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223 ST. SIBINELLA 223 of Kent, aod Emma, daughter of Clotbaire n. king of the Franks. Soxbnrga was sister of SS. Ethelbeda, Ethelbubga (3), and Withbuboa and half-sister of St. Sedbido. She was mother of SS. Ermenilda and Eroonqota and grandmother of St. Werebubga of Chester. She was sister-in-law of St. Eanswitet, and aunt by marriage of St. Ermenburoa. Sexbarga began in her husband's life, to build a religious house at Sheppey in Kent, that holy virgins might attend divine service for her, day and night. Ercombert died of the ** yellow plague," that desolated England in 664. Of those seized with the malady it is said only about 30 recovered. After his death, she ruled for a time for her son Egbert, and when he had no further need of her, she retired to her nunnery and assembled seventy-four nuns there ; but hearing of the great sanctity of her sister— Ethel- reda of Ely, and desiring to live in greater obscurity than she could enjoy as head of her own monastery, she became a nun under Ethelreda, before 679, and eventually succeeded her as abbess of Ely, where she lived to a considerable age. Her two sons Egbert and Lothaire were successively kings of Kent. Her daughter Ermenilda, queen of Mercia, succeeded her as abbess, first at Sheppey and afterwards at Ely. Her convent of Le Minster, in Sheppey, was destroyed by the Danes, but restored in the twelfth century. AA.SS. Butler. Capgrave. Smith and Wace. Mabillon. British Mart. St. Sibillina or Sibylla of Pavia, March 19, 3rd O.S.D. 1287-1367. Daughter of Hubert del Biscossi and Honor de Veci or Verio, his wife. At twelve years old Sibillina became blind. She was then placed under the care of certain venerable ladies who were Sisters of the Penitence of St. Dominic, i,e. Third Order of Preachers. She tried in vain to learn to spin well, in spite of her blindness. She prayed continually and fervently for the restoration of her sight, in order that she might gain her liveli- hood by her own labour. She firmly believed that on the feast of St. Dominic, whofle aid she had specially implored. she should recover her sight: as the day passed without her being cured, she patiently trusted that her prayer would be granted next day; but when three days had passed, she reproached her patron saint, saying : " Is this the way you cheat me, blessed Dominic, after I have prayed so long and so fervently to you for so reasonable an object ? Give me back the prayers and praises and the other things I have offered you in vain." Immediately, St. Dominic ap- peared to her and took her from her room to the cathedral, where he showed her in a vision, the worthlessness of human life and worldly enjoyment and the blessedness of holiness and ever- lasting life; from that moment she no longer wished to receive her sight. Close to the church of the Friars Preachers was a cell inhabited by a sister of the Penitence of St. Dominic. When Sibillina was fifteen and had been three years under the care of the above- mentioned ladies, this cell became vacant by the death of the recluse, and Sibillina went to live there. She remained there the rest of her life, namely sixty-four years, only coming out once to take the sacrament and once to visit a nun in the convent of JosapUlat. The first seven years of her stay in this cell were de- voted to almost incredible excesses of penance. She had no fire and wore the same clothes in winter as in sunmier. Her hands were so swollen and sore with cold that she could not break her dry bread without making them bleed. But she attained great charity and other spiritual advantages, especially a won- derful discernment between good and evil, and between true revelations and mere illusions. She had the gift of prophecy, revealed secret things, and had visions in which Christ and the saints appeared to her. AA,SS. Pio. Hernandez. Helyot. Hernandez says that she had a com- panion in her cell for the first three years, and for the rest of her life had a maid who served her. Her imme- morial worship was confirmed by Pius IX. in 1854. Analecla. Dominican Breviary. St. Sibinella, Sabinslla.