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St. Hilda of Whitby
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Saints and feasts
St. Hilda of Whitby
Abbess
Hilda guided the communities at Hartlepool and Whitby. Princes and bishops sought her counsel, and her monastery formed future pastors.
The reading
ⓘ Butler source and secondary note
Alban Butler, The Lives of the Fathers, Martyrs, and Other Principal Saints, Volume XI (November), Thomas Richardson and Son, Derby, for the Catholic Book Society, 1846; November 18, “St Hilda or Hild, Abbess,” pp. 394-397. Additional biographical source: Herbert Thurston, “St. Hilda,” The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume VII, Robert Appleton Company, 1910, https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/07350a.htm, records her historical November 17 feast.
Hilda belonged to the royal family of Northumbria and was baptized by St. Paulinus. Her religious vocation eventually placed her under the guidance of St. Aidan. Butler follows her service at Hartlepool and then at the great community of Streaneshalch, later known as Whitby, where communities of men and women were under her care.
Her wisdom drew bishops, kings and other people seeking counsel. Butler particularly praises her ability to reconcile differences and preserve peace. Whitby also became a place of learning and the formation of future bishops. The community’s importance in the history of the English Church rested in part on this sustained work of teaching and religious discipline.
The discussion over the observance of Easter took place at Whitby during her lifetime. The royal child Elfleda was also entrusted to her and later succeeded her in the government of the community. Hilda died in 680. Butler preserves her memory as an abbess whose authority was exercised through prudence, charity and the ordering of a shared religious life, rather than through royal rank alone.
Historical note
An original Novena Regina reading adapted and summarized from the cited pre-1962 sources. This is not a transcription of Butler’s words.
Butler prints the life under November 18. The calendar here follows the historical November 17 feast recorded by the separately cited 1910 Catholic Encyclopedia article. The story about turning snakes into stones is not used as biography.
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