From Bede's History III.12 (McClure and Collins, p. 129)

"It is related, for example, that every often he [King Oswald] would continue in prayer from matins to daybreak; and because of his frequent habit of prayer and thanksgiving, he was always accustomed, whenever he sat, to place his hands on his knees with the palms turned upwards. It is also a tradition which has become proverbial, that he died with a prayer on his lips. When he was beset by the weapons of his enemies and saw that he was about to perish he prayed for the souls of his army. So the proverb runs, 'May God have mercy on their souls, as Oswald said when he fell to the earth'"

This passage has attracted the most attention for his palms up posture. I've read here and there some odd talk about it reflecting pre-Christain postures. Nonsense... look around your local church and then look at ancient murals and art and you will see palms up postures throughout.

What has attracted my attention is the claim that he prayed continually from matins to daybreak. This is one sleep deprived king! Did he have insomnia? Matins is supposed to be the midnight office and daybreak is lauds. Obviously, matins can't be really midnight. In reality various monasteries and churches set matins at various times of the night. It is likely that each monastic system had a schedule set for daily prayer, and it was practiced by members of the house(s) where ever they were. It seems likely that Oswald followed the schedule from Lindisfarne, led by a personal priest. This also suggests that the hours of the office were done somewhere within Bamburgh's enclosure so that it was easily accessible to Oswald.

It is one of the mysteries of Oswald's reign that his personal priest is not mentioned. We know that his brother Oswiu had personal priests -- Utta, later Abbot of Gateshead, and Eadhead, later Bishop of Lindsey-- and his son Oethelwald had Caelin, brother of bishops Cedd and Chad, as his personal priest. All of these priests were from the Lindisfarne family, and as the founder of Lindisfarne it is almost certain that Oswald would have had an Irish priest by his side. There wouldn't have been any English priests trained until at the very earliest late in Oswald's reign. Given that Bede is promoting the close relationship between Oswald and Bishop Aidan I suppose its not surprising that his personal priest, who really couldn't be Aidan, isn't mentioned.

One of the things this calls to mind is that first of all, Oswald was surely, remarkably pious. After an evening in the hall with his court, getting up before dawn for prayer is impressive. It may also be the only time during the day when a king could quietly think. Once the rest of the court awakes, the day's business will begin and by evening his hall will be full of his retainers. It also occurs to me that this formal position, with palms turned up, indicates that Oswald was a rather impressive, kingly figure otherwise these odd details would not have been remembered.

This also brings up Oswald's understanding of Latin. How many kings would go daily to hear the office if they couldn't understand it. Granted, he may have just wanted to be present when what he considered to be sacred rites were preformed and to pray silently to himself. Still it all suggests quite a lot of formation on Oswald's behalf done by Iona before he returned and afterwards fostered by the monks of Lindisfarne.

Lindisfarne's Century refers to their short period of dominance or high influence from about 635 to 750. Lindisfarne continued, of course, into at least the ninth century but after the 750s their influence significantly fell. In 750, King Aldfrith's son Offa was forcefully removed from Lindisfarne and executed. Interestingly, abdicated king Ceolwulf was in Lindisfarne when Offa was dragged out of the monastery and killed. It is possible that Offa went to Lindisfarne hoping to get protection from Ceolwulf (who was the hand picked successor of his reputed brother Osric). The recording of King Ceolwulf's death in the Irish annals under the name Eochaid also suggests that Ceolwulf and by extension Lindisfarne did keep contacts with the Irish. After Offa's death and the later obit of Ceolwulf little is heard from Lindisfarne until the Norse raid it in 793. Eventually they abandoned the island and began their exodus to Durham. They wandered in their wilderness for much longer than 40 years but the community of St Cuthbert stayed together. The wandering community of St Cuthbert and the Prince Bishops of Durham are fascinating but beyond my scope. By then they have moved from innovation to preservation.

So anyway, there is now a page to collect posts on Lindisfarne and sphere of influence (Whibty, Lastingham, Melrose, etc).

"The third bishop [of Mercia] was Trumhere, an Englishman but educated and consecrated by the Irish. He was abbot of the monastery called Gilling, the place where King Oswine was killed... Queen Eanflaed, his kinswoman, had asked King Oswiu to expiate Oswine's unjust death by granting God's servant Trumhere, also a near relative of the murdered king, a site at Gilling to build a monastery; in it prayer was continually to be said for the eternal welfare of both kings, for the one who planned the murder and for his victim." (Bede, HE III.24; McClure and Collins, p. 152)

This makes the second of Oswine's close kin (along with Hild) who entered the church under Aidan. Trumhere had clearly been in the church long enough to be suitable to found a monastery on his own. He is also only the second of Aidan's students to be known to found a monastery; the other one being Eata at Melrose. We can expect that Gilling would have been founded within days or months of the deaths of Oswine and Aidan. It is even possible that it was arranged before the death of Aidan 12 days after Oswine.

In 658 the Mercians throw off the Northumbrian yoke and raise Penda's young son Wulfhere to the throne. According to Bede, Trumhere of Gilling is his first bishop. It is unclear if Trumhere became bishop with the Mercian revolt or if he had become bishop very shortly before. His epsicopate in Mercia and Middle Anglia is tentatively dated from c. 658 to 662 when he is succeeded by Jaruman. There is no reason given for the succession of Jaruman so we are left to suppose that Trumhere had died. The Mercian bishops do have a surprisingly short episcopates: Diuma started in c. 653 and died in office; Ceollach left for Ireland; Trumhere began in c. 658 and had 4 years; Jaruman had about 5 years and died in office; vacancy of about 3 years; Chad had three years and died in office in 672; Wynfrith had about 3 years and was deposed before Wulfhere's death in 675. Two bishops in only about 20 years were deposed or abdicated (Ceollach and Wynfrith).

