Bega

ON ST. BEGA, ABBESS,

IN CUMBRIA, A PROVINCE OF ENGLAND.

After the middle of the VII century.

PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY.

Bega, abbess in Cumbria, a province of England (S.)

BY C. S.

§ I. Her memory inscribed in the calendars on various days, the Saint's various names, the church anciently erected, the ecclesiastical Office, the translation of the body.

[ ] The English Martyrology published by the labor of John Wilson in the year 1608, and others after it, announce on this day St. Bega the virgin, The Saint's memory by the martyrologists the first, as they report, of the female sex who was a nursling and propagator of the monastic life in Northumbria. In Cumbria, he says, the commemoration of S. Bega the virgin, who was born of a very noble stock, and, being instructed in the Christian faith, came to our island of Great Britain, and led a life filled with many virtues in the aforesaid province of Cumbria; where, in remarkable sanctity of life and working of miracles, she at last rendered her soul to her heavenly Spouse. In the ancient Catholic times there was formerly erected in her honor in Cumbria a spacious church and monastery, where her body was wont to be preserved with great reverence and veneration by the inhabitants of that county: which place at that time was famous for pilgrimage, especially of the people from the northern parts of England.

[2] After the said Wilson, to the same day she is referred by Fr. Henry Fitzsimon of the Society of Jesus in the Catalogue of the chief Saints of Ireland, brought to light in the year 1615, fixed on various days. and revised in 1619 and 1621: by Ferrarius in the general Catalogue, by Arthur in the Sacred Gynæceum, and by Wion in the Appendix to book 3 of the Wood of Life: all of whom in the places cited call her Bega. To these is added Thomas Dempster in the Scottish Menology on the VI of September, writing thus: In Scotland, at the place Kilbeg, of Bega the virgin of great works, who is said to have won Norway for Christ by her labors; whence Norvegia, as it were Norbegia: but reckon these things about Norway among fables. But others announce the same Saint of ours, under the same or even another name, on other days. In the first place, the said English Martyrology, reprinted in the year 1640, commemorates her at the day XXII of November with almost the same eulogy as above. Camerarius in book 3 On the piety of the Scots assigns the VIII day of September as sacred to her: Gabriel Bucelin in the Nomenclator of the Benedictine Menology establishes the day XXVIII of December: Greven in the supplements to Usuard at the XXXI of October, on which day also I find that her memory was wont to be celebrated with an ecclesiastical office in the Breviary of the distinguished church of Aberdeen in Scotland, published in the year 1509.

[3] By some, under the same or a varying name There are those who acknowledge two St. Bega the virgin: among these Philip Ferrarius refers both to this day VI of September, writing thus in the general Catalogue: In Cumbria, of saint Bega the virgin. And, with some things interposed, as of another distinct from her: In Scotland, of saint Bega the virgin. Ferrarius was followed by Arthur in the Gynæceum: and both note that she is also called Beda. But Castellan in the Universal Martyrology published in French, likewise commemorating two, announces the first on this very day in French thus: Near Egremont [] in the county of Cumbria, in England, S. Bega, an Irish virgin, patroness of the kingdom of Norway. The memory of the other he binds to the day XXXI of October in these words: In the county of Northumbria, saint Bega the Virgin. In the margin he observes the following: This Bega is different from S. Bega of Egremont, called also S. Vega. Besides, some, as we shall show, commemorate the same holy Virgin under a twofold name on various days. For both editions of the said English Martyrology celebrate at the XXX of May the memory of S. Hieu, or Heyna, the virgin in the city of Calcaria, which the earlier edition interprets as Colchester in Essex, a province of England; the other as Tadcaster in the province of York. The English Martyrology was followed by Ferrarius in the general Catalogue and Arthur in the Gynæceum*.

