Saint Bega

The Holy Bega (also Bees ) was an Irish king's daughter of the 7th century, who lived in the time of St Hilda of Whitby.

Life

Bega had converted to Christianity and secretly vowed to become a nun, what brought her an angel, a bracelet with a sign of the cross. However, her father wanted to marry her to the son of the king of Norway. She sailed so on a clod of earth from Ireland to Cumbria, where she lived as a hermit in the later St Bees. Later she moved because of the threat of the Danes by Northumbria and eventually founded a monastery in Copeland. This was burnt by the Danes, but shortly after built in 1120 as a Benedictine monastery again. It was a dependency of the monastery of St. Mary, York. Henry VIII dissolved the monastery on October 16, 1539. The bracelet of the saints, which they had left behind in Cumbria, was venerated in the church of Copeland, but in 1216 or 1315 stolen by marauding Scottish hordes. Whether it is the original or a copy in pieces mentioned later, it is not clear.

St. Bega attributed numerous miracles. So that awarded to her country was spared during a dispute of snow and so marked.

Swell

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

Survival

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

  • The village of St Bees in Cumbria 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 their community: they supported travelers and guided them to their destination, cleared forests, helped the poor, taught the sacrament and mitigated feudal despotism.

Pictures of Saint Bega

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