As the first bishop of King Wulfhere, who had been in hiding until then, it is likely that Trumhere baptized Wulfhere. Unfortunately and unusually, there is no record of Wulfhere's baptism. The only reference I can recall is in Kentish/East Anglian hagiography that states something to the effect that he wasn't baptized until his Kentish queen arrived, but Kent doesn't take credit for his baptism. Therefore it is most likely that it occurred after his queen arrived but was done by the local bishop. We do know that the Mercia church was under the hegemony of Lindisfarne until 664.

Trumhere's successor at Gilling was Cynefrith, brother of Bede's Abbot Ceolfrith. We know that he was abbot only for a short while before leaving his post to retire to Ireland where he died, probably during the plague of 664. He was succeeded by Tunberht who lead the community to join Ripon after the plague of 664 reduced their numbers. It also seems possible that King Oswiu no longer had the support such an embarrassing enterprise after he decided for Rome in 664. Tunberht later became Bishop of Hexham during Wilfrid's exile as a concession to Wilfrid's monasteries. At the time that Tunberht was elevated to the episcopate Archbishop Theodore consecrated a man named Trumwine as the first bishop of Abercorn for the Picts. The similarity of the names Trumhere, Tunberht and Trumwine makes me wonder if we don't have a set of Oswine's kinsmen who were promoted in within the church in part because they were from the Deiran royal family. Trumhere appears to have been fairly close to King Ecgfrith as he was the one person specifically named has going to Lindisfarne with Ecgfrith to convince Cuthbert to accept his election to the episcopate replacing the deposed Tunberht.

Everything we know of Trumhere comes from Bede's Ecclesiastical History of the English People.

"The difference between Aidan and Cuthbert, on the one hand, and Wilfrid on the other can be traced to their different scripts. Aidan and Cuthbert received their scripts exclusively through the Celtic Christian meliu of northern Britain. In that melieu, sanctity has long been bound up in the ideal of martyrdom that centered on ascetic self-control. Wilfrid had taken more of his script, however, from the Latin-Mediterranean cities of Rome and Lyon ... both... had been drenched with the blood of Christian martyrs who stood firm against persecution from secular authorities. ...In both places, Wilfrid encountered through legend and witnessed in person this ancient ideal which understood martyrdom as the holy person's struggle against the secular ruler who is hostile to God's people and purposes. ...the Hexham church's dedication to Andrew is owing to more than simply some general devotion that Wilfrid had for the Roman Gregorian tradition which Andrew supposedly symbolized; it can be traced more specifically to Wilfrid's recognition that Andrew's story was also his own. The Hexham church thus stands as a memorial not only to Andrew's ordeal, but to Wilfrid's as well.

...In the final chapter of Wilfrid's Life, Eddius [Stephan] writes the following in loving admiration of his late master: 'But now it is for us to believe fully and perfectly that our intercessor [Wilfrid] by the sign of the holy cross has been made equal to the apostles of God, Peter and Andrew, who he specifically loved." ... I suspect that by so ending his Life in ascribing to Wilfrid an apostle-martyr status equal to Andrew's, Eddius was remembering his old abbot to the world in exactly the way that Wilfrid would have wanted." (p. 29-31)

I think Foley's identification of the Latin-Mediterranean model for Wilfrid's life is a very important one. We often write/talk about authors modeling their subjects on this or that, but it is also probable that people really did model their lives on their heroes. Remember that a saint is a hero; a more important hero to a true monastic than any secular hero, real or fictional. Its also not surprising that these two different religious lifestyles would each choose a local model saint that exemplified those ideas, Wilfrid for the Mediterranean model and Cuthbert for the Anglo-Celtic/Celtic model. I think it may be better to talk of Wilfrid in this Mediterranean mode because the term Romanist (which I admit that I use all the time) is charged with many post-Reformation feelings and images that are not relevant for the seventh century.

I wonder if it is likely that two such polar examples of piety could have only developed in direct opposition to one another. Both living in the same kingdom at the same time. Cuthbert is the student of Eata, who was the bishop in most direct contact and conflict with Wilfrid (previously discussed here), and Eata was the oldest and perhaps most trusted English pupil of Aidan of Lindisfarne. Wilfrid was the student of Bishop 'Dalphinus' of Lyon and Bishop Agilbert (later of Paris, originally of somewhere in Gaul).

I think we also sometimes get into this mode of considering Cuthbert to be all goodness and light and Wilfrid to be nasty and political, but that is a trap. Each followed their own model and teacher. I don't doubt Wilfrid's faith, sincerity, or belief that it was right -- and he usually was! Contemporary kings gave him plenty of reason to feel persecuted. I'm sure they did prefer the quiet monks who, as far as we know, very rarely interfered in politics and didn't want their wealth. Yet, Wilfrid's practical approach to politics and endowments to his monasteries got results. Endowments are a necessary thing when your king dies and the throne passes from his lineage, as no doubt Jarrow knew full well. Their endowments ended abruptly with the death of King Ecgfrith. From then on they have to barter with King Aldfrith for additional lands and there are no royal building programs at Wearmouth-Jarrow. I really have to wonder how monasteries like Lastingham survived when their founder was branded a traitor. They must have got help from the episcopal sees of Cedd and Chad. Their political position would have made establishing veneration of Cedd even more important than usual.

