Page:The ancient Irish church.djvu/99

 But it is certain that in England and on the continent there were many like it, where Irish, or at all events Celtic, teachers had made their influence felt. In France, for example, Saint Fara's monastery at Brie followed at first the Rule of Saint Columbanus. Earcongota, daughter of Earconbert, King of Kent, and her kinswoman Ethelberga, were inmates, and the latter was at one time abbess. But the establishment included brethren as well as sisters, for when Earcongota died, 'many of the brethren of that monastery that were in the other houses declared that they had then plainly heard concerts of angels singing, and the noise as it were of a multitude entering the monastery.'

The famous Saint Hilda presided over such a monastery at Whitby in Yorkshire, and was in her day the upholder of Irish customs, although at the time the Roman missionaries in England were using all their influence against them. She had been converted by Paulinus, first bishop of the Northumbrians, but had received most of her religious education from Saint Aidan, who came forth from Iona. She was strict in her discipline, and insisted on community of goods, 'so that after the example of the primitive Church no person was there rich, and none poor, all being in common to all, and none having any property.' 'She obliged those who were under her direction to attend so much to the reading of the Holy Scriptures, and to exercise themselves so much in works of justice, that many might be there found fit for ecclesiastical duties, and to serve at the altar.' In this way she trained a large number for the sacred ministry, of whom no less than five became bishops. She seems to have been