Eata of Hexham

Holy Hierarch Eata of Hexham, a disciple of Saint Aidan, was abbot of Melrose and later bishop of Hexham and of Lindisfarne; he reposed on 26 October 686. He was the first native of Northumbria to hold the see of Lindisfarne. He is a saint of the undivided Church.

Taken to Lindisfarne as a boy, he was trained as a monk under Aidan and was one of the twelve monks sent to found the daughter monastery of Melrose, whose abbot he was elected in 651. Around 658 he left and founded a monastery at Ripon, taking with him the young Saint Cuthbert as guest-⁠master. In 661 King Alchfrith expelled him from Ripon and put Wilfrid in his place, and Eata returned to Melrose. Bede describes him as a gentle and greatly revered man and a capable administrator in times of plague, disorder and great ecclesiastical change.

At the synod of Whitby in 663 Eata, unlike Colman, accepted the Roman customs. After Colman left, Tuda was made bishop, and Eata moved from Melrose to Lindisfarne as abbot and appointed Cuthbert prior. In 678 Archbishop Theodore divided the diocese of Northumbria; Eata became bishop of Bernicia, with sees at Hexham and Lindisfarne. After three years Hexham was assigned to Trumbert and Eata kept Lindisfarne. When Cuthbert was elected bishop of Hexham in 684 he was reluctant to leave his hermitage on Farne; after his consecration at Easter 685 the two exchanged sees, and Eata held Hexham for the last year of his life.

He is commemorated on 26 October, the liturgical date in the Orthodox calendar (the same day number on the old and new calendars).