La
mutilation d'Æbbe et de ses sœurs, devant leur monastère en flammes. Gravure
de Giovanni Battista de' Cavalieri d'après
une fresque de Niccolò Circignani au Collège anglais de Rome, parue en 1584 dans
le recueil Ecclesiae Anglicanae Trophae.
The
self-mutilation of Saint Æbbe and her community. Plate from Ecclesiae
Anglicanae Trophae (1584), a collection of engravings by Giovanni Battista de'Cavalieri after
murals by Niccolò Circignani in the chapel of
the Venerable English College, Rome.
Sainte Ebba la Jeune
Abbesse de
Coldingham (+ 870)
En Ecosse, sainte Ebba,
abbesse de Coldingham et ses compagnes, martyres. Les Danois ayant envahi
l'Ecosse, sainte Ebbe craignit moins pour sa vie que pour sa chasteté et celle
de ses religieuses : elle se coupa le nez et la lèvre supérieure. Toutes ses filles
eurent le courage de l'imiter. Les barbares reculèrent d'horreur, mais ils
mirent le feu au monastère dont toutes les habitantes furent brûlées vives.
SOURCE : http://nominis.cef.fr/contenus/saint/905/Sainte-Ebba-la-Jeune.html
Sainte Ebba la Jeune
Abbesse de Coldingham
(Berwickshire)
Fête le 23 août
† Coldingham,
Berwickshire, Écosse, 2 avril 870
Autres graphies :
Aebbe la Jeune, Aebbe ou Ebbe
Autre mention : 2
avril
Abbesse de Coldingham
(dans les Borders), en Écosse, elle décida, en apprenant l’arrivée des pirates
danois, de se défigurer pour sauver sa chasteté. Elle se coupa donc le nez et
la lévre supérieure et ses religieuses l’imitèrent. Les Danois mirent le feu au
monastère et firent périr dans les flammes toute la communauté, qui gagna ainsi
la palme du martyre en 870.
SOURCE : http://www.martyretsaint.com/ebba-la-jeune/
Sainte Ebba la Jeune, Vierge & Martyre.
(Ebbe)
Morte en 879; ancien jour de fête le 23 août. Ebba était l'abbesse de la grande
fondation monastique de Coldingham dans les marais sur la frontière écossaise,
qui avait été fondée 2 siècles plus tôt par sainte Ebba l'Ancienne (25 août).
Pendant l'invasion des Danois, sainte Ebba a craint pour sa virginité, à cause
de la réputation de violeur des Vikings et à cause des massacres. Elle a
rassemblé ses religieuses dans le chapitre et les a encouragées à suivre son
exemple: avec un rasoir elle s'est coupé (ou ouvert) le nez et sa lèvre
supérieure pour décourager le viol par les envahisseurs. La communauté entière
a fait de même. Cela devait être un spectacle effroyable. Leur apparence a
tellement dégoûté les assaillants que les femmes ont été épargnées du viol mais
pas de la mort : Les Danois ont mis le feu au couvent en le quittant. La
communauté entière a péri dans les flammes.
Bien qu'on n'ait pas conservé de trace écrite de sainte Ebba, elle devait se
trouver dans les manuscrits perdus de Tynemouth, où un sanctuaire lui était
dédié au 13ième siècle. A Coldingham, un autre manuscrit se réfère à une
curieuse fête de l'élévation d'un autel de sainte Ebba le 22 juin, qui peut
avoir rapport soit avec la Jeune, soit avec l'Ancienne Ebba (Bénédictins,
Encyclopaedia, Farmer, Husenbeth).