Hild's return to Northumbria from East Anglia in 646 was one of the most important events in the development of the early Northumbrian church. She had been in East Anglia staying with her nephew King Ealdwulf waiting for a ship to take her to Gaul (France) where she could join her sister Hereswitha in the convent at Chelles. Like her sister, Hild was almost certainly a widow. She was 32 years old and for a woman of her time, she would have been expected to either marry or enter a convent long before, particularly since her closest male kinsmen were all dead.

Hild and her sister Hereswitha remind me of Mary and Martha of Bethany. When she was widowed, Hereswitha decided to leave England and enter a convent in Gaul (France) where she could be free to lead a contemplative life, free of all the hassles of royal, secular life or even royal religious life. She left behind at least one son who became a long reigning king of East Anglia. Gaul was a common destination for southern English women before the 650s because there were very few convents or double monasteries in England. Had she remained in the land ruled by her brothers in law, she would have had to found her own monastery as most other royal women of her era did if they wished to remain in Britain. Its also possible that her brothers in law would rather she leave the kingdom than require support from them. So at age 32 Hild goes to East Anglia to wait for a whole year for transportation to join her sister at Chelles when Bishop Aidan of Lindisfarne and probably her cousin King Oswine calls her home to Northumbria (Deira?). If she was a widow, then presumably she could have refused and continued to join in her sister in Gaul. If she wasn't a widow, then her cousin King Oswine, the head of her father's kindred in 647, could have demanded that she return home, but it seems likely that King Anna of East Anglia could have seen to it that she made it to Chelles, if they wished. So, there is no reason to believe that Hild didn't return home to a world of work of her own accord. There were no convents in Northumbria; she would have to build everything from scratch.

So why did Bishop Aidan want to to come home so badly that he would make a last ditch effort to catch her before she boarded a ship for Gaul? It was finally time for the Lindisfarne mission to begin to found women's monasteries (convents) and Aidan was certainly searching for capable women. He needed a Martha. I believe that with the help of King Oswine, Aidan identified Hild as just the woman he needed probably because she had a reputation as been a good manager of a household. Aidan had previously given the veil to Heiu, the first nun in Northumbria, but she doesn't seem to have been cut out to be an abbess. Aidan gave Hild the veil at the age of 33, and placed her on one hide of land (big enough to support one family) on the north side of the River Wear (possibly near Abbot Utta's monastery of Gateshead?) where she remained for one year while she was learning to be a nun.

After her year of training, Hild moved on to become Abbess of Hartlepool in her homeland of Deira. Abbess Heiu who had earlier founded Hartlepool retired to Calcaria (Tadcaster?). Bede does not connect Heiu's retirement to Hild's arrival at Hartlepool; he simply says that Heiu retired shortly after founding Hartlepool. Running the first convent, really double monastery (both men and women under an abbess), was not an easy job! Bede tells us that when she came to Hartlepool she set to work establishing the Rule of Life in accordance with that she had been taught by Bishop Aidan with great industry. In 651 her cousin King Oswine was executed by his rival King Oswiu and Bishop Aidan died within a fortnight of each other. Despite the bitterness that Oswine's execution must have held for Abbess Hild, as it did for Oswiu's Queen Eanflæd another cousin of Oswine, Hild seems to have had at least the respect of Oswiu. While at Hartlepool she was entrusted the infant oblate Ælfflæd daughter of King Oswiu and Hild's cousin Queen Eanflæd, whom she raised and eventually succeeded her as abbess of Whitby.

Two years later, in 657, Hild went on to found a new monastery at Whitby (Streanæshalch), one of the greatest monasteries of the age. It was here that the famous Synod of Whitby was held in 664 with Abbess Hild as the hostess. Synods are not usually held at convents or double monasteries; that it was held here is a testament to the respect Hild and her monastery as held by the entire Northumbrian church. Here as Lees and Overing famously entitled an article, she was 'birthing bishops and fathering poets'. Throughout the seventh century, Whitby was the lead training and learning monastery in Northumbria. Among the young men trained at Whitby, five went on to become bishops -- Bosa of York (678-86, 691-706), Ætla of Dorchester (670s), Oftfor of the Hwicce (c. 691-?), John of Beverly (bishop of Hexham 687-706 and York 706-721) and Wilfrid II of York (721-732). Another of Hild's students Tatfrith had been chosen to become bishop of the Hwicce died before he could be consecrated. It was also Hild who recognized that the shy cowherd Cædmon had been blessed by God with the ability to compose songs of praise to God in the English language. Bede considered Cædmon to be the first Christian poet in the English language and he includes a snippet in his History, translated into to Latin. Some of the early scribes who copied Bede's History translated it into Old English and they are the among the earliest examples of Old English poetry (in at least two dialects, if I recall correctly). One of the most impressive modern crosses (below) raised in Britain is dedicated to Cædmon and Hild and placed near modern Whitby. The four panels are from top down: Christ, David with his lyre, St. Hild (surrounded by the faces of her five students who became bishops) and Cædmon near eye level. We know during this time Hild was also expanding her monastic network to include at least another monastery at Hackness and perhaps another monastery near Carlisle.

