The Princess who brought Celtic Christianity (Sabbath keeping) to Bernicia & Deira....
"Born a pagan princess, Aebbe (Æbbe of Coldingham) was the daughter of King Ethelfrith of Bernicia and Acha of Deira. Bernicia and Deira were Anglo-Saxon kingdoms in what is now
southeastern Scotland and North East England.
When her father was killed, Aebbe fled with her siblings to Dál Riata, a kingdom that extended across parts of western Scotland and north eastern Ireland. It was a hub of early Christianity, and the family quickly converted to Christianity.
When her brother Oswald returned to Bernicia in 635 A.D. to reclaim the family throne, she joined him on a shared mission to convert the still largely pagan population.
Aebbe would have been one of the most eligible brides in the kingdom, but she refused to marry.
At the time, Dál Riata included much of western Scotland and north-eastern Ireland.
Unlike Edwin, who converted to Roman Catholic Christianity and seems to have fancied himself as a latter-day Roman emperor, the kings of Aebbe’s new home in Dál Riata were Gaelic in their cultural affinities and thoroughly Irish in their Christianity.
Instead, she established the monastery that helped her brother maintain control over the northernmost parts of his kingdom, holding a community of pagans and Christians together.
For decades, archaeologists have tried to locate the monastery, which was destroyed by Viking raiders in 870 A.D.
Now, excavations have found traces of a vast, but narrow circular ditch, which is likely to be the ‘vallum’, the boundary surrounding Aebbe’s religious settlement.
In the area just outside the boundary, where small-scale industries like metalworking or pottery production would usually have taken place, the team also uncovered a huge pile of butchered animal bones which radiocarbon dating has just confirmed date to 660-860 A.D.
“This is pretty much exactly when Aebbe’s monastery was in existence. Originally built around 640 A.D., it is said to have burned down shortly after her death, but was then rebuilt and thrived until it was destroyed once again by Viking raiders 200 years later,” Dr. Forster said."
SciNews
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"Born a pagan princess, Aebbe (Æbbe of Coldingham) was the daughter of King Ethelfrith of Bernicia and Acha of Deira. Bernicia and Deira were Anglo-Saxon kingdoms in what is now
When her father was killed, Aebbe fled with her siblings to Dál Riata, a kingdom that extended across parts of western Scotland and north eastern Ireland. It was a hub of early Christianity, and the family quickly converted to Christianity.
When her brother Oswald returned to Bernicia in 635 A.D. to reclaim the family throne, she joined him on a shared mission to convert the still largely pagan population.
Aebbe would have been one of the most eligible brides in the kingdom, but she refused to marry.
At the time, Dál Riata included much of western Scotland and north-eastern Ireland.
Unlike Edwin, who converted to Roman Catholic Christianity and seems to have fancied himself as a latter-day Roman emperor, the kings of Aebbe’s new home in Dál Riata were Gaelic in their cultural affinities and thoroughly Irish in their Christianity.
Instead, she established the monastery that helped her brother maintain control over the northernmost parts of his kingdom, holding a community of pagans and Christians together.
For decades, archaeologists have tried to locate the monastery, which was destroyed by Viking raiders in 870 A.D.
Now, excavations have found traces of a vast, but narrow circular ditch, which is likely to be the ‘vallum’, the boundary surrounding Aebbe’s religious settlement.
In the area just outside the boundary, where small-scale industries like metalworking or pottery production would usually have taken place, the team also uncovered a huge pile of butchered animal bones which radiocarbon dating has just confirmed date to 660-860 A.D.
“This is pretty much exactly when Aebbe’s monastery was in existence. Originally built around 640 A.D., it is said to have burned down shortly after her death, but was then rebuilt and thrived until it was destroyed once again by Viking raiders 200 years later,” Dr. Forster said."
SciNews