[Glass windows in Gloucester Cathedral, Christopher Whall, early 20th century, source: Wikimedia Commons]
Hild was the grand-niece of King Edwin of Northumbria. She grew up in his court and was baptized in 627 along with the rest of his household. We don’t know the events of her life between Edwin’s death six years later and her decision at age 33 (in 648) to join her sister in a monastery in Gaul. Just as she was about to leave though, she got a message from Bishop Aidan of Lindisfarne, asking her to become a nun in Northumbria instead. She agreed and spent a year as an ordinary nun before being made abbess of Hartlepool.
Now, after Edwin’s death, Celtic Christianity came to dominate English practice. Hild herself followed the Celtic rite, and when she founded a double monastery at Streaneschalch, now known as Whitby, she followed the Irish form of monasticism. The religious probably lived in groups of two or three in small huts, men on one side, women on the other, with the church in the middle. Word of Hild’s monastery and its sanctity spread. Hild herself became known for her energy, judgment, wisdom, and able teaching of others. Five of her monks went on to become bishops. She is also credited with encouraging the poet Caedmon, then a stable-boy at the monastery, in his art.
[Arch depicting ammonites as reference to St. Hild, Church of St. Hilda, Ellerburn, England, source: Wikimedia Commons]
Hild spent the last seven years of her life fighting off illness. She stayed devoted to her work and her monastery though and continued on as she had before. She died on 17 November 680.
*This was the name she and those around her used.
**This had a lot to do with royal marriages where one spouse followed the Celtic form and the other the Roman. Since the two traditions calculated the date of Easter differently, one spouse might well be celebrating while the other was still observing Lent. It caused some problems.
Bede the Venerable, "Of the life and death of the Abbess Hilda," Ecclesiastical History of the English Book IV, Chapter XXXIII - Christian Classics Ethereal Library
Bede the Venerable, Ecclesiastical History of the English, Book III, Chapter XXIV - Internet History Sourcebooks Project
Kracher, Alfred. "Ammonites, Legends, and Politics: the Snakestones of HIlda of Whitby." European Journal of Science and Theology 8.4 (2012): 51-66. [Found here on Academia.edu]
Hild of Streonshalh - Women Philosophers
Hilda of Whitby - Women Philosophers
Hilda of Whitby - Wikipedia