(ABOUT A.D. 720.)
[Ancient Anglican Martyrologies, and Gallican Martyrology.
Authority:--Bede, Ecc. Hist. l. iv. c. 10.]
Hildelitha was one of the first virgins of the English nation who
consecrated herself a spouse to Christ, going abroad to a French
monastery, there being, at that time, none in England. When S.
Erkonwald had founded the monastery of Chertsey for himself, and the
convent of Barking, in Essex, for his sister Ethelburga, he sent to
France for S. Hildelitha, and committed his sister to her care, to be
by her instructed in monastic discipline. Thus S. Ethelburga herself,
who was the first abbess of Barking, was a disciple of S. Hildelitha,
though she died before her, and was succeeded by her in the government
of the community. Bede highly commends the piety of this saint, and
that she was highly esteemed by others we may gather from S. Aldhelm
having addressed to her his poetical treatise on virginity, and from
mention of her in one of the epistles of S. Boniface, where he relates
what great things he had learned of her.
S. Hildelitha departed to our Lord in a good old age, but the date of
her death is undetermined.