Cædmon's Cross (modern), Whitby

(available here via a creative commons license)

Hild did not escape being pulled into the politics of her day. She had been baptized by the Roman Bishop Paulinus of York in c. 626 with her uncle King Edwin. Yet, she returned to Northumbrian at the summons of Bishop Aidan of Lindisfarne, who followed Iona's practices and was, as we would say today, not in communion with Rome. We know that she was on Lindisfarne's side at the Synod of Whitby and consistently was a leader among the Anglo-Celtic party in Northumbria. This made her the rival of Bishop Wilfrid. When Wilfrid was deposed and his see was divided in 678, Hild's student Bosa became Bishop of York with authority over Whitby. According to Stephan's Life of Wilfrid, when Bishop Wilfrid appealed the loss of his see and his exile to Rome (the first such appeal from Britain), much to his surprise when he reached Rome in 679 he found representatives from "holy" Abbess Hild and Archbishop Theodore waiting for him. They lost their case to Wilfrid, but King Ecgfrith would not allow Bishop Wilfrid to return to Northumbria. We don't know if Hild heard the outcome of their case against Wilfrid, she died the following year on November 17th. Despite Wilfrid's various wins and losses over the next 25 years, Whitby managed to keep a bishop of its own training at least through the lifetime of Hild's successor and foster child Abbess Ælfflæd who died about 714.

