Saint Acca
Gender: Male
Year of birth: Circa 660AD
Year of respose: 740AD
Feast day: 20th October
Saint Acca of Hexham (fl. late 7th–mid 8th century) was one of the great ecclesiastical lights of early Northumbria, a devoted companion of Saint Wilfrid and a close friend and patron of the Venerable Bede. He succeeded Wilfrid as abbot and as bishop of Hexham about 709 and governed the see with rare energy until his removal in 732, being famed in contemporary testimony for his skill as a cantor, his learning, and the large theological library which he assembled and made available to students and authors. Under his care the church at Hexham was enriched both in fabric and devotion, and many of Bede’s own works were dedicated to him or compiled with his aid.
In 732 Acca appears to have been driven from his see for reasons that remain obscure in the sources; later traditions variously place him in exile in Galloway at Whithorn, or elsewhere, and his death is dated variously to the 730s–740s. He was buried at Hexham, where carved memorial crosses—of which fragments survive—marked his grave and where his cult endured; his memory was long honoured by translations of his relics and by a local feast-day on 20 October. Though certain particulars of his later years are uncertain, the consistent witness of contemporary and near-contemporary testimony presents Acca as a pastor, musician, and scholar whose patronage materially aided the labours of the Northumbrian Church.