Venerable (Monastic) 7th century

Hieu of Tadcaster

died 7th century

Also known as Hieu the Abbess

Among the first women in Northumbria to receive the monastic habit; Abbess at Tadcaster in England (c. 657)

Feast Day

September 2

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Commemorated as

Our Venerable Mother Hieu, Abbess of Tadcaster

Life

Hieu (also spelled Heiu) was a seventh-century abbess in the kingdom of Northumbria, traditionally said to have been of Irish descent. She is remembered as among the first women in Northumbria to receive the monastic habit, and she ruled the early monastery of Hartlepool before retiring to the area of Calcaria, identified with Tadcaster, where she later reposed. She is commemorated as a pre-schism Western saint of the Orthodox calendar on September 2.

Nearly all that is known of her derives from Bede's Ecclesiastical History of the English People, where she is mentioned in connection with the early monastic life of Northumbria. According to this account, she received the veil from Bishop Aidan of Lindisfarne, the Irish monk of Iona who re-evangelized the kingdom, and at his appointment she became the founding abbess of the monastery at Hartlepool. After she stepped down, the abbacy passed to Hilda, who would go on to govern the celebrated monastery of Whitby, so that the monastic tradition Hieu helped to begin continued through her successor.

In her later years Hieu withdrew from Hartlepool and, by Bede's account, fixed her dwelling in a place about ten miles southwest of York which the Romans had called Calcaria and the English Kaelcacaestir, generally identified as Tadcaster. Tradition associates her with a monastery or hermitage at nearby Healaugh, a name some have connected to her own. She is said to have reposed there and to have been buried at the site of her monastery.

Contributions & Legacy

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First of the Northumbrian Nuns

Hieu's place in English monastic history rests on her being among the first, and by several accounts the first, woman in Northumbria to take the monastic habit. The veil was given to her by Aidan of Lindisfarne, who as missionary bishop drew the kingdom toward the Christian faith and fostered its earliest monastic foundations. Her elevation to the rule of Hartlepool, an early house organized in the Irish manner, set a pattern that later Northumbrian women would follow.

The continuity of her work is underscored by her successor at Hartlepool. When Hieu relinquished that office, Hilda was appointed in her place and established there a rule of regular monastic observance, before founding the great monastery at Whitby. In this way the religious life that Hieu inaugurated did not end with her departure but was carried forward and deepened by those who came after her.

Calcaria and Healaugh

Bede records that Hieu, after leaving Hartlepool, settled at the former Roman site of Calcaria, southwest of York, which is commonly identified with Tadcaster. From this connection she is known as Hieu of Tadcaster. She is further associated, in later tradition, with Healaugh, where she is thought to have founded or led a small monastery or hermitage and where she is said to have died and been buried. The historical record for her final years is sparse, and these details are preserved chiefly through local tradition built upon Bede's brief notice.

Sources: Latin Saints of the Orthodox Patriarchate of Rome