jeudi 2 avril 2015

Sainte EBBA de COLDINGHAM, la JEUNE (EBBE), abbesse bénédictine, et ses compagnes, martyres

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.

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

Saint Ebbe the Younger

Also known as

Ebbe of Coldingham

Abb

Aebbe

Ebba

Memorial

2 April

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.

Died

burned to death on 2 April 870 at Coldingham monastery, Berwickshire, Scotland

Canonized

Pre-Congregation

Additional Information

Book of Saints, by the Monks of Ramsgate

Calendar of Scottish Saints

Lives of the Saints, by Father Alban Butler

New Catholic Dictionary

Saints of the Day, by Katherine Rabenstein

books

Our Sunday Visitor’s Encyclopedia of Saints

other sites in english

Britannia Biographies

Catholic Online

Celtic Saints

Koren Whipp

Wikipedia

webseiten auf deutsch

Ökumenisches Heiligenlexikon

Wikipedia

sites en français

La fête des prénoms

Wikipedia

websites in nederlandse

Heiligen 3s

Wikipedia

nettsteder i norsk

Den katolske kirke

MLA Citation

“Saint Ebbe the Younger“. CatholicSaints.Info. 29 May 2020. Web. 16 March 2021. <https://catholicsaints.info/saint-ebbe-the-younger/>


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).

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/>

SOURCE : http://catholicsaints.info/calendar-of-scottish-saints-saint-ebba-virgin-and-abbess-and-her-companions-martyrs-a-d-870/

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

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.



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

SOURCE : https://www.katolsk.no/biografier/historisk/eyngre