Hild of Whitby and the Ministry of Women in the Anglo-Saxon World

This book tells the story of Hild, the abbess of a highly successful double monastery at Whitby in Northumbria, where she was responsible for the education of five future bishops. Here she exercised an authority which in subsequent centuries would be reserved exclusively for men. At thirteen Hild was baptized by Paulinus, who had come to Britain to join Augustine’s mission. Augustine had been sent by Pope Gregory to convert Britain, which had largely lapsed into paganism after the fall of the Roman Empire. Augustine in fact had little success in converting the Britons beyond Kent, and even in Kent Christianity had already been partially re-established by Queen Bertha, who had brought her Catholic Chaplain with her from Gaul upon her marriage to King Ethelbert. There were many powerful women, like Bertha, who had been at the forefront of keeping the faith alive in the "Dark Ages," but whose agency has been written out of history or down-played in favour of the actions of famous men. Hild’s story is brought back to life alongside Mary, who founded a desert community at Tabenisi; Macrina, the teacher (didaskalos) of Gregory of Nyssa, Basil of Caesarea; Ita, confessor to Brendan; the formidable Aelffled, who succeeded Hild at Whitby, a co-worker and confidante of Cuthbert.As the Catholic Church struggles under the weight of centuries-old misogyny, it is surprising to see how, in the early medieval period, abbesses had shared governance with bishops. As it struggles with a shortage of male priests to celebrate the sacraments, it is instructive to see how many sacramental ministries were once exercised by female monastics. Confession, for example, was once practiced in the same way whether the confessor was a man or, as in Hild’s case, a woman. The span of Hild’s life covers the period before and after the establishment of clericalism, the unbridgeable gap between the higher plane of the male priesthood and the lower plane of religious women. Bede’s telling of Hild’s life was already downplaying her authority as a powerful leader in the Anglo-Saxon church. It is time for that to be remedied.

At a time when women in the Church, and especially women in the Catholic Church, are asking fundamental questions about their place within a ordained ministry that has not only been an exclusively male preserve but one which has been profoundly male oriented in its vision, it is important that we reflect on the ministry of women in the past and see what that tells us about the story of how we have come to where we are today. Anne Inman does just this in this book on Hild - its significance is not what it tells us about early medieval Northumbria but what questions we need to ask in the early part of the twenty-first century., In this highly readable study Anne Inman restores Hild of Whitby to her rightful place in the history of Anglo-Saxon England and charts the way she has influenced the current determination to recover the ministry of women in the Roman Catholic Church. This work is well researched, innovative in some of its conclusions, and clearly the fruit of great respect and admiration for Hild, who is probably the best known of the early, powerful, and influential abbesses who ruled over double monasteries. It is essential reading for anyone with an interest in the early history of these islands in Christianity in Anglo-Saxon England and anyone who has concern for the ministry, past, present and future, of women in the Church., Inman’s hugely engaging and accessible book argues from a basis of solid scholarship for a more reliable reading of church history. Hild of Whitby emerges as an authoritative example of the widespread and diverse ministries of women in the Anglo-Saxon church. Engaging in many liturgical, pastoral, and sacramental activities currently considered the sole preserve of the male priesthood in the Catholic church, Hild challenges the deficiencies of a patriarchal system of ministry and governance by offering a more complete picture of the Church’s tradition., Anne Inman uses the best of scholarship and providing a solid context of the world of Abbess Hild to tease out what we can know of this important woman and her era. Her writing style is accessible to any reader. I highly recommend Hild of Whitby and the Ministry of Women in the Anglo-Saxon World for anyone interested in Hild and her era, and of the little-known contributions of women to early Christianity.

Anne E. Inman taught theology at various universities, including Birkbeck College, University of London and the University of Notre Dame London Centre, before retiring from teaching in 2014.