Eata of Hexham

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Eata of Hexham (died October 26, 686) also known as Eata of Lindisfarne or Saint Eata was bishop of Lindisfarne from 678 until 685, and of Hexham from then until his death. He was the first native of Northumbria to take the bishopric of Lindisfarne.

Eata was originally taken to Lindisfarne as a boy under Saint Aidan and trained as an abbot under his predecessor Saint Tuda and then under Saint Wilfrid, Bishop of York in the intervening period while there was no bishop at Lindisfarne. In 651 he was elected Abbot of Melrose, and founded the monastery at Ripon in Yorkshire.

In 678, Archbishop Theodore split the diocese of Northumbria into two dioceses. Eata became bishop of Bernicia. Bernicia had two episcopal sees, one at Hexham and the other at Lindisfarne. Eata was the bishop of the whole of Bernicia for three years, after which the See of Hexham was assigned to Trumbert, and Lindisfarne to St. Eata. After the death of Trumbert in 684, St. Cuthbert was elected Bishop of Hexham. The two exchanged sees shortly thereafter, and for the last two years of his life Eata occupied the See of Hexham. He died of dysentery in 686, and was buried in the Benedictine Abbey of Hexham.