7th century. In connection with Egbert's vision of the death of
Saint Cedd (f.d. October 26),
Saint Bede (f.d. May 25)
mentions that Abbot
Hybald of Bardney was a very holy and abstemious man. There are four
churches dedicated to him in Lincolnshire. He was buried in Hibaldstow
and gave it his name. His feast can be found in the 11th-century
martyrology of Exeter
(
Farmer).
Another Life from the Lincolnshire Paterikon (December)
http://www.antiochian-orthodox.co.uk/all_saints_lincolnshire.htm
St. Hybald of Bardney. d. 690
(Also known as Hybald, Hibald, Higbald)
Travelling some twenty miles north from Lincoln along the Roman road of
Ermine Street (the current A15) one finds a finger post pointing the way to
Hibaldstow. Turning to the right along a narrow road one enters the
Lincolnshire Carrs which is the local name given to an area given to
flooding. People further south would call it a fen. Soon one comes across a
small settlement. It was always so: the Romans smelted iron and the Saxons
grew their crops in this place, life was generally peaceful and generally
uneventful. It was here, though, that St. Hybald, the enormously tall Abbot
of Bardney, chose to be buried. His reasons are unclear. It is possible that
he followed the example of his Spiritual Father, St. Chad, and used
Hibaldstow as a missionary outpost (St. Chad's was at Cadney) and perhaps a
place from which to retreat from his intensely busy monastery and it may be
that he died whilst visiting his own Spiritual Children there.
The saint, as St. Bede tells us, was a very holy and abstemious man much
given to talking about the lives of the early fathers, and of his own
Spiritual Father, with his friend and Spiritual Brother St. Egbert. That he
was Abbot of such an important place as Bardney shows that he must have been
a man of great learning and high social standing. When Hibaldstow received
his relics it became a remote but not unimportant place of pilgrimage and
the faithful who came were healed and had their prayers answered. Stow means
"holy place" and soon that is how it became.
The "Reformers" successfully destroyed his shrine and the pilgrimages but
not his body. This continued to lie under the church in Hibaldstow until it
was rediscovered in 1866 when the then dilapidated church was rebuilt. The
restorers found a large stone Saxon sarcophagus and in it the precious
relics of the saint - a tall robust man, lying on the south side of the
choir. Here he remains to this day regularly visited by Orthodox pilgrims of
several dioceses who ask him for his prayers and venerate his relics.
Holy Father Hybald pray to God for us!
Troparion of St Hybald of Bardney.
Tone 4.
Thou didst love Christ all thy life, O blessed one,
and longing to work for Him as a hermit
thou didst struggle by the pools and carrs of Lindsey
with good works, prayer and labour.
With penitent heart and great love for Christ
thou worked with missionary zeal for the Lord.
Wherefore we cry to thee:
beseech the Lord that our labours may be blessed and that our
souls may be saved.
Or
Blessed one you loved Christ all your life,
and longing to work for Him as a hermit
you struggled by the pools and carrs of Lindsey with good works,
prayer and labour.
With a penitent heart and great love for Christ
you worked with missionary zeal for the Lord.
Wherefore we cry to you:
beseech the Lord that our labours may be blessed and that our souls may be
saved.