Eata of Hexham

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Eata of Hexham bigraphy, stories - Bishop of Lindisfarne; Bishop of Hexham; Saint

Eata of Hexham : biography

– 686

Eata (died 26 October 686), also known as Eata of Lindisfarne, was bishop of Lindisfarne from 678 until 685, and of Hexham from then until his death.Powicke Handbook of British Chronology p. 238 and p. 231 He was the first native of Northumbria to take the bishopric of Lindisfarne.

Life

Eata was originally taken to Lindisfarne as a boy under Aidan and trained as a monk. He was chosen as one of the 12 monks selected from Lindisfarne to found the new daughter monastery at Melrose. In 651 he was elected abbot of Melrose. Around 658 he left Melrose and founded a new monastery at Ripon in Yorkshire, taking with him the young St Cuthbert, who was his guest-master. In 661 King Alchfrith of Deira expelled Eata from Ripon, because he had appointed Wilfrid as the new abbot.Walsh A New Dictionary of Saints p. 166Stephanus Vita Wilfridi 8 Eata returned to Melrose.

The historian Bede described Eata as a gentle and greatly revered man. As an administrator Eata applied his skills at the time of plague, civil disorders and major ecclesiastical change.

In 663 Alhfrith and Wilfrid persuaded King Oswiu to hold the Synod of Whitby to decide which traditions within Christianity, Celtic or Roman, would take priority in Northumbria over matters such as the clerical tonsure and the date of Easter; the synod decided to accept the arguments of Wilfrid and the king for the Roman traditions, to which Eata, unlike Colmán of Lindisfarne, acquiesced.Bede Ecclesiastical History of England Chapter 25

Before Whitby, the abbot of Lindisfarne was also the Bishop of Lindisfarne, after Whitby these two roles were divided. The old abbot, Colman, left Lindisfarne to go back to Iona with 30 English monks. Tuda was selected as the next Bishop of Lindisfarne and Eata moved from Melrose to become abbot of Lindisfarne. He appointed Cuthbert as prior at Lindisfarne.Bede Ecclesiastical History of England Chapter 26

In 678, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Theodore split the diocese of Northumbria into two new bishoprics. Eata became bishop of Bernicia. Bernicia had two episcopal sees, one at Hexham and the other at Lindisfarne. Eata was the bishop of the whole of Bernicia for three years, after which the see of Hexham was assigned to Trumbert, and Lindisfarne to Eata. After the death of Trumbert in 684, Cuthbert was elected Bishop of Hexham. Eata and Cuthbert exchanged sees shortly thereafter, and for the last two years of his life Eata occupied Hexham. He died of dysentery in 686, and was buried in the Benedictine Abbey of Hexham.

Like most of the early saints of the English Church, St. Eata was canonized by general repute of sanctity among the faithful in the regions which he helped to Christianize.

Legacy

The only church dedicated to him in England is St Eata’s Church at Atcham in Shropshire, where he is depicted in one of the stained glass windows.

Notes