Hedda was an abbot and martyr, who together with his community, supposedly
eighty-four in number, were killed by the same Danish army which killed
Edmund of East Anglia the same year.
While the monastic chroniclers regarded these Danish armies as militant
pagans, killing the Christians for their beliefs, some modern historians
assert that it was rather love of gold which motivated them.
In the later Middle Ages the 'Hedda stone' Stood in the cemetery over the
grave of Hedda and his companions; holes were cut to place candles for
saying Mass on it, a custom supposedly started by Abbot Godric.
Seventeenth century visitors would put their fingers in these holes, perhaps
to take dust away as a souvenir.
Hedda's feast day is the 10th April.
Written and contributed by Phillip Lloyd.