Hild was considered a saint immediately upon her death. Although Bede does not tell us that she was buried in the Church of St. Peter at Whitby we can probably assume this is so. Her legacy at Whitby became a complicated one that I shall save for another post. However, material in Bede's History, deference given to her memory even by her rivals disciples in the Life of Wilfrid, and the beautiful account of her death in the Old English Martyrology both confirm that information of Hild's life was preserved in detail outside of Whitby. We might suspect that her five bishops and the countless numbers of students who enjoyed her hospitality and instruction ensured her sainthood. The works of Anglo-Saxon England's own Martha have stood the test of time and her memory flourishes today as one of the few early female saints of the Church of England. She is the only female English "Celtic" saint recognized today; books on female Celtic saints must always make room for this one Englishwoman. There are probably more church and school dedications to St. Hild within the Anglican Communion than any other non-biblical female saint.

~~~

Updated 20 Nov 2007

Bede, Ecclesiastical History of the English People, Book III Chapter 25 and Book IV Chapters 23, 24. McClure and Collins, eds. Oxford UP, 1994.

Stephan of Ripon, Life of Bishop Wilfrid, D. Farmer, Ed. The Age of Bede, Penguin.

Lees, Clare and Gillian Overing. "Birthing Bishops and Fathering Poets: Bede, Hild, and the Relations of Cultural Production." Exemplaria 6 (1994) 35-65.

Eldon Hills near Old Melrose. Old Melrose was situated on a peninsula in a bend of the River Tweed.

Melrose was a monastery intimately tied to Lindisfarne throughout the seventh and eighth century. From the time of Eata, Melrose became the training ground for future bishops of Lindisfarne.

In about 660, Alhfrith son of Oswiu, King of Deira (655-c.665) invited Eata into his kingdom to found a monastery, which he did at Ripon. Coming south with Cuthbert and others from Melrose, established the monastery at Ripon following the Irish rule of Lindisfarne and Melrose. After a couple years, King Alhfrith decided that he wanted his kingdom and the monasteries that he supported to follow the Roman rite. He gave Eata an ultimatum to either change to the Roman rite or surrender the monastery of Ripon. Eata chose to remain loyal to Lindisfarne and he left Ripon, which was handed over to the young monk Wilfrid. This was Eata and Wilfrid's first clash. It must have been very bitter for Eata to turn over Ripon, where he and the monks of Melrose had labored for a couple years to build a monastery, over to a young arrogant monk who was supporting Alhfrith's religious rebellion against his father. Wilfrid was not ordained by Bishop Agilberht until he already had possession of Ripon. Eata returned to Melrose for the next few years.

At the synod of Whitby in 664, that same young priest, Wilfrid, convinced King Oswiu to accept Roman rule and Lindisfarne's church thrown into chaos. Bishop Colman of Lindisfarne got King Oswiu to grant two concessions: 1. an Irish Romanist, Tud, would become the next Bishop of Lindisfarne and 2. Eata, one of Aidan's original twelve disciples, would become the next Abbot of Lindisfarne. We must remember that under Lindisfarne's rule everyone, including the bishop, was subject to the Abbot of Lindisfarne (following Iona's model). Bishop Tuda died of the plague after only a couple months, and King Oswiu was persuaded by his son to send Wilfrid to be consecrated in Gaul. Leaving aside the conflicts between Wilfrid and Chad, Eata continued as Abbot of Lindisfarne until c. 678 when Bishop Wilfrid was exiled for the first time. I think passing over Eata at this time for Bishop of York was probably more of a reflection of Lindisfarne's need rather than preference for Chad who had only recently returned to the kingdom.

Eata was chosen as one of three men consecrated to Wilfrid's divided see in 678. He was consecrated by Archbishop Theodore at York as Bishop of Bernicia seated at Lindisfarne and Hexham. By making Hexham as one of his episcopal seats, Eata took direct control of Wilfrid's best Bernician monastery. He remained Bishop of Bernicia until 671 when the see was split again to form two diocese -- Lindisfarne and Hexham. Easta remained Bishop of Lindisfarne while Hexham returned to one of Wilfrid's men, Tunberht. Cuthbert had worked closely with Eata since their time together at Melrose before the founding of Ripon. He had transferred everywhere with Eata and when Eata became Abbot of Lindisfarne, Cuthbert became his prior trusted with enforcing the new Roman rites. In 685 Cuthbert had actually been elected to the new see of Hexham recently vacated by the deposed Bishop Tunberht, but he refused to accept episcopal office if he had to leave Lindisfarne. Again, Eata did what was necessary and accepted the transfer to Hexham. It was at Hexham that Eata later died of dysentery on October 26th of the next year.

He was given a burial fitting for a bishop but was soon forgotten. He had only ruled over Hexham for 4-5 years, 3 years after Bishop Wilfrid was initially exiled and 1-2 years after Bishop Tunberht (Wilfrid's man) had been deposed. Both periods would have been a time when Hexham was hostile to those imposed upon them from outside of Wilfrid's monastic family. Eata was succeeded by John of Beverly, who had been trained at Whitby. John remained Bishop of Hexham from 687 to 706, when Wilfrid returned from his second exile and regained his old monastery. Just as we know next to nothing of Eata's activities at Hexham, memories of John at Hexham are limited to those kept at his monastery in Beverly. Hexham's willful amnesia over Eata is best illustrated by the fact that he is not mentioned in the Life of Wilfrid even once! His main monastery of Melrose lacked his body/grave, and instead seems to have focused on the legacy of Boisil (whose body they presumably did have) and his disciple Cuthbert. The relationship between Boisil and Cuthbert mirrored the relationship between Melrose and Lindisfarne. The second most likely place to remember Eata was Lindisfarne but their history is dominated by Aidan and Cuthbert. Yet, it was Eata's career that spanned the entire lifetime of the Irish mission in England from the earliest days of Aidan until the switch to the Roman rite had been completed by the 680s. Joining Lindisfarne in about 636, he lived for 50 years within its monastic system.

Bede, Ecclesiastical History of the English People, Book III Chapter 26; Book IV Chapter 12, 27, 28; Book V Chapters 2, 9

Bede, Life of Cuthbert, chapters 6, 7, 8, 16

St. Cedd died of the plague on October 26, 664 at Lastingham in Deira. Of Aidan's early disciples, Cedd was one of the most promising. We do not have a direct statement that Cedd was one of the original twelve but we can surmise as much. Bede reports that his (younger?) brother Chad was "one of Aidan's disciples...[who] sought to instruct his hearers in the ways and customs of his master and his brother Cedd" (HE III.28) and we know that Cedd and another unnamed priest was consecrated bishop of the East Saxons by Bishop Finan of Lindisfarne.

