Died c. 717; other feasts are on December 22, September 3, March 7
(translation), and September 23 (translation). Though English, the
young Anglo-Saxon princess Saint Hildelid was raised in France. She took
the veil there either at Chelles or Faremoutier.
Saint Erconwald (f.d. April 30)
recalled her to England to train her sister,
Saint Ethelburga (f.d. October 12),
to be abbess of Barking. It seems, however, that her
association as Ethelburga's sister is in the religious, rather than
familial, sense, even though Barking was a family monastery that
belonged to Erconwald.
When Ethelburga took the reins as abbess, Hildelid remained there as one
of her nuns, and eventually succeeded her about 675. She ruled well for
many years, enlarged the rather cramped monastic buildings, and
translated the relics of holy nuns from the cemetery to the church.
Hildelid won the admiration of
Saints Aldhelm (f.d. May 25),
Bede (f.d. May 26),
and
Boniface (f.d. June 5);
Saint Aldhelm dedicated his book
On Virginity to her and her sisters. The work presupposed advanced
Latin reading skills, which indicates the erudition of the nuns.
Boniface mentions one of her visions that she described to him. In the
diocese of Brentwood, her feast is kept together with that of
Saint Cuthburga (f.d. September 3)
(
Attwater2,
Benedictines,
Encyclopaedia,
Farmer,
Gill).