SOURCE : http://home.scarlet.be/amdg/oldies/sankt/avr02.html
Also
known as
Ebbe of Coldingham
Abb
Aebbe
Ebba
Profile
Abbess at
Coldingham, Berwickshire, Scotland,
a double
monastery that had been founded by Saint Ebbe
the Elder, and which was the largest in the country at the time. When
the monastery was
attacked by Scandinavian pirates,
Ebbe gathered her nuns and
exhorted them to save themselves from falling into the hands of the pirates by
voluntary disfiguring themselves. She then set an example by cutting off her
own nose and upper lip; the other nuns did
the same. When the Vikings broke into the convent,
they were so horrified and angry by what the women had
done to escape being raped,
they locked them all in, set fire to the house, and burned them all to death.
burned
to death on 2 April 870 at
Coldingham monastery,
Berwickshire, Scotland
Additional
Information
Book
of Saints, by the Monks of
Ramsgate
Lives
of the Saints, by Father Alban
Butler
Saints
of the Day, by Katherine Rabenstein
books
Our Sunday Visitor’s Encyclopedia of Saints
other
sites in english
webseiten
auf deutsch
sites
en français
websites
in nederlandse
nettsteder
i norsk
MLA
Citation
‘Saint Ebbe the
Younger‘. CatholicSaints.Info. 29 May 2020. Web. 25 March 2026.
<https://catholicsaints.info/saint-ebbe-the-younger/>
SOURCE : https://catholicsaints.info/saint-ebbe-the-younger/
Book of
Saints – Ebba the Younger and Others
Article
EBBA THE YOUNGER, and
OTHERS (Saints) Martyrs (August 23) (9th century) The noble Virgin-Martyrs of
Coldingham who, assaulted by the heathen Danes, courageously protected their
honour by mutilating their faces, enraged at which the barbarians burned them alive
in their monastery (A.D. 870).
MLA
Citation
Monks of Ramsgate. “Ebba
the Younger and Others”. Book of Saints, 1921. CatholicSaints.Info. November 2012.
Web. 25 March 2026. <http://catholicsaints.info/book-of-saints-ebba-the-younger-and-others/>
SOURCE : https://catholicsaints.info/book-of-saints-ebba-the-younger-and-others/
New
Catholic Dictionary – Saint Ebba the Younger
Article
Virgin, martyr, Abbess of
Coldingham, died c.870.
During the Danish invasion she and her nuns mutilated their faces to preserve
their chastity, and were burned alive, when the barbarians set fire to
the monastery. Feast, 2
April.
MLA
Citation
“Saint Ebba the
Younger”. New Catholic Dictionary. CatholicSaints.Info. 18
December 2012.
Web. 25 March 2026.
<http://catholicsaints.info/new-catholic-dictionary-saint-ebba-the-younger/>
SOURCE : https://catholicsaints.info/new-catholic-dictionary-saint-ebba-the-younger/
St. Ebba the Younger
Feastday: April 2
Death: 870
Abbess of Coldingham,
England, on the Scottish border, called “the Younger.” She and her nuns were
martyred by Danes in an invasion. She mutilated her face to discourage rape by
the invading Danes. The raiders set fire to Coldingham, killing all of the
nuns.
SOURCE : https://www.catholic.org/saints/saint.php?saint_id=3028
Ebba (Ebbe) the Younger,
OSB VM (AC)
Died 879; feast day
formerly August 23. Ebba was abbess of the great Benedictine foundation of
Coldingham in the Marshes on the Scottish border, which had been founded two
centuries earlier by Saint Ebba the Elder. During a Danish invasion Saint Ebba
feared for her virginity because of the Viking reputation for rape and
massacre. She gathered her nuns in the chapter house and encouraged them to
follow her example: with a razor she cut off (or cut open) her nose and upper
lip to discourage rape by the invaders. The entire community did likewise. They
must have made a frightful spectacle. Their appearance so disgusted the raiders
that the women were saved from rape but not from death: The Danes soon returned
and set fire to the convent. The entire community perished in the flames.
Although there is no
surviving ancient record of Saint Ebba, it may have been among the lost
manuscripts at Tynemouth, and no ancient cultus, there was a shrine dedicated
to her in the 13th century. In Coldingham, another manuscript refers to a
curious feast of the dedication of the altar of Saint Ebba on June 22, which
may refer to either the Younger or the Elder (Benedictines, Encyclopedia,
Farmer, Husenbeth).