[4] she is wrongly doubled. But to me it is one and the same holy Virgin who was called Bega, Beda, Vega, Heyna, or Heju or Hieu. Michael Alford noted this in the Anglo-Saxon Annals, volume 2, page 294, where he solidly proves it in this manner: There dies in this year, as is read in our Martyrology, S. Heyna the Virgin, whom Bede everywhere calls Heju, others more commonly Bega. She, when she had founded the monastery of Hartlepool, and had set Hilda over it, withdrew to the town of Tadcaster, and there rested with a holy end. In this she is singularly memorable, that she was the first of the virgins of Northumbria who took the religious habit. I know that some distinguish this Heyna from Bega; whom our Martyrology seems to follow, where at the XXII of November Bega is read to have died holily in the year of the Lord DCL: but Heyna in DCLVII at the XXX of May. But since it is said there of each of them that she was the first of women to put on the monastic garment in the kingdom of Northumbria from S. Aidan the bishop; by that very thing it is sufficiently intimated that she is one and the same. Nor does it much stand in the way that Heina is said to have descended from the kings of Northumbria; but Bega is called an Irishwoman; because the Irish island and Northumbria, being neighbors, frequently mingled blood.

[5] To this opinion of Alford I think we must adhere, both for the reasons brought forward by him, Why she is given on this day. and because I see no necessity for building up two Begas. That Heyna or Heju or Heru is the same as St. Bega is manifest from Bede's History, compared with those things which all the rest have handed down about our St. Bega, as we shall prove in the course of the work. But what some write, that she won the Norwegians for Christ, ought not to detain us, since they confirm it by no fit witness; and they seem to have as their author Thomas Dempster, who, it is well known, indulged too much in fables for the sake of his own country. Further, our Predecessors at the day XXX of May referred St. Heyna or Hieu among those passed over, and warned that she could be treated of either at the XXXI of October, on which day in Greven's supplement to Usuard the name of Bega the virgin is read, or on the XXII of November, on which she is announced by Wilson. The Breviary of Aberdeen of the year 1509 sets forth the Office of the Saint at the XXXI of October, on which she is there related to have died. But since several martyrologists later than the aforesaid Breviary fix her memory to this day, I have judged that with these she is to be treated of today. And if in an uncertain matter it be permitted to attribute anything to conjectures, if the Saint really died on the XXXI of October, as is asserted in her own Office, perhaps on this VI of September her Translation is celebrated, which the same Office affirms was carried out after about four hundred and sixty years.

[6] As regards the cult shown to the Saint, I do not doubt The ancient cult is proved from the church erected to her that it is ancient and immemorial. For of this matter the charter of foundation of the cell of St. Bega, in the county of Cumbria, makes certain proof, which Roger Dodsworth and William Dugdale in the Monasticon Anglicanum, page 395 and following, recite entire, taken, as they assert, from the autograph preserved in the tower of St. Mary's of York. In that instrument William Meschines, lord of Copeland in Cumbria, among other things says thus: I have given and by the present little charter confirmed to the church of saint Mary of the monastery of York the church of saint Bega, which is situated in Copeland, and seven carucates of land quit and free from all secular service. He subjoins many other gifts and privileges, and at last adds: And be it known that I have given all these alms to the aforesaid abbey of York by the counsel of Thurstan the archbishop and of Cecilia my wife and of my men, and by the grant of Ranulph son

of mine, on such an agreement and pact, that there be there a cell of monks, and that the abbot of York and the chapter always send and have in the church of saint Bega a Prior and with him at the least six monks residing and serving the Lord there.

[7] The time at which this charter was drawn up we easily elicit from the things which he presently subjoins in these words: dedicated to her already from the XII century And I made this alms for the safety of my lord Henry, king of England, and for the soul of queen Matilda and of William their son, and for the safety of Thurstan the archbishop, and for the remedy of my predecessors and of myself and of my wife and of my children and of my faithful men: these being witnesses, Thurstan the archbishop, etc. From these, I say, we learn that that charter was written about the year 1121: and this I show thus. That donation was made under Henry I king of England after the death of queen Matilda, and of their son William duke of Normandy, as these words of the founder seem to indicate: I made this alms for the safety of my lord Henry king of England, and for the soul of queen Matilda and of William their son. And since the aforesaid Matilda departed from the living in the year 1118, and William in the year 1120 perished by shipwreck, his ship running upon a rock, on the testimony of Alford in volume 4 of the Ecclesiastical Annals of England at the years cited, it follows that the said charter was written in the year 1120 or some years after.

