Saint Ebbe the Younger

Also known as

• Aebbe
• Ebba

Memorial

• 2 April

Profile

Abbess at Coldingham, Berwickshire, Scotland, a double monastery that had been founded by Saint Ebbe the Elder, and which was the largest in the country at the time. When the monastery was attacked by Scandinavian pirates, Ebbe gathered her nuns and exhorted them to save themselves from falling into the hands of the pirates by voluntary disfiguring themselves. She then set an example by cutting off her own nose and upper lip; the other nuns did the same. When the Vikings broke into the convent, they were so horrified and angry by what the women had done to escape being raped, they locked them all in, set fire to the house, and burned them all to death.

Died

• burned to death on 2 April 870 at Coldingham monastery, Berwickshire, Scotland

Canonized

• Pre-Congregation

Additional Information

• Book of Saints, by the Monks of Ramsgate
• Catholic Online
• Katherine Rabenstein
• Lives of the Saints, by Father Alban Butler
• New Catholic Dictionary
• Our Sunday Visitor’s Encyclopedia of Saints

MLA Citation

• “Saint Ebbe the Younger“. Saints.SQPN.com. 2 April 2013. Web. 23 May 2013. <>