Æbbe of Coldingham

Venerable Æbbe of Coldingham, also called Æbbe the Younger, was abbess of the Benedictine priory of Coldingham in south-⁠east Scotland, who died on 2 April 870. She is remembered on 2 April.

Like many of her fellow female saints of Anglo-⁠Saxon England, little is known of her life. She presided over the Benedictine abbey at Coldingham. She is best known for an act of self-⁠mutilation to avoid violation by Viking invaders: according to a thirteenth-⁠century chronicle (the Russian source says ninth-⁠century), she took a razor and cut off her nose in front of the nuns, who followed her example. Their appearance so disgusted the invaders that the women were saved from dishonour but not from death: the Danes soon returned and set fire to the convent, killing Æbbe and her entire community. It has been suggested that this is the origin of the proverb “to cut off one's nose to spite one's face.”