SOURCE : http://www.saintpatrickdc.org/ss/0402.shtml
April 2
St. Ebba, Abbess, and Her
Companions, Martyrs
IN the ninth century St.
Ebba governed the great monastery of Coldingham, situated in Merch, or the
Marshes, a province in the shire of Berwick, which was for some time subject to
the English, at other times to the Scots. This was at that time the largest monastery
in all Scotland, and had been founded by another St. Ebba, who was sister to
St. Oswald and Oswi, kings of Northumberland. 1 In
the year 870, according to Matthew of Westminster, or rather in 874, according
to the Scottish historians, in an incursion of the cruel Danish pirates,
Hinguar and Hubba, this abbess was anxious, not for her life, but for her
chastity, to preserve which she had recourse to the following stratagem: Having
assembled her nuns in the Chapterhouse, after making a moving discourse to her
sisters, she, with a razor, cut off her nose and upper-lip, and was
courageously imitated by all the holy community. The frightful spectacle which
they exhibited in this condition protected their virginity. But the infidels,
enraged at their disappointment, set fire to the monastery, and these holy
virgins died in the flames spotless victims to their heavenly spouse, the lover
and rewarder of chaste souls. See Matthew of Westminster, Baronius ad an.
870, Cressy, &c.
Note
1. The monastery of Coldingham was burnt by John, king of England, and
after it was rebuilt retained only the rank of a priory till the change of
religion. A nephew of bishop Lesley, a Scottish Jesuit, tells us, in the lives
of Scottish Saints, which he compiled in Latin, that he found the ruins very
stately when he took a survey of them in 1610. See this MS. History of
Scottish Saints, p. 98.
Rev. Alban
Butler (1711–73). Volume IV: April. The Lives of the
Saints. 1866.
SOURCE : http://www.bartleby.com/210/4/025.html
Calendar
of Scottish Saints – Saint Ebba, Virgin and Abbess, and her Companions,
Martyrs, A.D. 870
Article
The monastery of
Coldingham, in the ancient kingdom of Northumbria, founded in the seventh
century by Saint Ebba, sister of the kings Oswald and Oswy, was governed in the
ninth century by another Ebba, who presided over a band of holy virgins
following the Rule of Saint Benedict. About the year 867 several thousand
Danish warriors, under the command of the brothers Hinguar and Hubba, landed on
the coast of East Anglia and desolated the whole north country. When Abbess
Ebba received tidings of the near approach of the pagan hordes, who had already
wrecked vengeance upon ecclesiastics, monks, and consecrated virgins, she
summoned her nuns to Chapter, and in a moving discourse exhorted them to
preserve at any cost the treasure of their chastity. Then seizing a razor, and
calling upon her daughters to follow her heroic example, she mutilated her face
in order to inspire the barbarian invaders with horror at the sight. The nuns without
exception courageously followed the example of their abbess. When the Danes
broke into the cloister and saw the nuns with faces thus disfigured, they fled
in panic. Their leaders, burning with rage, sent back some of their number to
set fire to the monastery, and thus the heroic martyrs perished in the common
ruin of their house. Some chronicles give the 23rd August as the day of their
martyrdom, but Scottish writers assign this as their feast day.
MLA
Citation
Father Michael
Barrett, OSB.
“Saint Ebba, Virgin and Abbess, and her Companions, Martyrs, A.D. 870”. The Calendar of Scottish Saints, 1919. CatholicSaints.Info.
9 March 2014. Web. 16 March 2021.
<http://catholicsaints.info/calendar-of-scottish-saints-saint-ebba-virgin-and-abbess-and-her-companions-martyrs-a-d-870/>
Saint Ebba and the nuns
of Coldingham- a 9th century perspective
Although Mt.5:8 states
that the pure in heart are blessed, our present day culture has made sensuality
easily accessible. Porn sites and adult movies are just a click away, filling
the computer or tv screen with licentious images. Chastiy is often viewed as an
anachronism, something to be disposed of as quickly as possible.