In 651-653 Peada son of Penda, King of Middle Anglia, married Alhflæd daughter of King Oswiu of Northumbria and as a condition of the marriage he was baptized by Bishop Finan of Lindisfarne and returned home with four missionaries: Cedd, Adda, Betti, and the Irishman Diuma. It is likely that all three Englishmen were among Aidan's original twelve students chosen for such an important mission. Shortly afterwards Cedd was sent by King Oswiu to the East Saxons after King Sigeberht was baptized while visiting Northumbria also in about 653. Later when Cedd returned to Lindisfarne for consultations, Bishop Finan decided to consecrated him bishop with the help of two other unnamed (British?) bishops he called to Lindisfarne. [It should be noted here that Lindisfarne/Iona was in full communion with the British church, and both were out of communion with the Roman mission.] Cedd established churches throughout Essex and the dual seats of his see at Ythancæstir (Bradwell-on-Sea) on the River Penta and Tilbury on the River Thames.

Cedd's brother Cælin was the personal priest of King Œthelwald son of Oswald (r. c651-655) of Deira. He convinced the king to give Cedd an estate in Deira in about 654, while Cedd on one of his frequent visits to Northumbria for consultations with Bishop Finan. Œthelwald requested that Cedd's monastery pray for him and be the burial place for his family. Cedd chose an estate in the wild hills at Lastingham and with the help of his brother Cynebill established a monastery there.

Bishop Cedd's mission in East Anglia prospered even though his royal sponsor, King Sigeberht, was assassinated by two brothers who were upset by his Christian behavior. Interestingly, Bede still credits his Sigeberht's death to his disobedience of Bishop Cedd who prophecied his death. Cedd then baptized Sigeberht's successor King Swithhelm son of Seaxbald in Rendlesham, East Anglia, with King Æthelwold of East Anglia (r. 655-c. 663) as his godfather.

In 664 King Oswiu called the Synod of Whitby to decide whether his kingdom/hegemony would follow Iona or Rome. Bishop Cedd was called to Whitby for the synod where he served as the interpretor for both parties. When King Oswiu decided for Rome, Cedd accepted the decision. He visited Lastingham before returning to Essex and there fell ill with the plague. He died on 26 October 664 and was buried at Lastingham. He was initially buried in the churchyard but was later buried on the right side of the alter in the new stone church of St. Mary. Cedd was succeeded as Abbot of Lastingham by his brother Chad, who was recalled from Ireland probably suggesting the other two brothers Cælin and Cynebill had already died.

There is considerable evidence that veneration of Cedd developed very quickly and was present in Ireland early as well. Egbert of Rathmelsigi in Ireland reported that he knew a man who saw a vision of Cedd coming to escort his brother Chad's soul to heaven. This suggests that veneration of Cedd had spread to Englishmen living in Ireland by the 680s.

Norman crypt of St. Cedd, St Mary's Church, Lastingham from http://www.lastinghamchurch.org.uk/

Bede, Ecclesiastical History of the English People, Book III, Chapters 21-23, 25, 28 and Book IV, Chapter 3.

First, it is easy to see why John was their favored apostle and evangelist. They often refer to John as being worthy to lay his head on Christ's shoulder during the Last Supper as proof that he was a favored disciple. John is, of course, usually identified with the 'beloved disciple' of the Gospel of John to whom the Blessed Mother is entrusted.

As a writer, John was believed to be the most productive of the twelve apostles. John was reputed to be the author of the Gospel of John, three letters, and Revelations. In Galatians (2:9), Paul refers to John as one of the pillars of the church along with Peter and James the Just, Jesus' brother. Of the four evangelists, John's Community in Asia Minor was also the largest and most prominent. (To be fair, Iona also had considerable interest in Egyptian spirituality, representing the community of Mark.) The point is, that it was fairly easy to privilege John over Peter.

Synod of Whitby: The most important evidence comes from Bishop Colman's defense at the Synod of Whitby. His first defense of Lindisfarne's Easter calculation is that it was that of St. John the Evangelist; only when Wilfrid overturned this, did Colman appeal to Anatolius' calendar. What is important here is not whether Lindisfarne and Iona were correctly using John's calendar or not, but that Colman initially put St. John up against St. Peter. When that failed to sway, he turned to Anatolius and then Columba. While the scene is climatically portrayed as being St. Columba vs. St. Peter, the debate Colman wanted to have was St. John vs St. Peter. Had the calendar not been an issue and it was only which disciple the church follow, it would have been a much more difficult decision.

St. John of Beverly: Anglo-Saxons and the Irish very rarely took biblical names during the early medieval period. Hagiography and Bede's letters show us that they sometimes took pet names primarily from the church fathers, but it was very rare for these names to replace their native birth name. There are a few, Columba, Boisil (probably from Basil) and Benedict Biscop (Baducing) but they are the exceptions and none of them are biblical names. There are only three native people in Bede's History with biblical names: John of Beverly, Bishop of Hexham and York; Tobias Bishop of Rochester, and Thomas, Bishop of East Anglia. It is significant that this Whitby-trained bishop took the name John.

St Boisil's last week: St Boisil was an Irish prior of Melrose, who must have arrived in Northumbria during Aidan of Lindisfarne's life. He was prior of Melrose to Abbot Eata when Bishop Aidan dies in 651. According to Bede's Life of Cuthbert, Boisil was Cuthbert's mentor. When Boisil has a prophecy that he only has a week to live, he chooses a seven part commentary of the Gospel of John as his last lesson to Cuthbert. This highlights the Gospel of John in the Life of Cuthbert and as what Boisil found the most important to teach Cuthbert.

St. Cuthbert's Gospel survives today, commonly known as the Stonyhurst Gospel. It is a palm size copy of the Gospel of John, produced at Wearmouth-Jarrow during Coelfrith's abbacy, and was placed in St. Cuthbert's hand within his coffin. This is the correct period for both Cuthbert's death in 687 and his first translation in 695. It was probably placed in his hand in the first shrine in 695. Indeed, one wonders if this gospel book was commissioned by Ceolfrith specifically as a gift from Wearmouth-Jarrow to the new saint at his translation or his original grave. From hagiography and letters, we know that it was common to send gifts to a saint, even while they lived, to be used for their grave. However, it is interesting that Bede did not mention his own monastery's gift to the shrine in his Life of Cuthbert. This may suggest that the gospel was given to Cuthbert during his lifetime, and unknown to Bede, who would have been a youth in 685-687. His ordination in 685 would have been an occasion when such a personal gift would have been appropriate. Whenever the gospel was given, it is significant that Cuthbert was enshrined with a copy of the Gospel of John in his hand.

