August 25th - St. Ebba, Abbess of Coldingham, Northumbria

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August 25th - St. Ebba, Abbess of Coldingham, Northumbria
Sister of King Oswy (Aebbe, Ebbe, Tabbs)

Died 683; feast of her translation is November 2. Saint Ebba, the
daughter of King Ethelfrith of Northumbria, fled to Scotland with her
brothers Saint Oswald (f.d. August 9) and Oswy, when their father died
in battle in 616 against King Saint Edwin (f.d. October 12). She
received the veil from Saint Finan (f.d. February 17) at Lindisfarne.
With the generous help of her brother, Ebba founded a convent on the
Derwent, named Ebchester after her. She also established the double
monastery at Coldingham in the marshes of Scotland's Berwickshire.
This holy abbess governed Coldingham's nuns until her death, basing
their organisation on that of Whitby.

When Saint Etheldreda (f.d. June 23) separated from King Egfrith in
672, she went first to her Aunt Ebba, where she lived until she
founded Ely Abbey. In 681, Egfrith visited Coldingham with his second
wife Ermenburga, who suddenly fell ill. Ebba interpreted the illness
as God's punishment for Egfrith's imprisonment of Saint Wilfrid (f.d.
October 12) and Ermenburga's theft of Wilfrid's relics and
reliquaries. Ermenburga recovered after her husband released Wilfrid
and she restored his relics.

Shortly thereafter a priest named Adomnan admonished Ebba for the
relaxed state of her community. The sisters were spending their time
weaving fine cloth to adorn themselves to attract attention. Both the
men and women neglected their prayers and vigils. After the warning,
the community reformed its ways for a short time, but later reverted
to type--Ebba was not suitable as an administrator.

Although her monastery burned down in 686, her name lived on at
Ebchester Abbey, Saint Abb's Head (where the ruins of a fort may
indicate the site of her monastery), and a street and church in
Oxford. Her relics were discovered late in the 11th century and shared
between Durham and Coldingham, which is more than a mile away from
Ebba's Coldingham. Her cultus spread at that time and her feast was
widely celebrated throughout northern Britain (Benedictines, Farmer,
Husenbeth).


Saint Quote:
The greatest security we can have in this world that we are in the
grace of God, does not consist in the feelings that we have of love to
Him, but rather in an irrevocable abandonment of our whole being into
His hands, and in a firm resolution never to consent to any sin great
or small.
-- St. Francis of Sales

Bible Quote:
Take heed to yourselves. If thy brother sin against thee, reprove him:
and if he do penance, forgive him. And if he sin against thee seven
times in a day, and seven times in a day be converted unto thee,
saying: I repent: forgive him. [Luk 17:3-4] DRB


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The Service of The Blessed Virgin

If I wanted to, I would show you that in all walks of life there have
been great servants of the Blessed Virgin. I would find for you, among
them, those who begged their bread from door to door. I would find for
you, among them, those who lived in much the same sort of state in
life as many of you. I would find them for you among the wealthy, and
in great number, too. We read in the Gospel that our Lord always
treated people with great tenderness, except for one type of people
whom He treated with severity; these were the Pharisees, and they were
so treated because they were proud and hardened in sin. They would
willingly have hindered, if they could, the accomplishment of the will
of the Father. What is more, our Lord called them "whited sepulchers,
hypocrites, brood of vipers, offspring of vipers, who devour the
breasts of their mothers."

We can say the same thing on the subject of devotion to the Blessed
Virgin. All Christians have a great devotion to Mary except those old
and hardened sinners who, for a very long time, having lost the faith,
wallow in the slime of their brute passions.

The Devil tries to keep them in this state of blindness until that
moment when death opens their eyes. Ah! If they had but the happiness
to have recourse to Mary they would not fall into Hell, as will happen
to them! No, my dear children, let us not imitate such people! On the
contrary, let us follow the footsteps of all those true servants of
Mary. Belonging to this number were St. Charles Borromeo, who always
said his rosary on his knees. What is more, he fasted on all vigils of
the feasts of the Blessed Virgin. He was so careful about saluting her
on the stroke of the bell that when the Angelus rang, wherever he was,
he went down on his knees, sometimes even in the middle of the road
when it was full of mud. He desired that his whole diocese should have
a great devotion to Mary and that her name would be uttered everywhere
with the utmost respect. He had a number of chapels built in her
honour.

Now then, my dear brethren, why should we not imitate these great
saints who obtained so many graces from Mary to preserve them from
sin? Have we not the same enemies to fight, the same Heaven to hope
for? Yes, Mary always has her eyes upon us. Do we suffer temptations?
Let us turn our hearts towards Mary and we shall be delivered.

From Sermons from the Curè de Ars