[8] or long before. But since in the same instrument no mention is made of queen Adeliza, whose marriage with Henry the cited Alford ties to the year 1121, it appears more probable that that foundation was made before Adeliza's marriage, for whose safety otherwise it also seems it would have had to be made. At that time too Turstin, or Thurstan, could have been present at the donation, who, being ordained archbishop of York in the year 1119 by Calixtus II, after many quarrels at last in the year 1121, with Henry's permission, returned into England and went to his see, if the said Annalist relates truly. The same Monasticon exhibits another instrument of the same William, containing various donations made to God and to saint Mary of York and to saint Bega and to the monks serving there. To this is subjoined another charter drawn from the same place, by which Ranulph Meschin, William's son, grants the church of saint Bega, which is in Copeland, given by his father to the abbey of York, and confirms and enlarges the foundation. Finally there are extant in the same place a charter of William de Forz, count of Aumale, and a certain other royal diploma made in favor of the same church of saint Bega in Copeland. From all which it manifestly appears that our Saint, in the growing XII century, already had a church dedicated to her cult in Cumbria, of which Copeland is a part. But from what time it began to be called by the name of St. Bega I have nowhere found handed down to memory; wherefore that little chapel could already some centuries earlier have been erected to her, since it seems to have been the Saint's first little monastery, as we shall see at number 13.

[9] The ecclesiastical Office, the translation of the body Another indication both of ancient and of more recent cult we have from the Breviary of Aberdeen, printed at Edinburgh in the year 1509. In it, at the XXXI of October, an Office of nine lessons is set forth to be recited concerning S. Bega the virgin, and S. Quintin the martyr: of the lessons the first three and as many of the last are about our Saint, the three middle ones about S. Quintin: this prayer is prescribed: O God, who art the guardian of the chastity of all virgins, vouchsafe to lend thine ears at the prayers of thy blessed virgin Begha as she supplicates for us, and extinguish every flame of lust in those who faithfully serve thee. Through our Lord, etc. The eighth lesson has this about her cult: After many years had rolled by .. on the day before the Kalends of November … her most holy soul, divided from the body, penetrated the lofty clouds above the heavens, and her body was delivered to the dust of the earth; which lay in the same, unknown to all mortals, for about four hundred and sixty years; which, being revealed by divine power, has now been translated with worthy honor and is held in great esteem in the monastery of Whitby, affording health to the sick at the present time. By which words the cited Breviary clearly testifies that the Saint's body, formerly translated, was still famous for miracles at the beginning of the XVI century.

[10] The monastery of Whitby, anciently called Strenshalh or Streaneshalh, to the monastery of Whitby, of which a notice was founded by St. Hilda, daughter of the nephew of king Edwin, by name Hereric, on the testimony of Bede in the Ecclesiastical History of the English People, book 4, chapter 23, where he says: It happened that she undertook also to build or to set in order a monastery in the place which is called Streaneshalh, which work enjoined upon her she fulfilled not slothfully. The founder of the place is believed to have been Oswy, king of Northumbria, who, being about to fight against Penda king of the Mercians, had conceived a vow of consecrating his daughter Elfleda to God in virginity; which, a memorable victory being won, he faithfully fulfilled, as may be seen in the said Bede, book 3, chapter 24. Take the few things which pertain hither: And the aforesaid daughter of king Oswy, he says, entered, to be dedicated to God, the monastery which is called Heruteu (that is, the Island of the Hart), over which Hilda was then abbess. Who after two years, having acquired a possession of ten families, in the place which is called Streaneshalh, built there a monastery; in which the aforementioned daughter of the king became first a disciple of the regular life, and then also a mistress… In which monastery both she and her father Oswy and her mother Eanfled and her mother's father Edwin and many other nobles are buried in the church of S. Peter the apostle. Thus Bede.

