ABSTRACT
The Synod of Whitby in 664 CE marked the end of parallel yet dissimilar cultural developments in Ionian (or Celtic) Christianity. These differences created rifts in the social fabric of society, most notably as people celebrated the key Christian feast of Easter at separate times. As host abbess, Hilda of Whitby was given the titular leadership of the Ionian delegation. Known as the “mother of bishops” as named by her primary biographer, the 8th century Bede, Hilda used referent and expert power legitimated by class, and transformed an instrumental status into an expanded leadership role. Status and prestige coupled with her leader’s skill counted more than gender in her successful redirection of the male-dominated institutional culture. More significantly, she employed strategic tactics enmeshed in a classic Weberian-styled authority to redirect the organizational reconstruction of arguably the most significant social institution of medieval life. This chapter traces her success, as identified by the external sources referencing her life and significance, in using expressive power as transformational leadership to bring about change within the traditional constraints of the Church, an achievement that stretched beyond and outside of those boundaries.