How very different, then
for certain women of an earlier time, those who viewed purity and virginity as
supreme virtues. During the 9th century on a Scottish
coast bordering the North Sea, a community of Christian nuns lived
in Coldingham monastery, worshipping and serving God . Their leader, an
abbess named Saint Ebba the Younger, was named after Saint Ebba the Elder who
had founded the monastery two centuries earlier in order to convert Angles to
Christianity.
Saint Ebba the Younger
was equally devoted to her faith. Yet women alone
in medieval Scotland were especially vulnerable to those who didn't
espouse the same values and many invasions occurred during this
time. Rapacious looters delighted in stealing treasures, such as
crosses of gold, from these monasteries. But they didn't stop at stealing.
These thieves also raped nuns who had few ways of protecting themselves.
A particularly
treacherous band of Danish barbarians, headed by the brothers Hinguar and
Hubba, invaded the Scottish coast in 874. Pillaging throughout the
country, they raged against Christianity, demolishing churches and killing
religious personages. Hearing of their approach toward Coldingham, Saint Ebba quickly
gathered her nuns.She did not fear death. But she desired that she and her nuns
could preserve their virtue and remain chaste so that they might be part of the
144,000 virgins singing at the Marriage Feast of the Lamb. Earnestly hoping to
retain their purity, she hatched a desperate plan. Although horribly gruesome,
Ebba felt sure it would work. Subsequently she took out a razor,
hacking off her nose and upper lip. One by one, the others nuns followed suit,
also mutilating their faces.
When the marauders
reached the monastery, they were so repulsed by the sight of these disfigured
women that they did indeed leave them alone. But this situation so
enraged the Danes that they torched the monastery, burning the women
alive.
Still, despite their
extreme sacrifice, the martyred nuns of Coldingham held fast to what had been
so dear to them, retaining their virtue even in the face of death.
Chattanooga
Christian Perspectives Examiner
SOURCE : http://www.examiner.com/article/saint-ebba-and-the-nuns-of-coldingham-a-9th-century-perspective
St. Aebbe the Younger
(Died AD 870)
Abbess of Coldingham
Died: 2nd April AD 870 at Coldingham, Berwickshire
In AD 867, the seven
pirate sons of Ragner Lothbroc, King of Sjaelland (Denmark) & Uppsala
(Sweden), having conquered Norway, invaded England. They wintered among the
East Angles, sailed northward in summer and, landing at the mouth of the Tweed,
laid waste the country with fire and sword, apparently actuated as much by
cruelty and love of destruction as by desire of plunder. They attacked the
monastery of Coldingham, at that time the largest in Scotland. St. Aebbe the
Younger assembled all her nuns in the chapter-house and exhorted them to save
themselves from falling into the hands of the barbarians, by voluntary
disfigurement. She set the example by cutting off her own nose and upper lip.
All the nuns did the same and are commemorated with her, although their names
are not preserved. The Vikings broke into the convent and, disgusted by the
horrible spectacle presented by the nuns, set fire to the house and burnt them
all within it. In the same expedition, many other monasteries were demolished
and the inhabitants massacred.
Edited from Agnes
Dunbar's "A Dictionary of Saintly Women" (1904).
SOURCE : https://web.archive.org/web/20181021020509/http://www.britannia.com/bios/saints/aebbeyounger.html
St. Ebba the Younger,
Martyr, of Coldhingham, Northumbria
Commemorated on June 22
St. Ebba the Younger was
abbess of the great monastic foundation of Coldingham in the Marshes on the
Scottish border overlooking the North Sea, which had been founded two centuries
earlier by St. Ebba the Elder, the daughter of the King of Northumbria and
sister to Ss. Oswald and Oswy.
During a Danish invasion
of Scotland in 879, St. Ebba feared for her virginity because of the Viking’s
reputation for raping and massacring women. She gathered her nuns in the
chapter house and encouraged them to follow her example. Thereafter, she cut
open her nose and upper lip with a razor to discourage rape by the invaders.
The entire community did likewise.