[11] Alford in volume 3 of the Annals at the year 869, citing Harpsfield, century 9, chapter 14 of the English History, is given. writes that that monastery was overthrown by the Danes. The Monasticon Anglicanum, volume 1, page 71 and following, shows that it was restored about the year 1067, and so in the fifth century after St. Bega's death, so that consequently her sacred remains could have been translated thither after four hundred and sixty years, as is asserted in the Breviary. Further, the ancient name being now antiquated, it is wont to be called Whitby, and is situated in the Northern part of the county of York, commonly called the North Riding. Of it Camden in his Britannia, page 587, writes these things: Thence the Bay of Dunus, mentioned by Ptolemy …, beside which lies the little village of Dunesley, and contiguous to this Whitby, in Saxon Streanes-heale, which Bede interprets the Bay of the Lighthouse. And after some things: Edelfleda, daughter of king Oswin, afterward increased this with most ample revenues, where she also paid the rites due to her father: but at last the tempest of Danish plundering wholly overthrew it; and although Serlo Percy restored it, yet now it scarcely shows a slender trace of its ancient dignity. For the rest, I have treated of this monastery of Whitby a little more at length, that I might give a notice of the place into which the body of our holy Virgin is said to have been translated and venerated.

* Egremond

§ II. The Saint's deeds, death, and burial.

[ ] The Saint's deeds must be drawn chiefly from her Office and from Bede. No Acts of the Saint are extant besides the lessons already praised in the Breviary of the church of Aberdeen, which whether they were drawn from an older writer, or were put together at the beginning of the XVI century out of traditions certain or uncertain, is wholly hidden from me; wherefore neither is it permitted me to pass a certain judgment on the truth of the things which are narrated in them: yet they contain nothing less credible or abhorrent from the appearance of truth, except that in one place and another they stray from the truth, which for that reason we shall correct from other sources. The aforesaid lessons, on account of the scarcity of Acts, we shall print from manuscripts, after we have exhibited to the curious reader those things which we find about her in other writers. The venerable Bede in the Ecclesiastical History of the English People, book 4, chapter 23, mentions our Saint honorably, writing these things on the occasion of Bl. Hilda: After these things she (Bl. Hilda) was made abbess in the monastery which is called Heortheu, which monastery indeed had been made not long before by the religious handmaid of Christ Heru; who is reported to have been the first of women in the province of the Northumbrians to have taken up the purpose and garment of the nun's habit, Aidan the bishop consecrating her. But she, not long after the monastery was made, withdrew to the city Calcaria, which by the nation of the English is called Kalcacester, and there established a dwelling for herself. Thus Bede, pursuing the rest which pertains to Hilda. But that the religious handmaid of Christ Heru, of whom he speaks, is the same as St. Bega is manifest from this, that exactly the same things which we have related of Heru from Bede are narrated by the remaining writers about St. Bega.

[13] Having become a nun, she founds a cell in Copeland: The often-mentioned Monasticon Anglicanum, volume 1, page 395, citing the Life of our Saint and Leland's Collectanea, asserts that four monasteries were built by St. Bega in England. Of the first it has thus: Bega first built a humble little monastery in Copeland toward Carlisle in the uttermost bounds of England, where now there are some monks of St. Mary of the city of York, and it is commonly called Sainct Beges. Of this monastery or cell of St. Bega we have already treated at number 6 and following. I add some things about its situation from Camden's Britannia, who at page 630, in the description of Cumbria, writes thus of it as of a little promontory: The shore advances itself gradually to the West, and forms a little promontory, which is commonly called S. Bees, for S. Bega. For Bega, a pious and religious Irish virgin, led a solitary life there, to whose sanctity miracles are ascribed concerning a tamed bull and a most copious snow, which on a midsummer day, at her prayer, had deeply covered the valleys and the tops of the mountains. Scarcely a thousand paces hence the castle of Egremont is set upon a hill, once the seat of William de Meschines, etc. That in this very place was founded the cell of St. Bega, of which above, is clear from the charters of foundation by William and Ranulph de Meschines, which we have reported above, and in one of which William speaks thus: I have also restored and given to that same church its parish … namely whatever is contained from Witohona as far as Chechel, and as that same Chechel falls wholly and entirely into the sea, and by name the chapel of Egremund, which is situated within the aforesaid bounds, etc. The aforesaid cell was still standing in the XVI century, as the catalogue of sacred buildings in England makes credible, drawn up by order of Henry VIII in the 26th year of his reign, and afterward entered into the books of First Fruits and Tenths, on the testimony of the said Monasticon, pages 1038 and 1045: now let us pursue the rest.

