Born in Northumbria, Acca first served in the household of Bosa, the future Bishop of York, but later attached himself to Wilfrid, possibly as early as 678, and accompanied him on his travels.

[1] Later he told his friend Bede of their stay at Utrecht with the archbishop Willibrord, Wilfrid's old pupil who was carrying on his work of converting continental heathens.

"[3] Acca once brought to the North a famous cantor named Maban, who had learned in Kent the Roman traditions of psalmody handed down from Gregory the Great through Augustine of Canterbury.

It was Acca who persuaded Stephen of Ripon (Eddius) to take on the Life of Saint Wilfrid, and he lent many materials for the Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum to Bede, who dedicated several of his most important works, especially those dealing with Holy Scripture, to him.

His body was translated at least three times: in the early 11th century, by Alfred of Westow, sacrist of Durham;[5] in 1154, at the restoration of the church, when the relics of all the Hexham saints were put together in a single shrine; and again in 1240.