Everilda

Saint Everilda (Eoforhild, also called Everildis or Averil) was an Anglo-⁠Saxon holy woman of the seventh century who founded a convent at Everingham, in the East Riding of Yorkshire. She reposed in peace around the year 700. All that is known of her comes from the York Breviary.

She was converted to Christianity in 635 by Saint Birinus, together with King Cynegils of Wessex. The legend in the Breviary says she was of the Wessex nobility. She fled from home to become a nun and was joined by Saints Bega and Wuldreda; Saint Wilfrid of York made them all nuns at a place called the Bishop's Dwelling, later Everildisham, identified with present-⁠day Everingham. She gathered a community of some eighty women and reposed in peace when her mission was accomplished.

Her name appears in the Martyrology of Usuard and in the church calendars of York and Northumbria. Three churches bear her name: two at Everingham and one at Nether Poppleton. She is commemorated on 9 July as a saint of the undivided Church, by the New Calendar.