Bega (Cumbria)

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Saint Bega (also Bees) was a 7th century Irish princess who lived at the time of St Hilda of Whitby .

Life

St Bees Abbey Church, Norman west portal

Bega had converted to Christianity and secretly vowed to become a nun, whereupon an angel brought her a bracelet with a sign of the cross. However, her father wanted to marry her to the son of the King of Norway . She therefore sailed on a clod of earth from Ireland to Cumbria , where she lived as a hermit in what would later become St Bees . She later moved to Northumbria because of the threat from the Danes and eventually founded a monastery in Copeland . This was burned down by the Danes , but was rebuilt as a Benedictine monastery shortly after 1120 . It was an annex of the convent of St. Mary in York . Henry VIII dissolved the monastery on October 16, 1539. The saint's bracelet, which she had left behind in Cumbria, was venerated in Copeland Church but stolen by marauding Scottish hordes in 1216 or 1315. It is therefore unclear whether the pieces mentioned later are the original or a copy.

Numerous miracles are attributed to St. Bega. So the land that was awarded to her was spared snow during a legal dispute and so marked.

swell

A Vita of Saint Bega, Vita et Miracula S. Bege Virginis in Provincia Northanhimbrorum from the 13th century comes from the Abbey of Holmcultram .

Live on

The feast day of St. Bega is September 6th. But also October 31 and December 17 are mentioned in the sources.

  • The Cumbrian village of St Bees is named after the saint
  • St Bees' Head in Cumbria is named after the saint
  • a poem by William Wordsworth ( Stanzas suggested in a Steam-Boat off St Bees Heads, on the coast of Cumberland ) describes, among other things, the work of St. Bega and her community: they supported travelers and led them to their destination, cleared forests, helped the poor, taught the sacrament and tempered feudal caprice.

literature

  • Peter J. Manning: Wordsworth at St Bees: Scandals, Sisterhoods, and Wordsworth's Later Poetry . English Literary History 52/1, 1985, 33-58.
  • GC Tomlinson (trans.): Life and Miracles of Sancta Bega . Carlisle 1842
  • John M. Todd: St Bega - Cult, Fact and Legend . Transactions of the Cumberland and Westmorland Antiquarian and Archaeological Society 80, 1980.
personal data
SURNAME Bega
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Irish princess
DATE OF BIRTH 6th century or 7th century
DATE OF DEATH 7th century or 8th century