Hilda of Whitby - Early Life

Early Life

According to Bede, Hilda (or Hild, the Old English form of her name) was born in 614, the second daughter of Hereric, nephew of Edwin of Northumbria, and his wife Breguswith. Her elder sister, Hereswith, married Æthelric, brother of King Anna of East Anglia, who with all of his daughters became renowned for their saintly Christian virtues. Subsequently Hereswith became a nun at Chelles, Gaul (France); Hilda followed her example and founded Whitby.

When Hilda was still an infant, her father was murdered by poison while in exile at the court of the British King of Elmet in what is now West Yorkshire.She was brought up at King Edwin's court in Northumbria. In 627 King Edwin was baptised on Easter Day, April 12, along with his entire court, which included Hilda, in a small wooden church hastily constructed for the occasion near the site of the present York Minster.

The ceremony was performed by the monk-bishop Paulinus, who had come from Rome with Augustine at the request of the pope on what is referred to as the Gregorian mission. He accompanied Æthelburg of Kent, a Christian princess, who was the daughter of King Ethelbert of Kent and the Merovingian princess Saint Bertha, when Æthelburg came North from Kent to marry King Edwin. As queen, Æthelburg continued to practice her Christianity and no doubt influenced her husband's thinking, as her mother had influenced her father.

From the date of her baptism until 647 nothing is known about Hilda. It seems likely that when King Edwin was killed in battle in 633 she went to live with her sister at the East Anglian court. Bede resumes her story at a point when she was about to join her widowed sister at Chelles Abbey in Gaul. At the age of 33, Hilda decided instead, to answer the call of St. Aidan, Bishop of Lindisfarne and chose to return to Northumbria to live as a nun.