Eata was a disciple of St Aidan, and it is not known whether he was English or Pictish. By 651 he was Abbot of Melrose. As the number of Christians in Northumbria grew, the territory became too large for one bishop. In 678 Archbishop Theodore made Bernicia, the land north of the Tees, a separate diocese with sees at Hexham and Lindisfarne, and consecrated Eata 'Bishop of the Bernicians'.

Three years later Hexham was given to Trumbert, and Eata kept Lindisfarne. When Trumbert died in 684, St Cuthbert was elected to Hexham. Cuthbert wanted to stay in his old home, so Eata readily changed places with him, and spent the last two years of his life as Bishop of Hexham. He died on 26 October 686. Like most early English saints, he was recognized as a saint by the people of the lands he had helped to convert.

Thin entry · the 1897 book gives only 204 words. We have not filled the gap with invented detail.

In 1 1 13 Thomas, Archbishop of York, went to Hexham with the design of removing the body of the old prelate to his own church. But in the night S. Eata appeared to him, staff in hand, and sternly said, “ Why will you not let me rest in the church I governed, but will remove me to another church ?” Then raising his staff, he smote him on the shoulder, and the archbishop awoke suffering from rheumatism, and resolved to let Eata alone. SS. Vincent \ Sabina, and Chrysteta. 649 October vj.

Eata, Saint, second Bishop of Hexham; date of birth unknown; d. October 26, 686. Whether this disciple of St. Aidan was of the English, or of the aboriginal Pictish, race, there is no means of judging. As early as 651 he was elected Abbot of Melrose, which was then within the metropolitan [the archbishop who heads a group of dioceses] jurisdiction of York. With the increase of the Christian population in northeastern Britain, the spiritual government of a territory so wide as that which was then called Northumbria [the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of northern England and south-east Scotland] became too heavy a charge for one see; accordingly, in 678 Archbishop Theodore constituted Bernicia (that part of the Northumbrian realm which lay to the north of the River Tees) a suffragan [a bishop under the authority of an archbishop] diocese and consecrated Eata its bishop. The new diocese was to have two episcopal sees, one at Hexham and the other at Lindisfarne, at the two extremities of what is now the County of Northumberland. Eata was to be styled "Bishop of the Bernicians". This arrangement lasted only three years, and the See of Hexham was then assigned to Trumbert, while Eata kept Lindisfarne. In 684, after the death of Trumbert, St. Cuthbert was elected Bishop of Hexham, but when the latter expressed a desire to remain in his old home rather than remove to the more southern see, Eata readily consented to exchange with him, and for the last two years of his life occupied the See of Hexham, while Cuthbert ruled as bishop at Lindisfarne. Like most of the early saints of the English Church, St. Eata was canonized by general repute of sanctity among the faithful in the regions which he helped to Christianize. His feast is kept on October 26, the day of his death.