Saint Eanswythe, Abbess of Folkestone (+ 640)

St. Eanswythe of Folkstone (Feast Day - August 31)

Saint Eanswythe was born around 614, the only daughter of King Eadbald of Kent and his wife Emma, who was a Frankish princess. At the time of Eanswythe’s birth, her father was probably a pagan, while her mother was almost certainly a Christian. Therefore, it is highly likely that Eanswythe was baptized and raised as a Christian.

When she was two years old, her paternal grandfather King Ethelbert of Kent (Feb. 25) died. Saint Ethelbert had been baptized at Saint Martin’s Church in Canterbury by Saint Augustine of Canterbury (May 28). It was Saint Augustine who came to England in 597 with several monks in order to re-establish Christianity, which had almost been wiped out by the pagan Anglo-Saxons. These monks carried out their missionary work under the protection of King Ethelbert.

Basic Timeline of the Life of Saint Botolph of Iken

There is a tragic paucity of primary sources about our Holy Father Botolph of Iken, and many of the hagiographical accounts that do exist were written many centuries later and are often riddled with error and anachronism. The tragedy is made more acute when one considers that there are at least 78 historic or current churches dedicated to him in Britain, far more, it should be noted, than any other Pre-Conquest British Saint, and that his veneration extended not only throughout England but Scandinavia as well. In what follows we have tried to discern the basic outline of St Botolph’s life from the rare, fragmentary glimpses of him that we get in the couple of Anglo-Saxon sources as well as the later hagiographical narratives. For a fuller presentation of this timeline, complete with comprehensive academic referencing, please refer to a booklet on the Life of the saint which the College OLM is currently in the process of preparing for publication. We hope though that this simple time line will give an overview of this extraordinary Suffolk Saint and situate him a little within the spiritual milieu of the 7th Century. Please note all dates are approximate and indicative.

Saint Fulk of Santopadre

St. Fulk of Santopadre (Feast Day - May 22)

Saint Fulk was from England and lived in the seventh century. He went on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem and other holy places with Bernard, Arduin and Gerard. Upon returning from the Holy Land, Saint Fulk and his companions stopped at Mount Gargano to visit the Grotto of the Archangel Michael. Going north to Benevento (present Lazio), Saint Fulk stopped in the town of Amnen (today Santopadre, in the province of Frosinone), where he spent the rest of his life selflessly helping victims of the plague that struck the region. After his death by the same plague he was buried at the hospital where he helped the sick.

Holy Martyr Ebba the Younger, Abbess of Coldingham, and Those With Her (+ 870)

St. Ebba the Younger (Feast Day - April 2)

The Monastery of Coldingham, in the ancient kingdom of Northumbria, founded in the seventh century by Saint Ebba (Aug. 23), sister of the kings Oswald and Oswy, was governed in the ninth century by another Ebba, who presided over a band of holy virgins following the Rule of Saint Benedict. About the year 867 several thousand Danish Viking warriors, under the command of the brothers Hinguar and Hubba, landed on the coast of East Anglia and desolated the whole north country. When Abbess Ebba received tidings of the near approach of the pagan hordes, who had already wrecked vengeance upon ecclesiastics, monks, and consecrated virgins, she summoned her nuns to Chapter, and in a moving discourse exhorted them to preserve at any cost the treasure of their chastity. Then seizing a razor, and calling upon her daughters to follow her heroic example, she mutilated her face by cutting off her nose and upper lip in order to inspire horror in the sight of the barbarian invaders. The nuns without exception courageously followed the example of their abbess. When the Danes broke into the cloister and saw the bloodied nuns with faces thus disfigured, they fled in panic. Their leaders, burning with rage, sent back some of their number to set fire to the monastery, and thus the heroic martyrs perished in the common ruin of their house. Their martyrdom took place on April 2, 870. It has been suggested her sacrificial act is the origin of the saying "cutting off the nose to spite the face."

Holy Martyr Oswald, King of Northumbria (+ 642)

St. Oswald of Northumbria (Feast Day - August 5)

Saint Oswald was born around 605, the second of the seven sons of the Anglo-Saxon king Aethelfrith, who was the first ruler to unite the provinces of Bernicia and Deira into the kingdom of Northumbria.

King Edwin of Deira refused to accept the Bernician control of both provinces, so he attempted a coup while Aethelfrith was away in the north. Edwin was defeated and driven into exile. When Aethelfrith was killed later, Edwin became King of Northumbria.

Oswald’s mother Acha (Edwin’s sister) fled to Ireland (then called Scotland) with her children. It is believed that during his seventeen years of exile, Saint Oswald received Christian baptism at Iona and also learned the Gaelic language.