[14] [she did not build the monastery on the river Wear, but did build that of Hartlepool,] Then on the Northern side of the river Wear she built a monastery, says the same Monasticon at the place cited in the preceding number: but more probably wrongly; for Bede in book 4, chapter 23, seems to refer the foundation of that community to S. Aidan bishop of Lindisfarne and to Hilda.

Let us hear Bede writing professedly about the life and death of Hilda. Then, being recalled into her fatherland by bishop Aidan, she (Hilda) received a place of one family on the Northern side of the river Wear; where likewise for one year she led the monastic life with very few companions. More certain is what those same collectors subjoin: She migrated to Herutey (by others called Heorthu), which place in Latin sounds the Island of the Hart, and there founded a community of virgins, and a little after yielded it to Hilda the sacred virgin. In what place that monastery was founded is not certainly established: Camden in the Britannia thinks it was at Hartlepool, a famous market-town, which he places on the Eastern shore of the ocean in the bishopric of Durham. The shore thence, he says, juts out only by one little promontory, scarcely seven miles above the mouth of the Tees (river), on which sits Hartlepool, a famous market-town and a trusty haven, with a very convenient situation. Bede seems to call it Heortu (which Huntingdon interprets the Island of the Hart), where he records that Heju, a religious woman, once founded a monastery: unless Heorteu be rather the name of that little territory, which the book of Durham suggests, and elsewhere calls Heort-nesse, which runs out further into the sea. Our Bolland may also be consulted in the Life of St. Elfleda, volume 2 of February, page 181.

[15] The time of the founding of the community of Hartlepool we elicit from those things in the county of Durham, not much which the venerable Bede relates about the age of Bl. Hilda, who succeeded our holy Abbess, in book 4, chapter 25. Bolland, just praised, treats of that date in §4, number 19 and the two following; wherefore, that I may not be longer than is fitting, I shall contract into a compendium what the curious reader will there find in a lengthier style from Bede. Hilda died in the year of Christ 680, in the 66th of her age, of which she consecrated the last thirty-three to the Lord in the monastic life: in the year 647 therefore she embraced the monastic life, on Bede's testimony. Two years before she succeeded St. Bega, she withdrew into the province of the East Angles, among whom a kinsman of hers was reigning, that thence she might cross over to the monastery of Chelles in Gaul, where her sister Hereswith was serving God, in order to consecrate her virginity to Christ her spouse. But she was detained in that province for a whole year. Then, being recalled into her fatherland by bishop Aidan, she received a place of one family on the Northern side of the river Wear; where likewise for one year she led the monastic life with very few companions. After these things she was made abbess in the monastery which is called Heortheu, which monastery indeed had been made not long before by the religious handmaid of Christ Heru: as Bede has it.

[16] Bolland, who among the thirty-three years which St. Hilda is said to have consecrated to the Lord in the monastic life numbers that year in which she stayed in the province of the East Angles, before the year 649: deduces from what has been said that she laid aside the secular habit in the year 647, was made a nun in the year 648, and finally in the year 649 was set as abbess over the monastery of St. Bega. Hence it is further concluded that the aforesaid monastery was founded by our Saint not long before the year 649. But how long that community flourished is unknown to me; since after Hilda's times I find no mention made of it. Perhaps by the same Danish irruption in which, after the middle of the IX century, the monastery of Streaneshalh perished with many others, this too was destroyed, and afterward not repaired. But let us return to the Monasticon Anglicanum.

