Henry of Cocket
Saint Henry of Coquet | |
|---|---|
| Hermit | |
| Died | 1127 Coquet Island, England |
| Venerated in | Roman Catholic Church |
| Feast | 16 January |
Henry of Coquet (died 1127) was a Dane who lived in a hermitage on the island of Coquet, off the Northumberland coast. He died there in 1127. He is venerated as a saint in the Catholic Church. There is a stained glass window in the church of St Thomas of Canterbury in Deal, Kent, England, showing an image of 'St Henry the Dane'. He is wearing a horned helmet.
A Dane by birth, Henry became a hermit abroad rather than marry unhappily at home. He then went to Tynemouth and agreed with the prior to settle on Coquet, an island which had had a community of monks in the age of Bede and where Saint Cuthbert used to meet Aelfædd, abbess of Whitby. He lived in the simplest way, earning subsistence by looking after a garden, pursuing his chosen austerities in spite of discouragement from the monk who looked after the island. After some years a party of Danes tried to persuade him to return to his own country, where there was no lack of site suitable for hermits. But after a night in prayer and experience of a locution from the figure of Christ crucified, he decided to stay on. As his holiness became known, visitors became numerous, attracted by his special gifts of prophesy, telekinesis and reading the secrets of hearts. One interesting example of the last was his reproof and punishment of a man who had refused his wife sexual intercourse during Lent. Henry fell ill; with lack of care his illness increased, but also did his cheerfulness in enduring it alone. Finally he rang his hermit's bell for help; when the monk arrived Henry was dead, holding the bell-rope in one hand and a candle in the other. In spite of strong resistance from the islanders, the monks of Tynemouth took his body to the monastery and buried it in the sanctuary, near their patron Saint Oswin.[1]
Feast: January 16.
His name occurs in later martyrologies but there is no surviving early record of his feast.
References
- ^ David Hugh Farmer. Oxford Dictionary of the Saints. Oxford: Clarendon Press: 1978, 1979, 1980. P. 189
- Attwater, Donald and Catherine Rachel John. The Penguin Dictionary of Saints. 3rd edition. New York: Penguin Books, 1993. ISBN 0-140-51312-4.
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