HumanitiesWeb.org - Ecclesiastical History of the English Nation Ecclesiastical History of the English Nation, Book III (Chapter VIII) by Venerable Bede
Ecclesiastical History of the English Nation Ecclesiastical History of the English Nation, Book III Chapter VIII
by Venerable Bede
HOW EARCONBERT, KING OF KENT, ORDERED THE IDOLS TO BE DESTROYED; AND OF HIS DAUGHTER
EARCONGOTA, AND HIS KINSWOMAN ETHELBERGA, VIRGINS, CONSECRATED TO GOD. [A.D. 640.]
IN the year of our Lord 640, Eadbald, king of Kent, departed this life, and left his
kingdom to his son Earconbert, which he most nobly governed twenty-four years and some
months. He was the first of the English kings that of his supreme authority commanded the
idols, throughout his whole kingdom, to be forsaken and destroyed, and the fast of forty
days before Easter to be observed; and that the same might not be neglected, he appointed
proper and condign punishments for the offenders. His daughter Earcongota, as became the
offspring of such a parent, was a most virtuous virgin, always serving God in a monastery
in France, built by a most noble abbess, called Fara, at a place called Brie; for at that
time but few monasteries being built in the country of the Angles, many were wont, for the
sake of monastic conversation, to repair to the monasteries of the Franks or Gauls; and
they also sent their daughters there to be instructed, and delivered to their heavenly
bridegroom, especially in the monasteries of Brie, of Chelles, and Andelys. Among whom was
also Sethrid, daughter of the wife of Anna, king of the East Angles, above mentioned; and
Ethelberga, natural daughter of the same king; both of whom, though strangers, were for
their virtue made abbesses of the monastery of Brie. Sexberga, that king's eldest
daughter, wife to Earconbert, king of Kent, had a daughter called Earcongota, of whom we
are about to speak.
Many wonderful works and miracles of this virgin, dedicated to God, are to this day
related by the inhabitants of that place; but it shall suffice us to say something briefly
of her passage out of this world to the heavenly kingdom. The day of her departure drawing
near, she visited the cells of the infirm servants of Christ, and particularly those that
were of a great age, or most noted for probity of life, and humbly recommending herself to
their prayers, let them know that her death was at hand, as she knew by revelation, which
she said she had received in this manner. She had seen a number of men, all it, white,
come into the monastery, and being asked by her "What they wanted, and what they did
there?" they answered, "They had been sent thither to carry away with them the
gold medal that had been brought thither from Kent." That same night, at the dawn of
morning, leaving the darkness of this world, she departed to the light of heaven. Many of
the brethren of that monastery that were in other houses, declared they had then plainly
heard concerts of angels singing, and the noise as it were of a multitude entering the
monastery. Whereupon going out immediately to see what it might be, they saw an
extraordinary great light coming down from heaven, which conducted that holy soul, set
loose from the bonds of the flesh, to the eternal joys of the celestial country. They add
other miracles that were wrought the same night in the same monastery; but as we must
proceed to other matters, we leave them to be related by those to whom such things belong.
The body of this venerable virgin and bride of Christ was buried in the church of the
blessed protomartyr, Stephen. It was thought fit, three days after, to take up the stone
that covered the grave, and to raise it higher in the same place, and while they did this,
so great a fragrancy of perfume rose from below that it seemed to all the brothers and
sisters there present as if a store of the richest balsams had been opened.
Her aunt also, Ethelberga above mentioned, preserved the glory so pleasing to God, of
perpetual virginity, in great continency of body, but the extent of her virtue became more
conspicuous after her death. Whilst she was abbess, she began to build in her monastery a
church in honor of all the apostles, wherein she desired her hod might be buried; but when
that work was advanced half way, she was prevented by death from finishing it, and buried
in the very place of the church where she had desired. After her death, the brothers
occupied themselves with other things, and this structure was intermitted for seven years,
at the expiration whereof they resolved by reason of the greatness of the work, wholly to
lay aside the building of the church, but to remove the abbess's bones from thence to some
other church that was finished and consecrated; but, on opening her tomb, they found the
body as free from decay as it had been from the corruption of carnal concupiscence, and
having washed it again and put on it other clothes, they removed the same to the church of
St. Stephen, Martyr, whose nativity (or commemoration-day) is celebrated with much
magnificence on the 7th of July.