he had a sister, Ethelburga by name, whom he had so inflamed with heavenly disciplines that the Virgin herself, by a most holy life, morals, and conversation, strove to please God in all things. Having therefore renounced secular pomps, out of love of heavenly glory they transferred their earthly dignity and ample patrimonies into a divine and ecclesiastical inheritance. Whence, by the single affection of both, the illustrious brother himself, namely Erkenwald, before his pontificate (that is, before the year 675, in which he occupied the see of London), shone forth as the original founder of two illustrious convents; and established each, namely his own and his sister's, with a divine household and abundance of goods, and regular discipline. His own, in the region of Surrey on the river Thames, in the place which is called Chertsey, that is, the island of Cirotus, still flourishes most celebratedly with its plantings; where he himself, the father, first shone forth before the monks by a most holy conversation. But Ethelburga's in the province of the East Saxons, in the place which is called Berkinga: in which that most kind Mother herself also shone forth first over a sacred fellowship of virgins, and both offered to the stars the first fruits of monastic souls. From these it is permissible to conjecture that the monastery of Barking was founded by St. Erconwald at about the same time as that of Chertsey, and therefore that St. Ethelburga was honoured with the dignity of Abbess in the said convent about the year 666. And this is also the common opinion of the writers on English Affairs.
[5] The author of the Acts of St. Ethelburga in Capgrave, of whom we have already spoken, the time of her death. Harpsfield in the History of England, Alford in his Annals, and Wilson in the announcement of the English Martyrology cited above, write with unanimous consent that she departed from this life about the year of the Incarnate Word 676. But if we say with the praised Harpsfield and Alford that the convent of Barking was erected about the year 666, the passing of our Saint from this world to the eternal joys seems to be placed later than about the year 676, as all these writers hand down, from the fact that Bede, in chapter 9 of the book cited above, sufficiently insinuates that our Saint presided over the said monastery for many years; and this will become manifest to one who reads: Now when, says the venerable author, the pious mother of the congregation devoted to God, Edilburga, herself was to be snatched from the world, a wonderful vision appeared to one of the sisters, whose name was Toregid, who, having already lived many years in the same monastery, was always striving to serve God in all humility, and took care to be a helper of regular discipline to the same mother, by teaching or chastising the younger ones. That her virtue, according to the Apostle, might be made perfect in infirmity, she was suddenly struck with a most grievous bodily disease, and for nine years was much wearied by the pious providence of our Redeemer; namely, that whatever of soiling vice had long remained in her among her virtues through ignorance or negligence, the furnace of long tribulation might wholly burn out. And, some things being interposed, he relates thus that the said Toregid survived St. Ethelburga by only three years: But when the aforesaid handmaid of Christ, Toregid, was still held in this life three years after the death of her Lady (Ethelburga) … one day and night having passed, loosed at once from the bonds of the flesh and of infirmity, she entered into the eternal joys of salvation. Since then the said Toregid served St. Ethelburga for many years in the government of the said convent, and then for six years, while our Saint was still surviving, was afflicted with a grave disease, the reader will easily perceive that all these things could not have happened in the space of about ten years, namely from the year 666, about which we have already said the convent of Barking was founded, to the year 676, the year of the Saint's death as the writers praised above hold. These things being so, the epoch of our Saint's death will have to be deferred later, or another time assigned to the erection of the said monastery. But the praised Harpsfield and Alford and the other cited writers, as we have already said, write that the foundations of the monastery of Barking were laid by St. Erconwald at about the same time as that of Chertsey was founded by him, nor after diligent inquiry could I find a single writer who opposes them on this head. Accordingly it will have to be said that our Saint migrated to heaven not in the year 676 but much later; and since it is not readily possible for us to determine for certain the year in which she died, it will have to be determined that she passed to the eternal joys as the 7th century was growing old.
ACTS
From John Capgrave.
Ethelburga, virgin, abbess of Barking in England. (S.)
BHL Number: 2631
From J. Capgrave.
SOLE CHAPTER.