[17] thence withdrawing to Calcaria, she founds a new cell for herself. But Bega, he says, having left the island of Herutey, betook herself to Calcaria, which by the Saxons is called Helcacester, and founded a new monastery for herself. These things are drawn from the said Bede, who, when he had said that St. Hilda succeeded St. Bega in the abbacy of Hartlepool, presently continues thus about her: But she, not long after the monastery was made, withdrew to the city Calcaria, which by the nation of the English is called Kalcacester, and there established a dwelling for herself. But whether that dwelling was a community is not sufficiently clear from the words cited: yet it appears probable that it was some little community or cell, in which she, either alone or with some virgins, passed the remainder of her life. As regards Calcaria, Camden thinks it is Tadcaster, which he places in the Western part of the county of York on the river Wharfe. The Wharfe, he says, flows down through Tadcaster, indeed a small little town, which yet I cannot but judge to have been Calcaria, from the distance, the nature of the soil, and the notation of the name… For it is at the ninth Italian mile from York, as Antoninus places Calcaria. Lime too, which … is scarcely found elsewhere in this tract, is here poured out in abundance… And since that is called by the Britons and Saxons of old and by the Northern English "Calc" by a Roman name … and those are called Calcarienses in the Code of Theodosius who are burners of lime, it may seem not absurd if the reason of the name be sought from lime, … especially since it is also called Calca-cester by Bede, where he mentions that Heina, a woman who first in this region took the nun's garment, withdrew to this city, and established a dwelling for herself.

[18] Our Saint seems to be other than that Begu, Bega at length, setting out abroad from Calcaria, died at Hacanos, a monastery of veiled virgins, says the same Monasticon, and after its example Mabillon in volume 1 of the Annals, page 436: and in both places Hacanos or Haconos is said to be distant three miles from Scarborough, which is a castle of England in the Northern part of the county of York, and sits on the shore of the German sea. That that monastery was founded by St. Hilda in the year 680, in which she died, Bede is the author: who adds that the distance between this and the community of Streaneshalh was nearly thirteen thousand paces. But that St. Bega lived and died in it he nowhere relates, so far as I know, at least clearly: nevertheless I judge that the aforesaid writers took this from no other source than Bede, by conjecture. For he, in the book and chapter cited, treating of the death of St. Hilda, writes these things: On which night indeed (on which the aforesaid Hilda had died) the almighty Lord vouchsafed to reveal her death by a manifest vision in another monastery placed further off (which she herself had built in the same year, and it is called Haconos). There was in that same monastery a certain holy woman named Begu, who for thirty years and more, with her virginity dedicated to the Lord, was serving in the monastic manner of life.

[19] to whom the death of St. Hilda She then, resting in the dormitory of the Sisters, heard suddenly in the air the well-known sound of the bell by which they were wont to be roused or called together to prayers when any of them had been called out of the world, and, her eyes being opened (as it seemed to her), she beheld, the roof of the house being uncovered, that a light poured down from above had filled all things. And while she attentively gazed upon that light, she saw the soul of the aforesaid handmaid of God in that same light, with angels accompanying and leading her, borne to heaven. And when, shaken from sleep, she saw the other Sisters resting around her, she understood that what she had seen had been shown to her either in a dream or in a vision of the mind. And rising at once, terrified with exceeding fear, she ran to the virgin who then presided over the monastery in the place of abbess, whose name was Frigyth, and, much bedewed with weeping and tears and drawing long sighs, announced that the mother of them all, Hilda the abbess, had now departed from the world, etc. All which he affirms were found by the event itself to be most true.

[20] From this passage, I say, I suspect that the collectors of the Monasticon drew is related to have been revealed in the monastery called Hacanos what they write about our Saint's dwelling in the monastery of Haconos. There favors them both the affinity of the name, and the time which she is said to have spent in the monastic life: for our Bega is reported to have been veiled by S. Aidan the bishop, who from the year 634 or 635 to 651 held the see of Lindisfarne, and therefore, if she put on the nun's habit about the last years of St. Aidan, and reached the year 680, she was already for thirty years and more, with her virginity dedicated to the Lord, serving in the monastic manner of life; which very thing is here asserted of Begu. Nevertheless it appears to me more probable that this Begu is distinct from our Saint. For first, to what purpose would Bede have called her in the context of the same discourse and in the same chapter now Heru or Heju, now Begu, without warning the reader that she had two names? Secondly, if S. Heru had withdrawn from the city of Calcaria to Haconos, Bede seems as though he would have indicated it in a word: for the known sanctity of Heru or Bega would have commended the credit of the revelation more than a life spent in monastic disciplines for thirty or more years by any other woman. Yet he does this in neither place: nay, he suggests the contrary, when in the former place he says of Calcaria as of the Saint's last dwelling: She withdrew to the city Calcaria, and there established a dwelling for herself: but in the second, as of some other woman, he says: There was in that same monastery a certain holy woman, named Begu, etc.

