A Cyclopaedia of Female Biography/Ebba, Saint
EBBA, SAINT,
This lady, whose piety earned for her the honour of canonization, was the wife of Cwichelme, King of Wessex, on whose death she remained some time at the court of her brother Oswald, King of Northumberland, who, we are told, was much guided by her pious counsels. She afterwards founded the celebrated monastery of Coldingham in the Marshes, below Berwick-on-Tweed, in Scotland, which establishment she governed as abbess until her death, which took place at an advanced age, and, as some say, under peculiarly distressing circumstances. The Danes having ravaged the country with fire and sword, were approaching Coldingham, when Ebba persuaded her nuns to disfigure themselves by cutting off their noses and upper lips, that they might be preserved from the brutality of the soldiery. Her example was followed by all the sisterhood. The barbarians, enraged at finding them in this state, set fire to the monastery, and consumed the inmates in the flames.
The history of Ebba is much connected with the public events of her time, proving the influence she maintained by her own excellent conduct. At one period she presided over Camwode Abbey, or as it was sometimes called "The Convent of Ebba." Here St. Etheldreda, then queen, having received her husband's permission, professed herself a nun, receiving the veil from the hands of the Abbess. A. D. 683, is the year in which this exalted woman is said to have died.