Saint Everilda of Everingham was a Saxon

Anglo-Saxons

Anglo-Saxon is a term used by historians to designate the Germanic tribes who invaded and settled the south and east of Great Britain beginning in the early 5th century AD, and the period from their creation of the English nation to the Norman conquest. The Anglo-Saxon Era denotes the period of...

 saint

Saint

A saint is a holy person. In various religions, saints are people who are believed to have exceptional holiness.In Christian usage, "saint" refers to any believer who is "in Christ", and in whom Christ dwells, whether in heaven or in earth...

 of the 7th century who founded a convent at Everingham

Everingham

Everingham is a village in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England. It is west of Market Weighton town centre and south of Pocklington town centre. Everingham is part of the civil parish of Everingham and Harswell....

, in the English

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

 county of the East Riding of Yorkshire

East Riding of Yorkshire

The East Riding of Yorkshire, or simply East Yorkshire, is a local government district with unitary authority status, and a ceremonial county of England. For ceremonial purposes the county also includes the city of Kingston upon Hull, which is a separate unitary authority...

.

She was converted to Christianity

Christianity

Christianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus as presented in canonical gospels and other New Testament writings...

 by Saint Birinus

Birinus

Birinus , venerated as a saint, was the first Bishop of Dorchester, and the "Apostle to the West Saxons".-Life and ministry:After Augustine of Canterbury performed initial conversions in England, Birinus, a Frank, came to the kingdoms of Wessex in 634, landing at the port of "Hamwic", now in the...

, along with King Cynegils of Wessex

Cynegils of Wessex

Cynegils was King of Wessex from c. 611 to c. 643.Cynegils is traditionally considered to have been King of Wessex, but the familiar kingdoms of the so-called Heptarchy had not yet formed from the patchwork of smaller kingdoms in his lifetime...

, in 635. Her legend states that she was of the Wessex

Wessex

The Kingdom of Wessex or Kingdom of the West Saxons was an Anglo-Saxon kingdom of the West Saxons, in South West England, from the 6th century, until the emergence of a united English state in the 10th century, under the Wessex dynasty. It was to be an earldom after Canute the Great's conquest...

 nobility

Nobility

Nobility is a social class which possesses more acknowledged privileges or eminence than members of most other classes in a society, membership therein typically being hereditary. The privileges associated with nobility may constitute substantial advantages over or relative to non-nobles, or may be...

. She fled from home to become a nun

Nun

A nun is a woman who has taken vows committing her to live a spiritual life. She may be an ascetic who voluntarily chooses to leave mainstream society and live her life in prayer and contemplation in a monastery or convent...

, and was joined by Saints Bega

Saint Bega

Stained glass window in [[St Bees Priory]] showing the arrival of St Bega on the coast.|thumb|rightSaint Bega was reputedly a saint of the Early Middle Ages; an Irish princess who valued virginity. Promised in marriage to a Viking prince who, according to a medieval manuscript The Life of St Bega,...

 and Wuldreda. Saint Wilfrid of York made them all nuns at a place called the Bishop's Farm, later known as Everildisham. This place has been identified with present-day Everingham. She gathered a large community of some nine hundred and eighty women.

Veneration

Her name appears in the Martyrology of Usuard

Martyrology of Usuard

Usuard was a Benedictine monk of the Abbey of Saint-Germain-des-Prés, Paris. He seems to have died about the year 875, and the prologue in which he offers to Charles the Bald his most important work, the Martyrology, which he had undertaken at that monarch's instigation, was apparently written very...

as well as in the church calendars of York

York

York is a walled city, situated at the confluence of the Rivers Ouse and Foss in North Yorkshire, England. The city has a rich heritage and has provided the backdrop to major political events throughout much of its two millennia of existence...

 and Northumbria

Northumbria

Northumbria was a medieval kingdom of the Angles, in what is now Northern England and South-East Scotland, becoming subsequently an earldom in a united Anglo-Saxon kingdom of England. The name reflects the approximate southern limit to the kingdom's territory, the Humber Estuary.Northumbria was...

.

Her feast day is 9 July.

External links

• "St. Everildis, Virgin, in England", Butler's Lives of the Saints
• Saints of July 9: Everild of Everingham
• St. Everild of Everingham
• Catholic Online entry