St. Everildis, Virgin, in England


KINEGILS, king of the West-Saxons, having been baptized by St. Berinus in 635, this holy virgin had the happiness of being brought to the knowledge of Christ. In order to devote herself most perfectly to the service and love of her heavenly spouse, she fled secretly from the house of her parents to seek some holy monastery of nuns, and was joined in the way by two other virgins named Bega and Wuldreda. St. Wilfrid gave her a spot called before the Bishop’s Dwelling, but since her time Everildisham, that is, the dwelling of Everildis. Neither F. Alford nor F. Solier were able to find the situation of this place. Here she trained up many virgins to the perfection of divine love, the summit of Christian virtue, by animating them with the true spirit, and continually encouraging them in the most fervent and most faithful discharge of all the duties, and application to all the exercises of their holy profession. She went to God on the 9th of July, on which day Solier the Bollandist found her name in an ancient copy of Usuard’s Martyrology. F. Alford sent to Bollandus a transcript of lessons used formerly in some church now unknown. Her name does not occur in any English or Irish Calendar now extant, nor has Alford mentioned her in his annals. See Solier, t. 2. Julij, p. 713.	1