These breadcrumbs may look like thin evidence but when we consider how little evidence we have from Lindisfarne's Irish period, I think it is significant. This is not to say that the Irish did not value the other three gospels; all four evangelists were carved into Cuthbert's original coffin and the Lindisfarne Gospels provides elaborate carpet and opening pages to all four gospels. Yet, if we are to understand Iona and Lindisfarne, and their influence through the ages, glimpses at their theological preferences can be enlightening.

(modern icon)

Today is the anniversary of the execution of King Oswine of Deira, considered by some to be a saint. All we know of Oswine is included in Bede's History (Book III:14). Bede writes a curious tale for Oswine.

"King Oswine was tall and handsome, pleasant of speech, courteous in manner, and bountiful to nobles and common alike; so it came about that he was beloved by all because of his royal dignity which showed itself in his character, his appearance, and his actions; and noblemen from almost every kingdom flocked to serve him as retainers. Among all the other graces of virtue and modesty with which, if I may say so, he was blessed in a special manner, his humility said to have been the greatest" (McClure and Collins, ed; 1994:132)

This all seems well and good. Bede proceeds to narrate an example of Oswine's great humility to St. Aidan, Bishop of Lindisfarne. However, at the end of the episode, Aidan turns to an Irish colleague and says "I know that the king will not live long; for I never before saw a humble king. Therefore I think that he will very soon be snatched from this life; for this nation does not deserve to have such a ruler." (p. 133). Oswine death follows and Aidan himself dies only 12 days "after the murder of the king he loved". The implication is that Aidan dies of a broken heart.

Bede actually begins his tale with Oswine's murder/execution. Oswine has gathered his army to meet King Oswiu (who would later rule at the Synod of Whitby) in battle near Catterick. When Oswine realized how outnumbered his was by Oswiu, he disbanded his army and went into hiding with a retainer he believes is his friend. This retainer betrayed him to Oswiu who had his rival executed. There is no doubt that this murder caused an outrage in the church. Oswiu's queen, Eanflaed, was the cousin of Oswine and demanded a weregeld (blood price) paid by the founding of the monastery of Gilling where prayer was to be offered daily for the soul of King Oswine and his murderer King Oswiu.

The question is why does Bede include the story in his History. There is no evidence that he sees Oswine as anything other than a sad victim. Bede provides no evidence that Oswine was considered to be a saint by his day. Oswine was much later reported to be buried at Tynemouth, not the new monastery of Gilling.

The usual explanation is that Bede includes the story because his beloved Abbot Coelfrith came from Gilling, Coelfrith's family monastery (meaning that Coelfrith was also a kinsman of Oswine). This isn't really a very satisfying answer. Gilling had ceased to exist before Bede was born and Coelfrith is not mentioned in the story. An interesting side note is that Gilling seems to disband as a monastery after the plague of 664 when all the surviving monks joined Abbot Wilfrid at Ripon (victor of the synod of Whitby the same year). Thus within months of deciding for Rome, the monastery Oswiu had to found as weregeld/penance was allowed to disappear.

Another explanation is that it was part of Aidan's death story. This isn't very satisfying either because Aidan's death is not elaborated on, as it is in a later chapter (which doesn't mention Oswine at all). These look like two reports of Aidan's death.

The chapter begins with an assessment of Oswiu's reign and the next chapter records a miracle of Aidan's in assisting in the arrival of Eanflaed to her marriage to Oswiu. The context of the story places it within Oswiu's story as Oswald's successor. Miracles of St. Aidan and Aidan's death are then inserted. After Aidan comes the life and death of pious King Sigeberht of East Anglia who had entered a monastery, but his people pulled him out of the monastery to lead them into battle against Penda, the evil pagan of Bede's History. Sigeberht refused to carry a weapon in to battle and rode to his death carrying only his royal scepter.

Bede has set up a story of three example kings

• Oswald: Bede's ideal king: brave, victorious in battle, supporter of the church and evangelist, humble enough to translate Aidan's sermons before his people, but not too humble to loose their respect, protector of his people up to his death.
• Oswine: too humble to be a king. A perfect picture of a king, but when it came down to it, not brave enough to ride in to battle and die. He is an anti-hero.
• Sigebert: a pious king, but nevertheless Bede did not favor kings who retired to monasteries. The fact that his people came to him to lead them in battle suggests that he once was victorious in battle and was still young and healthy enough to do so again. He did not protect his people. Penda destroys the army, Sigebert's co-king, and then ravages the monasteries and people of East Anglia.

Bede believed that people should live up to the position in life they were given: king, bishop, monk, commoner. A king should be a good king: protector of the people, patron of the church, obedient to the bishop. He offers Oswine as an example to his readers of how a king should not behave.

Perhaps he was also eager to ensure that King Oswiu would not be too glorified. He tallied plenty of pious attributes during his 28 year reign. He may have been the greatest patron of the church of his age, judge at the synod of Whitby, and slayer of Northumbria's worst enemy (Penda of Mercia), but he was also capable of murdering his rivals and having his own kinsmen, his nephew Oethelwald son of Oswald and his own son Alhfrith, rebel against him. His rebellious kinsmen are never heard from again. Bede does make sure to casually mention these rebellions in the beginning of the chapter before he narrates Oswine's story. The execution of Oswine may be Bede's way of indicating the fates of Oethelwald and Alhfrith by implication in a way that would not offend the contemporary rulers of Northumbria.

Cuthbert of Lindisfarne

Cuthbert of Lindisfarne is a stealthy saint of Whitby. I say stealthy because most people don't realize the importance of Cuthbert in enforcing the changes ordered at Whitby. When Eata became the first English Abbot of Lindisfarne, his protégé Cuthbert became prior of Lindisfarne. The job of the prior is to administer the monastery and enforce discipline. The prior was the chief operating office to the abbots chief executive officer who spent much of his time dealing with the world outside the monastery, the king and other monasteries/bishops. So from 664 until about 685, Cuthbert was the prior of Lindisfarne. How he handled bringing the customs and rites of Rome to the heart of the Celtic church is what really made him a saint. It was a difficult task that at times drove him to preach in the countryside or retire to a hermitage to seek peace and rest. It is what drafted him into the position of bishop, even though his poor health had driven him to a hermitage on Farne Island where he could get some peace.

