Location: North Riding, Yorkshire, England.

Founded: Founded first as Stroeoneshalh in 657 by the Saxon Oswy, King of Northumberland and Saint Hilda, Oswy’s sister and abbess of Hartlepool.  Whitby abbey quickly became an important center for newly emerging Christianity in England.

Short History: A center of pastoral care and great learning, the abbey was destroyed in 867 by the Danes.  When the Danes threatened, the nuns of Whitby took refuge in Hartlepool, then Tynemouth Monastery.  The Danes, however, succeeded in the struggle and massacred the nuns.  Whitby was destroyed.  A church was built on the site in the eleventh century, and the abbey rebuilt after the Norman Conquest.

Of Interest: The first abbess, teacher & counselor, was Saxon Royal Saint Hilda, converted to  Christianity and was baptized in 627.  Hilda first ran the convent Hartlepool before founding Whitby.  After she died, her relics, including her bones, were kept at the abbey.