[21] Finally, if our Saint had survived to the year 680, she would then have numbered rather forty or perhaps more years of the religious life: for she herself, as Bede has it, it is related to have been revealed. is reported to have been the first of women in the province of the Northumbrians to have taken up the purpose and garment of the nun's habit, Aidan the bishop consecrating her; and this, if the Breviary of Aberdeen relates truly, in the reign of the holy king Oswald, who in the year 642 was crowned with martyrdom, as is shown in his Acts, volume 2 of August, page 85. To me therefore it appears much more probable that the virgin Begu, to whom the death of St. Hilda is said to have been divinely revealed, was one of the ascetics of the community of Hartlepool, in which she could have professed the religious life under our St. Bega, or under St. Hilda, who succeeded her in the year 649 or the following, by whom she seems to have been sent into the monastery of Haconos recently founded by her, when she already numbered thirty or more years of religion.

[22] Wherefore I cannot agree with the Monasticon, which judges, on this ground as it appears, that our Saint died at Hacanos. More probably she died at Calcaria, The Breviary of Aberdeen seems to assign another place of death, namely the monastery of Hartlepool: for its author, when he had said that the holy Abbess transferred the care and governance of her monastery of Hartlepool to St. Hilda, presently subjoins: Under whose keeping bl. Begha remained, living holily, until the departure of her life. And so, when many years had rolled by in it, … her most holy soul, divided from the body, penetrated the lofty clouds above the heavens, and her body was delivered to the dust of the earth, etc., which may be read below at number 5. Two things are here asserted: the first is, that the Saint, having laid down the office of abbess, passed the remainder of her age under the governance of St. Hilda and ended her life; the other, that she was buried under the same abbess: and since he has mentioned only the community of Hartlepool, it follows that, according to that author's opinion, St. Bega, after laying down her prelacy, led her life under St. Hilda in the same monastery, died, and was buried in the same. The first of this

assertion has been sufficiently refuted by us above at number 20, where we showed from Bede that she, having left the aforesaid community, withdrew to Calcaria, and does not seem to have returned thence; since the said venerable writer assigns the city of Calcaria as the Saint's last dwelling. It is not true, therefore, that she remained under St. Hilda's keeping until the departure of her life, unless perchance the cell of Calcaria was subject to the monastery of Hartlepool and to its abbess.

[23] and she was buried in the monastery of Hartlepool. But as regards the second part, namely the burial, I gladly admit that our Saint was committed to the earth in the community of Hartlepool: since indeed it is very probable that when she was dead her body was translated thither from Calcaria, that the holy Foundress might rest in her own monastery. Besides, another argument is drawn from the aforesaid Breviary; for it has thus: Her body was delivered to the dust of the earth; which lay in the same for about four hundred and sixty years …; which, being revealed by divine power, has now been translated with worthy honor into the monastery of Whitby, etc.: from which it is clear that St. Bega's body was first buried in the community of Hartlepool, of which alone there is treatment in that place, unless one should wish either to invent some other earlier translation, or to deny without foundation that which is handed down in the Breviary. Further, from this burial at Hartlepool the author of the Breviary seems to have wrongly deduced that St. Bega, after laying down her prelacy, spent her last years in the same monastery: since indeed, as it was established that her body was buried there, it was easy for a less diligent writer to think that she had died in the same place.

[24] She died after the middle of the seventh century. From what has hitherto been said it is clear that the Saint flourished about the middle of the VII century: but in what year she was born or died, since it is not pleasing to divine, we cannot determine. For Wilson's English Martyrology divines, when at the day XXX of May it ties the death of S. Hiena, whom we have said to be the same as Bega, to the year 657, and at the VI of September in the earlier edition, but in the later at the XXII of November, determines that St. Bega died in the year 650. This one thing is certain, that she reached the middle of the aforesaid century, since in the year 649 or 650, having left St. Hilda the community of Hartlepool, she migrated to Calcaria, and there built a dwelling for herself, as we have seen above: but how long she afterward lived in it neither does Bede relate, nor have I been able to learn from elsewhere. Nothing either can be elicited from the translation, which in the Breviary of Aberdeen is reported to have been made about four hundred and sixty years from her death, both because he assigns only about so many years, and because he does not determine the year in which the translation was made. Yet it is probable that she survived among the living some years, at least a few, at Calcaria, since Bede mentions her withdrawal to this city and the dwelling founded there, but not her death. For these reasons I have fixed the Saint's death after the middle of the VII century.