Scholars often refer to Cuthbert as the 'politically correct version of Aidan (of Lindisfarne)'. That is true and exactly what made him revered by his contemporaries. He managed to enforce the changed demanded by Rome while retaining the Irish lifestyle. We should expect nothing less from the former prior of Melrose, where he had the position of enforcing the Irish lifestyle.

I've called Cuthbert Eata's protégé, but recall that Bede considered the Irish prior of Melrose, Boisil, to be Cuthbert's teacher. A few years ago Colin Ireland [1], I believe convincingly, showed that Boisil is an Irish version of the name Basil, probably a name taken in religion. It makes sense that when Bishop Aidan chose Eata to be the first English abbot (at Melrose) gave him an Irish prior to ensure that the rule at this new monastery was correctly kept according to Iona's standards.

By the time of the Reformation, St. Cuthbert was the most popular native saint in England. His relics survived (a story for another day) and still draw pilgrims to Durham Cathedral today. Through the role model of St. Cuthbert, the Irish values survived into the modern Anglican church, even if many no longer recognize them as "Celtic" or Irish.

As this post has grown long, I'll look at Theodore and why he is a belated saint of the Synod of Whitby in the next post.

[1] Ireland, C.A., 1986. Boisil: an Irishman hidden in the works of Bede, Peritia, p. 400-03.

1. Oswald, King and Martyr, who raised the cross at Heavenfield during the summer of 634 is, of course, the primary saint of this site.
2. Columba of Iona: Columba died before Oswald was born. According to Adomnan, Oswald had a dream of St. Columba on a night before the battle of Denisesburna (ie at Heavenfield). There should be no doubt that as a convert of Iona who looked to Iona for his missionaries, Oswald would have considered St. Columba to be the primary local saint of his kingdom. Oswald's vision is one of the (relatively) few posthumous miracles/visions in Adomnan's Life of Columba.
3. Audrey of Ely (Æthelthryth), Queen of Northumbria was married to Oswald's nephew from c. 660 to 672, and queen of Northumbria only from 670-672. We know that Hexham (with Heavenfield) was given to her as a wedding gift and from Bede, that she maintained her own separate household run by staff from East Anglia. It is therefore possible that Audrey lived at Hexham for the first ten years of her marriage. Her refusal to consummate their marriage only became a problem when Ecgfrith became king and his need for a heir became dire. Audrey may have only come to live with Ecgfrith when she was required to take on the responsibility of being queen. When she was allowed to leave her marriage to enter the church, she gave the estate of Hexham (with Heavenfield) to Bishop Wilfrid to found a monastery.
4. Wilfrid, Bishop of York: When Wilfrid won the debate at the Synod of Whitby, he ended Lindisfarne's control of the Northumbrian church and put it and the rest of England under the authority of Rome. This officially undid the last of King Oswald's political legacy. In 672-3 Bishop Wilfrid gave Queen Audrey the veil of a nun and took the estate of Hexham for a monastery. Wilfrid built the Church of St. Andrew at Hexham as a glory of the North. Wilfrid's attitude to Oswald and Heavenfield probably waxed and wained based on his relationship with Oswald's nephews Ecgfrith (r. 670-685) and Aldfrith (r. 685-705). At the very least, Wilfrid did not repress the site. Given Wilfrid's role in ending Lindisfarne's dominance, he may have relished controlling such an important Oswaldian site. Bede's account of Heavenfield, relaying the official position of Hexham, is definitely more Romanized than Adomnan's account. After his second exile from Northumbria, he returned as Bishop of Hexham from c. 705 to his death in 709.
5. Eata of Hexham: He was probably Aidan's oldest and most trusted English pupil, one of his original twelve English disciples. He was the first known Abbot of Melrose, seemingly while Aidan was alive. He later founded the monastery of Ripon, but was forced to hand it over to the young Romanist Wilfrid. After the Synod of Whitby, Eata became the first English Abbot of Lindisfarne. He was the first bishop of the diocese of Lindisfane and Hexham combined (c. 679-685) and then Hexham alone (685-c.687). As Eata seized the monastery of Hexham when Wilfrid was (first) exiled, his reception at Hexham may have been chilly.
6. Acca of Hexham: Bishop of Hexham after Bishop Wilfrid's death from about 710-731. The pilgrimages to Heavenfield that Bede describes in his History clearly occurred during Acca's tenure and the chapel recently built there must have been built by Acca. He was also a major informant of Bede's on other miracles credited to Oswald. Acca's material had a clear role in making Oswald acceptable to Romanists and reporting early international veneration in Ireland and Frisia.
7. Adomnan, Abbot of Iona: First person to write about the events of Heavenfield and therefore the first to give the site textual importance. His representation of Oswald as a New Joshua is major step in influencing Oswald's memory. Adomnan was also the author of the Law of the Innocents enacted at the Synod of Birr in 695 that protected women, children and clerics from the violence of war and women from domestic abuse. Thus, Adomnan's law was one of the most important ecclesiastical contribution to civilizing early medieval Britain and Ireland, even if the laws enforcement was lackluster.
8. Bede of Jarrow: primary author of all we know on King Oswald and the second account of Heavenfield with the raising of the miracle working cross that he claimed still stood in his day a hundred years later. Bede's portrayal of King Oswald has had the greatest influence on the development of Oswald's veneration (as Bede intended).

Honorary saints of Heavenfield:

1. Aidan Bishop of Lindisfarne: Leader of King Oswald's evangelistic efforts. Although Bede does not credit him with a single convert, Aidan's mission can be credited with converting over half of England. He is an honorary saint of Heavenfield because he does not have direct association with the site. Of his students, only Eata was stationed at Hexham.
2. Willibrord, Archbishop of Frisia: He was a child of Deira (Yorkshire) and raised at Bishop Wilfrid's monastery of Ripon. When he left to study in Ireland he took with him a fragment of the stake that held Oswald's head at Maeserfelth (as Bede reported). He carried the relic to his pagan missionary field in Frisia (Netherlands) and started interest in St. Oswald in Frisia/Flanders and Germany.

Its quite a collection here. Leaving aside the honorary Heavenfield saints, we are still left with shall we say three international saints: Oswald, Columba and Bede. Bede only really making international status in the last century or two, just as Oswald seems to be fading internationally. Pan-English saints Audrey of Ely and Wilfrid of York are remembered in much of the Anglican Communion, if not in the United States. Others are more local Hexham saints: Eata and Acca; while Adomnan is remembered primarily as a scholar with limited local remembrance in Ireland and Scotland. Both honorary saints are recognized internationally by Anglicans and Catholics. Willibrord is the patron saint of ecumenical relationships between Anglican and Old Catholics in Europe.