The illustrious family and homeland of the Saint; having left it, she is appointed abbess in the convent built by her brother St. Erconwald: the time of her death revealed to a certain nun. Certain miracles after her death.
The Saint, born of King Offa in the province of Lindsey, St. Ethelburga drew her origin in the province of Lindsey a, in the town of Stallingborough; whose father, Offa by name b, not yet reborn in Christ, deserved to be converted to the faith of Christ through his Daughter. For this holy Virgin, abhorring from her earliest age the delights of the flesh and the blandishments of the world, was given neither to levity nor to jest. The ancient enemy, envying her zeal, stirred up her father Offa, still unbelieving, to fury against her, so that from a father he became a most savage persecutor. But the holy girl, often entering more secretly the chapel in which she had been baptized, strove to call upon God with frequent sighs and afflictions, that He would not permit her chastity to be violated by carnal corruption. The path which the feet of the venerable Virgin trod in going and returning in so holy a purpose always continues, as is said, never withering, in a green colour.
[2] As her age increased, when her father wished to give her over to carnal union, she flees her father, and over the monastery of Barking she utterly refused, as one who from childhood had chosen Jesus Christ as Bridegroom for herself from her heart. And not enduring the vexations of her parents, content with the company of one handmaid, she thought to leave her homeland c. Having taken to the road, the handmaid was suddenly afflicted with so grievous a thirst that, unless help came quickly, she did not doubt that death was near her. Ethelburga, taking this grievously, on bended knees implored the Creator of all to relieve the thirst of her handmaid. Without delay a spring, bursting forth from the earth, quenched the handmaid's thirst, and to this day does not cease to flow. It happened that at harvest time they were received with hospitality in a modest house; and after the meal the hostess, going to the field with her household, having assigned a task to each, assigned a labour to the holy Virgin: who, with knees bent to the ground and prayer poured forth, the grace of God co-operating, obtained the completion of the labour imposed without the help of hands d.
[3] Erkenwald, her brother, afterwards bishop of London e, built two monasteries from his most ample patrimony: having learned regular discipline, she is placed over it. one for himself, in the place which is called Chertsey f, where he himself was distinguished as father of the monks by a most holy conversation: but the other, a monastery of nuns, he built at Barking, over which he placed his sister Ethelburga, a virgin devoted to God. Now in the work there was found one beam, very necessary for the work, shorter than the rest and therefore less fit for the building; St. Erkenwald therefore and his Sister, seizing the dry beam between their hands, drew it out lengthwise until it was made equal to the rest g. The monastery at Barking having thus been built, when St. Ethelburga had decided to take the monastic habit, and since no monastery of nuns had been founded in England, St. Erkenwald summoned from parts overseas a virgin instructed in the regular disciplines, named Hildelith h, to whom he handed over his sister Ethelburga to be imbued with its manners. She in a short time surpassing all the sisters in sanctity and morals, having gathered
many sisters, was made Abbess and Mother of all. She subjected the flesh to the spirit; she strove to serve God day and night with fasts, vigils, and prayers; she judged all earthly things as perishable and frivolous, despised the world, preached incessantly to the sisters, and taught them to abhor every vanity of the world.
[4] At length the supreme Arbiter, brandishing the sword, bending the bow, holding the sharp sickle, was examining whom He should gather to Himself. A place for burying the nuns killed by the plague is divinely indicated. Behold, a storm of mortality, laying all things waste far and wide, and turning earthly losses into heavenly gains, carried away from the world on every side the priests and ministers of the monastery of blessed Ethelburga, and the greatest terror shook the whole community. With what exhortations did the holy Virgin then instruct the sisters, that with faith unfeigned they should adorn their lamps, and with all vigilance of prayers and of all good works be ready to meet the Lord. For she indeed held it sweet, after the morning lauds and vigils, to lead the choirs of the sisters and brothers not to their beds i, but to the graves, and to commend the souls of the dead to God by prayers. While they were singing psalms there one night in their accustomed manner with this devotion, behold, suddenly a wonderful brightness, poured out from heaven over them, covered them all far and wide like a great linen sheet, and struck them with such amazement that, trembling, they broke off the canticle they were singing. And that splendour of light sent forth, in comparison with which the midday sun could seem dark, not long afterwards, lifted from that place, withdrew into the southern part of the monastery, and, covering those places for some while, while all looked on, withdrew itself into the heights of heaven, so that no one doubted that that very light, which was to lead the souls of the handmaids of Christ in heaven, was showing also for their bodies the place in which they were to await the day of resurrection. And so great was the ray of that light that a certain elder brother, placed in the oratory, saw * the rays of light through the chinks of the doors and windows surpass all the brightness of daylight k.