LIFE

From the proper lessons in the Breviary of the church of Aberdeen in Scotland.

Bega, abbess in Cumbria, a province of England (S.)

BHL Number: 1082

BY J. S.

St. Bega, fleeing from Ireland into Britain, Lesson I. Begha, the glorious virgin, when she was being given by her parents to the marriage bed, hearing that so great a faith of Christ flourished in Britain, left Ireland, whence she had drawn her origin, and her parents, and, having received an oracle from an angel in her sleep, while slumber had overcome all who were within her father's household, secretly deserted the royal palaces ^a and hastened straightway to the sea shores, and, coming to a certain suitable harbor, found a ship made ready according to the divine promise.

[2] Lesson II. And having entered it, with a prosperous course she came into Scotland; being made the first nun in the province of the Northumbrians, who, after her long and lasting pilgrimage, chastising her body with fastings and vigils and continual prayers, from the blessed father and most holy man Aidan the bishop ^b, at the time when Oswald ^c, the most Christian king, reigned in Northumbria, received the first veil of benediction in Britain, whom he appointed the first abbess of nuns of religion.

[3] Lesson III. And a little cell having been built by the aforesaid king Oswald on a certain deserted island ^d, a monastery being founded, she presides over it, she joined to herself very many virgins holy to God and most chaste in body; whom blessed Begha instructed with all diligence and vigilance of heart in the divine law, and as a mother most kindly persuaded and exhorted her dearest little daughters to the serving of God ^e.

[4] Lesson VII. But Bl. Hilda, a virgin most devoted to God, having returned from the borders of Gaul, which she afterward hands over to St. Hilda to be governed. where she had been trained in the Rule of nuns ^f, and the fame of the aforesaid S. Begha and the regular observance of her monastic manner of life having been heard, in order the sooner to give herself to contemplation, went to Aidan the bishop, asking of him that he would consecrate the virgin Hilda as abbess, and would relieve her [*] of the said office. And the blessed bishop, assenting to the Virgin's wishes, absolved her, and with the consent of all the virgins they elected Bl. Hilda as abbess; under whose keeping Bl. Begha remained, living holily, until the departure of her life ^g.

[5] Lesson VIII. And so, when many years had rolled by in it, She dies; and is translated to the monastery of Whitby, in great purity of mind, on the day before the Kalends of November ^h, her most holy soul, associated with all the angelic powers, divided from the body, penetrated the lofty clouds above the heavens, and her body was delivered to the dust of the earth ⁱ; which lay in the same, unknown to all mortals, for about four hundred and sixty years, which, being revealed by divine power, has now been translated with worthy honor, and is held in great esteem in the monastery of Whitby ^k, affording health to the sick at the present time.

[6] Lesson IX. Blessed Begha therefore, being now bodily taken away from human affairs, where she is famous for miracles. how beautiful her most holy soul was [*] in the sight of God, frequent miracles wrought in divers places attest. For her territory on every side rejoices by her merits in immunity from any thefts, plunderings, molestations or injuries ^l. From Gaul too a certain rich man of the city of Cartiotum ^m, who had two sons, one a paralytic and dumb from his birth, who ought by right to have succeeded to his inheritance; the other a fistula was afflicting; who had sought very many suffrages of the Saints; at length, admonished by divine power, visited Bl. Begha and her sepulcher with his sons; who, persevering a little while in prayer, were in one hour restored to health ⁿ.

ANNOTATIONS.

writers. But the Breviary from which these things are taken is noted as printed in the year 1509, and accordingly at that time the sacred body of the holy Abbess was still in honor there and shone with miracles, unless perhaps the said lessons were inserted into the edition of the year 1509 from an older Breviary.

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