Their appearance so
disgusted the invaders that the women were saved from rape but not from death.
The Danes soon returned and set fire to the convent. The entire monastic
community perished in the flames.
Troparion (Tone 1) –
Having finished your course
and kept the Faith unto the end
In the agony of
immolation ye died for Christ
The Lamb and Shepherd,
slain as reason-endowed ewe-lambs
Wherefore, magnifying Him
with joyous soul
We celebrate your holy
memory today,
O right wondrous and
glorious Ebba and all those of thy flock who suffered with thee.
By permission of www.orthodoxwiki.org
SOURCE : http://www.antiochian.org/content/st-ebba-younger-martyr-coldhingham-northumbria
Den hellige Ebba av
Coldingham (d.y.) og ledsagere (d. ~870)
Minnedag: 2.
april
Den hellige Ebba (Æbbe,
Ebbe) den Yngre ble født på begynnelsen av 800-tallet i England eller Skottland
(?). Hun var abbedisse i klosteret Coldingham på kysten av Northumbria, nord
for Berwick i Merse i Berwickshire ved grensen til Skottland (Berwickshire er
nå en del av regionen Borders i Skottland). Dette klosteret var grunnlagt to
hundre år tidligere av hennes navnesøster Ebba
den eldre, som også var den første abbedissen, og det var nå det største
klosteret i Skottland. Det var opprinnelig et dobbeltkloster, men etter den
ødeleggende brannen i 686 ble det kanskje gjenoppbygd som et rent nonnekloster,
for historien om Ebba den Yngre nevner ikke noen munker.
I følge Chronica
Majora av Matthew Paris, som kanskje bruker en eldre, tapt kilde fra
Tynemouth, led Ebba martyrdøden sammen med sin kommunitet i Coldingham da
danske vikinger angrep rundt 870. Men historien finnes ikke hos noen andre enn
Matthew Paris. Skotske historikere mener vikingangrepet skjedde i 874. De
erobrende vikingene navngis delvis som de grusomme danske piratene Hinguar og
Hubba, eller i en annen versjon de syv piratsønnene av Ragner Lothbroc, konge
av Sjælland og Uppsala, som etter å ha beseiret Norge, invaderte England.
Vikingene hadde et rykte
for massakre og voldtekt, og de ankom til klosteret kort etter at Ebba hadde
advart sin kommunitet. Hun samlet alle søstrene i kapittelhuset og oppmuntret
dem til å følge sitt eget eksempel. Hun ville vokte sin jomfruelighet med alle
midler, og hennes metode var å skjære opp nese og lepper med en barberkniv.
Dette ble også gjort av de andre nonnene, og de må ha vært et fryktelig syn.
Angriperne ble så frastøtt av deres fremtoning at de vek tilbake, så nonnene
slapp å bli voldtatt. Men vikingene vendte snart etter tilbake og brente ned
klosteret med alle dets innbyggere. Det skal ha skjedd den 2. april 870. I den
samme ekspedisjonen ble mange andre klostre også ødelagt og innbyggerne
massakrert.
Det finnes ingen bevarte
skrifter om denne Ebba som er eldre enn Matthew Paris, men det kan ha vært noe
blant de tapte manuskriptene fra Tynemouth. Det var heller ingen gammel kult,
men det fantes et skrin på 1200-tallet. En minnedag er den angivelige dødsdagen
2. april, men noen kilder nevner også 5. oktober, 23. august og 25. august (som
egentlig er minnedag for Ebba d.e. Et manuskript fra Coldingham nevner en
kuriøs fest for en vigsling av et alter for den hellige Ebba den 22. juni – det
kan referere til denne Ebba (eller hennes navnesøster).
Kilder:
Farmer, Benedictines, Bunson, Schauber/Schindler, KIR, CSO, Patron Saints SQPN,
Heiligenlexikon, en.wikipedia.org, britannia.com, celt-saints, zeno.org -
Kompilasjon og oversettelse: p.
Per Einar Odden
Opprettet: 13.
mai 1998
