Anglo-Saxon Monasticism: Flowers of the Church and Jewels of Paradise

OBJECTIVES:

1. Be able to trace the progress of Christianity in Britain from the conversion of Kent through the end of the Anglo-Saxon period.

2. Be able to trace the important monastic foundations and their foundresses in the Anglo-Saxon era.

3. Be able to discuss the career and achievements of the abbess Hild.

4. Be able to discuss royal patronage of monasteries.

5. Be able to discuss the role of families in monastic foundations.

6. Be able to discuss the clash of Roman and Celtic customs in Britain, the issues over which the supporters of Rome and of Lindisfarne/Iona disagreed, and how these issues were resolved at the Synod of Whitby.

7. Be able to compare/contrast the foundation and evolution of women's monasticism in Britain with that in the Merovingian world.

8. Be able to discuss the relationship between continental monasteries and Anglo-Saxon royal women and the missionary Boniface.

9. Be able to trace the rise and fall of monastic foundations within the context of the rise and fall of political regions, kingdoms, and rulers of the Anglo-Saxon era.

FOUNDATIONS MENTIONED:

Folkestone
Whitby
Lyming
Glastonbury
Barking
Hartlepool
Kitzengen
Oxford
Sheppey
Lindisfarne
Ochsenfurt
Thanet
Hackness
Schornsheim
Wimbourne
Coldingham
Bischofsheim

Principal Players: Women

Heiu (Helena), first nun of Northumbria, consecrated by Aidan and confused with St. Bega of Ireland and St. Begu of Hackness

Begu of Hackness, nun who had a vision of Hild's death

Hild, baptized by Paulinus and abbess of Hartlepool and Whitby

Bertha of Kent, wife of Ethelbert and daughter of Charibert

Ethelberg, daughter of Bertha and Ethlebert and wife of Edwin, foundress and abbess of Lyming

Eanfled, daughter of Ethelberg and Edwin, first baptism in Northumbria, wife of Oswy, nun at Whitby (?)

Elfled, daugher of Oswy and Eanfled, and abbess of Whitby

Eanswida, daugher of Eadbald and abbess of Folkestone

Sexberg, wife of Ercombert of Kent, mother of Ermengilda and Ermengota, foundress of Minster on Sheppey, abbess of Ely

Saethrith and Ethelburg, sisters of Sexburga Ercongota, abbess of Sheppey Etheldred (Audrey), wife of Egfrid, sister of Sexburg, patroness of Wilfrid, foundress of Ely Ebba, abbess of Coldingham and friend of Wilfrith and Cuthbert of Lindisfarne

Fridewith of Oxford Leoba of Barking Ethelberg, abbess of Barking and sister of Erconwald

Torcgith, nun of Barking who had a vision of Ethelberg's death

Eadburg, abbess of Thanet and correspondent of Boniface

MEN:

Aidan of Lindisfarne Benedict Biscop, founder of Monkwearmoth and Jarrow

Bede, monk of Monkwearmoth and Jarrow

Wilfrid, Bishop of York

Boniface, missionary to Germany

Oswald and Oswy, kings of Northumbria

Edwin, king of Northumbria Paulinus, missionary to Northumbria

Augustine of Canterbury, missionary to the Britons

*See also above list of women for their husbands

REVIEW REFERENCES:

You might find it very helpful to review the compilation of Anglo-Saxon monastic women in Roger Schonebechler, O.S.B., Deborah Vess and Judith Sutera, O.S.B., eds., "Anglo-Saxon Monastic Women." Magistra vol. 1 no. 1 (1995): 139-172. I will also post this to our web site. In addition, you may also want to read my paper "The Role of Benedictine Women Before the Gregorian Reform," which I will also post. This paper discusses the Anglo-Saxon women as well as some of the Merovingian women we have studied, but it also encompasses the larger topic of continental monasticism before the eleventh century.

See also:

Primary Source:

Bede. Ecclessiastical History.

Secondary Sources:

Lina Eckenstein. Woman under Monasticism. New York: Russell and Russell, 1896.

A dated, though still very useful, overview of women's monastic history. The classic in the field before McNamara's text.

Janemarie Luecke, "The Unique Experience of Anglo-Saxon Nuns." Lillian Shank and John A. Nichols, eds. Peace Weavers. Kalamazoo: Cistercian Publications, 1987.

Jo Ann Kay McNamara. Sisters in Arms. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1996.

OUTLINE

I. General Background

A. Significance of Anglo-Saxon monastic women and men
B. Sources

II. Roman Mission to Britain

A. Kent
i. Bertha and Ethelbert
ii. Augustine of Canterbury

a) the Ss. Peter and Paul Church

iii. Competition with Northumbria
iv. Daughter Ethelburg and marriage to Edwin
v. Paulinus vi. Eanfled and Wilfrid
vi. Baptisim of Hild and Hereswith
vii. Hatfield and the death of Edwin
viii. Flight of Ethelburg to Kent and Lyming
ix) Eadbald and his daughter Eanswida

a) Folkestone

x. Erconbert and Queen Sexberg

a) Sheppey (Minster)
b) Saethrith, Ethelburg, and Ercongota
c) Anglo-Saxons abroad

i) Mildrid of Thanet

a) Charter of Werberg

II. Northumbrian Houses

A. Whitby
i. King Oswald
ii. Lindisfarne and Aidan
iii. Heiu

a) Hartlepool and Tadcaster

iv. Death of Oswald
v. Civil War

A) Oswy
B) Oswin

vi. Hild and

A) Aidan and Hartlepool
B) Oswy and Elflaed
C) Streaneshalch, or Whitby
D) life at Whitby: education

i) John, bishop of Hexham and later York
ii) St. John of Beverly
iii) Aetla, Dorechester
iv) Boda, archbishop of York
v) Oftfor, to Canterbury to study with Theodore, then bishop of Worcester
vi) Caedmon

E) Celtic and Roman customs

i) the Synod of Whitby -- 664 C.E.

F) death and Begu's vision at Hackness
G) Elflaed and Oswy's queen Eanfled

III. Ely and Wilfrith

A. Etheldred (Audrey) and her husband Egfrid
B. Coldingham and Wilfrith's consecration

i) The Abbess Ebba
ii) Bede's portrait of Coldingham
iii) Ebba and Wilfrid
iv) Cuthbert

C. Ely
D. Sexberg, Ermenhild, and Werburg

IV. Northumbrian Glory

A. Monkwearmoth, Jarrow, and Benedict Biscop
B. The Venerable Bede

i) The Ecclessiastical History
ii) problems and lessons
iii) Roman perspective vs. Anglo-Saxon nationalism

V. Southern Houses

A. Glastonbury

B. Frideswith and Oxford
C. Barking

i) Erconwald and Ethelberg
ii) Torcgith's vision
iii) Ealdhelm's treatise on virginity
iv) Cuthberg
v) Leoba

A) Tetta of Wimbourne

D. Missions of Boniface

i) correspondence with women

a) Eadburg of Thanet

ii) request for Leoba

a) Thecla, Kunihilt, and Kunitrud
b) convents of Tauberbischofshiem, Kitzengen, Ochsenfurt, Schornsheim
c) her influence
d) death of Boniface and Leoba

i) monks of Fulda

VI. Conclusion

A. Women's voices

B. The Vikings