March 24th. St. Hildelith

Anybody who has found their way through the outer-suburban sprawl of Barking in East London may find it hard to believe it was the site of a thriving and influential abbey, but so it was (foundation date 666). St. Hildelith (died 712) was its second abbess, an acquaintance of St. Boniface, the Apostle to the Germans, with whom she corresponded on spiritual matters, and of St. Aldhelm, Abbot of Malmesbury, who spread Christianity in Dorset.