[5] The time of her death is revealed to a certain nun. A savage plague struck a certain virgin of her monastery, and in the middle of the night those attending her watched over the dying woman with burning candles. And when she had been strengthened by a greater light than mortal sight could grasp, and, kindled with the zeal of that vision, prayed with frequent cries that they should put out that mortal lamp as useless. But when they, who were seeing nothing but material light, did not believe the girl's words, she added: Do you not, I beseech you, see how great a splendour shines here? For I see this house gleaming with such brightness that this candle of yours seems to fail completely. For she related that a certain servant of God, who had died in the same year, had appeared to her, and had announced to her that at dawn her passing to the light above would take place; and so it was done l.
[6] St. Ethelburga, signs of whose future death had been divinely given, Now there was in her monastery a certain virgin, by name Torgitha m, a most ardent emulator of virtues, who, serving the Lord for many years in fear and humility, strove to profit the younger ones both by teaching and by example, by exhorting, beseeching, and rebuking. She at length, for nine years, was refined like gold in the furnace of sickness, that virtue might be made perfect in infirmity, and that the medicine of disease might expiate the offences or negligences of health, and tribulation repress self-exaltation, and patience increase the crown. For she, going out of her chamber one night at twilight, suddenly saw a form of a human body, more splendid than every beam of the sun, being borne up on high from the dormitory of the sisters. The starry way shone with its very lustre, and with rays gleaming far and wide gave a clear spectacle to the beholder. Meanwhile there appeared cords brighter than any light, stretching to heaven, by which the same glorious form was being drawn. And not long afterwards blessed Ethelburga, migrating to the heavenly kingdoms, showed that the spectacles of the image displayed beforehand had been signs of her passing.
[7] dies piously, and, three years having passed, The holy Virgin, coming to her end, consoled the sisters lamenting and wailing, saying: Do not weep, my most beloved daughters; but rather rejoice with me and give thanks to God, and let us follow Him who calls us to His mercy with all devotion and with our whole heart. Our brothers and sisters have gone away, nay, they have gone before us; let us rather weep that we are absent from them than that they who have migrated to the blessed ages are absent from us. And you should more happily wish to go with me to those joys than that I be detained with you in this misery. Let us come before the face of the Lord in confession, and, with the lamps of heavenly desires continually burning, let us be ready to go out to meet Him as He comes. Suggesting very many such things, the holy virgin, with hands raised to heaven, rendered her soul to her creator.
[8] The aforesaid Tortgitha survived St. Ethelburga by three years: she invites St. Theoritgida to heaven. and the aforesaid languor so exhausted her that, the flesh being consumed, her bones seemed to cling to her skin or to be dissolved. And behold, St. Ethelburga, resplendent, is present to her from the dwelling above, inviting her, as she panted, to her banquets. And she, giving thanks to God with great jubilation of mind, sent forth her spirit.
