Sainte Wulfhilde
Abbesse de Barking (+ v. 1000)
Wulfhilde d'une des premières familles d'Angleterre
montra dès son enfance beaucoup de mépris pour toutes les choses de la terre.
Ses parents la mirent dans le monastère de Winchester. Le roi Edgar conçut pour
elle une passion violente ... Il fit entrer dans ses vues une tante de la
sainte. Celle-ci feignant d'être malade envoya chercher sa nièce. Le roi arriva
aussitôt. Wulfhilde ne tarda pas à sentir le danger qu'elle courait et s'enfuit
... Il y avait longtemps qu'elle méditait d'embrasser l'état religieux ... Le
roi la laissa tranquille, il la nomma même depuis abbesse de Barking et donna
des biens considérables à ce monastère. Wulfhilde céda aussi au même monastère
la possession de vingt villages de son patrimoine. Elle en fonda un second à
Horton dans le comté de Dorset. Elle gouverna ces deux maisons avec autant de
prudence que de sainteté et elle donna l'exemple de toutes les vertus à ses
sœurs... d'après Vies des Pères, des Martyrs et des autres principaux Saints -
pages 86 & 87.
St. Wulfhilde
Placed at a young age by her parents in the monastery
of Winchester, St. Wulfhilde was greatly admired by King Edgar but she rejected
his continuous offers sent via many gifts and letters to the monastery. An aunt
tricked her by feigning sick and asked that she come to her from the monastery
so that there, King Edgar could persuade her to change her resolution. She
violently broke out of the house, leaving part of her sleeve in the hands of
the king, who attempted to hold her. Soon after, she consecrated herself to the
religious state. The king was overcome by her constancy and nominated her
abbess of Barking on which house he bestowed many possessions. Wulfhilde
settled upon it twenty villages of her own patrimony and founded another
monastery at Horton in Dorsetshire. Both these houses she governed with great
sanctity. Her inflexible virtue excited the jealousy of Queen Elflede by whom
she was ejected out of her monasteries but she was restored with honor and died
about the year 990.
SOURCE : https://servi.org/members-saints/st-wulfhilde/2018-12-09/
December 9
St.
Wulfhilde, Virgin and Abbess
THIS noble lady
learned from her infancy to despise all earthly things, and to love and esteem
only those which are heavenly; and was placed young by her parents in the
monastery of Winchester. King Edward became enamoured of her; but she rejected
his great offers, entreaties, ensnaring presents, and messages, knowing that
virtue is not to be secured but by watching against the most distant sight, and
the most subtle and disguised approaches of an enemy. An aunt of the virgin
suffered herself to be gained by the king, and feigning herself sick, sent for
Wulfhilde out of her monastery to come to her. The virgin was scarcely arrived
at her house but the king came upon her, hoping to overcome her resolution; but
alarmed beyond measure at the danger, she violently broke out of the house,
leaving part of her sleeve in the hands of the king, who attempted to hold her,
and running to the church held the altar, imploring the divine protection with
many tears. It had long been her desire to consecrate herself to her heavenly
spouse in a religious state. The horror and dread of the danger to which her
soul had been exposed in this temptation, was a spur to her in the pursuit of
virtue, and she completed the entire sacrifice of herself to God, with the
fervour of a saint. The king was overcome by her constancy, and afterwards
nominated her abbess of Barking, on which house he bestowed many fair
possessions. Wulfhilde settled upon it twenty villages of her own patrimony;
and founded another monastery at Horton, in Dorsetshire. Both these houses she
governed with great sanctity and prudence, lived in great austerity, and was a
model of charity, devotion, meekness, and humility. Her inflexible virtue
excited the jealousy of Queen Elflede, by whom she was ejected out of her monasteries.
But she was restored with honour, and died about the year 990, in the reign of
Etheldred II. Many miracles were wrought at her tomb, as William of Malmesbury
and others assure us. St. Edilburge, St. Wulfhilde, and St. Hildelide were much
honoured by our English ancestors, and their relics esteemed the greatest
treasure of the abbey of Barking; in which St. Erkonwald, the founder, made his
sister, St. Edilburge, the first abbess, but gave her St. Hildelide for her
assistant, whom he called over from France, where she had made her religious
profession, though an English lady by birth. 1 As she was the directress of
Edilburge, during her life, so she succeeded her in the government of this
monastery after her death, and is named in the English Calendars on the 24th of
March. 2 On St. Wulfhilde, see William of Malmesbury, l. 2.
Pontif. and her life in Capgrave, and in John of Tinmouth. 3
Note 1. Du Plessis imagines Trithemius and others who
mentioned St. Hildelide, abbess, among the saints who flourished at
Faremoutier, mistook this name for St. Hilda, though she never was there. It is
true that St. Hildelide was never abbess at Faremoutier, but at Barking in
England. But she had unquestionably lived at Faremoutier or at Chelles, before
she came to Barking. See Bede, (l. 4, c. 10.)
Du Plessis, (Hist. de l’Egl. de Meaux, l. 1, n. 84.) [back]
Note 2. Bede. Hist. l. 4, c. 10. [back]
Note 3. John of Tinmouth, monk of St. Alban’s flourished in 1370, and compiled
the lives of one hundred and fifty-seven British, English, Scottish, and Irish
saints. His Sanctilogium is extant in MS. in the Lambeth Library, quoted by
Wharton, (Anglia Sacra, t. 2, p. 75, &c.) also in the Cottonian Library;
but this copy is so much damaged by the conflagration of an adjoining house, next
the wall of the library, when it was kept at Westminster, that the leaves are
glued together. By the methods which are used at the Vatican library and at
Herculaneum, to unfold MSS. which are worn with age, and in which the leaves
adhere together, several of these endamaged MS. books might probably be again
made useful. John Capgrave in his Legenda Sanctorum Angliæ, printed at London
in 1516, collected one hundred and sixty-eight lives of saints, all which,
except fourteen, he copied verbatim from John of Tinmouth, says Leland in Joan.
Tinmouthensi: yet in Tinmouth several things occur which are not in
Capgrave. [back]
Rev. Alban Butler (1711–73). Volume
XII: December. The Lives of the Saints. 1866.