[9] In the reign of King Ethelred, the army of the Danes, entering England, consuming everything with slaughter and fire, From the monastery of St. Ethelburga the army of the Danes, came to lay waste the monastery of St. Ethelburga. As they were approaching the sacred place, they see a huge wolf keeping watch before the doors of the church in place of a porter, which suddenly leapt upon them as upon so many sheep, and, gnashing with its monstrous jaws and teeth, frightened them all far off, and compelled them, not daring to fight back, to take flight. They seek safer entrances, but at another door a bear, as champion, drives them off more fiercely. As they then attempt a third entrance, a most huge lion resists, and, enraged, keeps them far off with its roaring and onset. Corrected at length by beasts from their bestial ferocity, and understanding that they were being thrust out by divine power, they beg the Saints of the place that they be admitted in peace. And when they entered, the beasts gave entrance to the cultivators of peace: and when copious gifts had been offered and they had gone out again, the beasts nowhere appeared n.
[10] At another time, when a crowd of pagans was striving to burst into the monastery of the holy Virgin, and a crowd of pagans is kept off, a certain one, with broken limbs, lay lifeless like a corpse. His companions, seeing this, carry the dead man to the sepulchre of the holy Virgin, and tearfully implore pardon for themselves and life for the dead man. Without delay, the dead man having been raised up, they renounced idolatry and received the baptism and faith of Christ. The Danes overflowing again, and pouring out like a river without obstacle, and thinking that they had taken all things by arms, set about breaking the church of St. Ethelburga and her tomb. And behold, they were forthwith struck by the divine indignation; some with madness, some with blindness, the rest were struck with various disasters. Pricked by this terror, prayers having been poured forth, having obtained by the merits of the holy Virgin the desired health and pardon for their rashness, they withdrew rejoicing.
[11] Three women struck with blindness, coming to the monastery of the holy Virgin, implored that health be given them by her merits. and there three blind women recover their sight. Of whom one through St. Ethelburga, another through St. Hildelith, the third through St. Wulfhild o, blood bursting from their eyes, recovered the lost light of their eyes. Two men, their iron fetters [p] having been visibly shaken off even into the middle of the church, returned joyful to their homes, praising God.
[12] A certain abbess of the same place, troubled for eight years by a grave languor, The Saint appears in glory to a certain abbess of the said place. while one evening she was conversing from the book of the Life of St. Ethelburga, from which Bede records that he took what he put into his history, on the following night saw that she was sitting at the tomb of the holy Virgin Ethelburga on the right, and the virgin Wulfruna on the left. Then the tomb itself appeared open, and the glorious virgin was seen to lie wrapped in a most white linen sheet, and bearing on her head a golden diadem. And Wulfruna said: Take from her feet, under the hanging linen, the letter which you shall find, and read. She obeyed, and took up a seal on the letter, inscribed thus: Ethelburga reigns with Christ. And, the seal being loosed, she beheld a series of this kind, all inscribed in golden letters: In tribulation, in distresses, in necessities, in much patience, in long-suffering, in fastings, in watchings, in charity, in chastity, by the armour of justice on the right hand and on the left; and gladly will I glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may dwell in me [q]. And when she had read through such and more instruments of virtues, Wulfruna added thus: These are the virtues by which blessed Ethelburga ascended to this excellence of glory in which she now stands pre-eminent. As if to say: you have sought her life; this is it; imitate it with patience. And the holy virgin Ethelburga died on the fifth day before the Ides of October, about the year of the Lord six hundred and seventy-six.
ANNOTATIONS.
And when she repeated this with frequent voice, and yet no one obeyed her, at last she added: I know that you think I am saying these things with a disordered mind; but know now that it is not so. For truly I say to you that I perceive this house filled with so great a light that that lamp of yours seems to me in every way to be dark. And when still no one answered her as she spoke such things, or gave assent, she said again: Light that lamp, then, as long as you wish. Yet know that it is not my light: for my light is to come to me as the dawn begins. And she began to narrate that a certain man of God, who had died in the same year, had appeared to her, saying that at the coming of daybreak she would go out to the everlasting light. The truth of which vision was thus proved by the girl's death about the rising of the day.
p. For these fetters consult in our Work at the 1st day of October the Annotations on the Miracles of St. Bavo, page 303, letter f.
q. Epistle of blessed Paul to the Corinthians 2, chapter 6.
* read viderit