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Augustine of Canterbury was a Christian monk who became the first archbishop of Canterbury in the year 597. He is considered the "Apostle to the English" and a founding figure of the Church of England.
Laurence was the second Archbishop of Canterbury, serving from about 604 to 619. He was a member of the Gregorian mission sent from Italy to England to Christianise the Anglo-Saxons from their native Anglo-Saxon paganism, although the date of his arrival is disputed. He was consecrated archbishop by his predecessor, Augustine of Canterbury, during Augustine's lifetime, to ensure continuity in the office. While archbishop, he attempted unsuccessfully to resolve differences with the native British bishops by corresponding with them about points of dispute. Laurence faced a crisis following the death of King Æthelberht of Kent, when the king's successor abandoned Christianity; he eventually reconverted. Laurence was revered as a saint after his death in 619.
Wilfrid was an English bishop and saint. Born a Northumbrian noble, he entered religious life as a teenager and studied at Lindisfarne, at Canterbury, in Francia, and at Rome; he returned to Northumbria in about 660, and became the abbot of a newly founded monastery at Ripon. In 664 Wilfrid acted as spokesman for the Roman position at the Synod of Whitby, and became famous for his speech advocating that the Roman method for calculating the date of Easter should be adopted. His success prompted the king's son, Alhfrith, to appoint him Bishop of Northumbria. Wilfrid chose to be consecrated in Gaul because of the lack of what he considered to be validly consecrated bishops in England at that time. During Wilfrid's absence Alhfrith seems to have led an unsuccessful revolt against his father, Oswiu, leaving a question mark over Wilfrid's appointment as bishop. Before Wilfrid's return Oswiu had appointed Ceadda in his place, resulting in Wilfrid's retirement to Ripon for a few years following his arrival back in Northumbria.
Honorius was a member of the Gregorian mission to Christianize the Anglo-Saxons from their native Anglo-Saxon paganism in 597 AD who later became Archbishop of Canterbury. During his archiepiscopate, he consecrated the first native English bishop of Rochester as well as helping the missionary efforts of Felix among the East Anglians. Honorius was the last to die among the Gregorian missionaries.
Ecgbert was an 8th-century cleric who established the archdiocese of York in 735. In 737, Ecgbert's brother became king of Northumbria and the two siblings worked together on ecclesiastical issues. Ecgbert was a correspondent of Bede and Boniface and the author of a legal code for his clergy. Other works have been ascribed to him, although the attribution is doubted by modern scholars.
Berhtwald was the ninth Archbishop of Canterbury in England. Documentary evidence names Berhtwald as abbot at Reculver before his election as archbishop. Berhtwald begins the first continuous series of native-born Archbishops of Canterbury, although there had been previous Anglo-Saxon archbishops, they had not succeeded each other until Berhtwald's reign.
Bosa was an Anglo-Saxon Bishop of York during the 7th and early 8th centuries. He was educated at Whitby Abbey, where he became a monk. Following Wilfrid's removal from York in 678 the diocese was divided into three, leaving a greatly reduced see of York, to which Bosa was appointed bishop. He was himself removed in 687 and replaced by Wilfrid, but in 691 Wilfrid was once more ejected and Bosa returned to the see. He died in about 705, and subsequently appears as a saint in an 8th-century liturgical calendar.
Wilfrid II, name also spelled Wilfrith, also known as Wilfrid the Younger, was the last bishop of York, as the see was converted to an archbishopric during the time of his successor.
Billfrith is an obscure Northumbrian saint credited with providing the jewel and metalwork encrusting the former treasure binding of the Lindisfarne Gospels. His name is thought to mean "peace of the two-edge sword".
Botwine was a Northumbrian saint venerated at Ripon and Peterborough. He is well documented as a priest, and latter Abbot of Ripon. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle recension E, recorded his death in the 780s in one of three Ripon abbatial obits derived from a chronicle of Northumbrian origin. Following the death of St Botwine in 786AD, his replacement, Ealdberht was elected and consecrated Abbot. Ealdberht died in 788AD, and was himself succeeded as Abbot by St. Sigered of Ripon.
Cissa of Crowland was a saint in the medieval Fenlands. He was the successor of Guthlac as abbot of Crowland, and is mentioned in Felix' Vita Guthlaci. According to the Crowland Chronicle his tomb was next to Guthlac's, and like the tomb of Guthlac, was destroyed by the Scandinavians. His relics were translated to Thorney Abbey in the 10th-century.
Ælfgifu of Exeter was an Anglo-Saxon saint, of unknown date or origin, whose relics were held by Exeter Cathedral. She is mentioned in the Old English Exeter relic-list as "the holy servant of Christ ... who would daily perform her confession before she went into church". It is possible that she is the 10th-century royal abbess, Ælfgifu of Shaftesbury wife of Edmund I, but it is "more likely" according to historian John Blair that she was not.
Osburh was an Anglo-Saxon saint who rested at Coventry Cathedral. Although there is some tradition holding her to be an early 11th-century abbess of Coventry Abbey, it is suspected that her cult predates the Viking Age.
Dachuna was a medieval virgin saint venerated in Cornwall. Probably British in origin, Dachuna is known from the list of resting-places of Hugh Candidus, authored around 1155. Dachuna, along with Medan and Credan, were allegedly associates of Saint Petroc, whom they rested alongside at the church of Bodmin.
On the Resting-Places of the Saints is a heading given to two early medieval pieces of writing, also known as Þá hálgan and the Secgan, which exist in various manuscript forms in both Old English and Latin, the earliest surviving manuscripts of which date to the mid-11th century. Secgan is so named from its Old English incipit, Secgan be þam Godes sanctum þe on Engla lande aerost reston "Tale of God's saints who first rested in England"), and is a list of fifty places which had shrines and remains of Anglo-Saxon saints. Þá hálgan is a version of the so-called Kentish Royal Legend is a heading which appears to be for both texts, as the Kentish legend, which comes first, is actually an account of how various members of the royal family of Kent, descendants of Æthelberht of Kent, founded monasteries and came to be regarded as saints. As such it is closer to other hagiographical texts than to the list of burial sites that follows it. The texts describe people living from the 7th to 10th centuries, and they exist in both Old English and Latin versions, but both have their earliest known manuscripts dating from the 11th century.
Ceatta of Lichfield is an obscure Anglo Saxon saint of the Catholic Church.
Æthelwine of Sceldeforde was a seventh century saint, venerated in the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches, who lived in Anglo-Saxon England. He is known to history from records in the hagiography of the Secgan Manuscript. He was venerated as a saint after his death, though some question his historical authenticity.
Beornstan the Archdeacon, also known as Byrnstan, was a medieval Catholic saint from Kent in Anglo-Saxon England.
Wynthryth of March was an early medieval saint of Anglo Saxon England.
Eadmund the Confessor is a pre-Congregational saint of Anglo-Saxon England.
References
- Blair, John (2002), "A Handlist of Anglo-Saxon Saints", in Thacker, Alan; Sharpe, Richard (eds.), Local Saints and Local Churches in the Early Medieval West, Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 495–565, ISBN 0-19-820394-2
- Craig, D. J. (2004), "Oswald [St Oswald] (603/4–642), king of Northumbria", Oxford Dictionary of National Biography , retrieved 2011-02-06
- Farmer, David Hugh (1992), The Oxford Dictionary of Saints (New ed.), Oxford: Oxford University Press, ISBN 0-19-283069-4
- F. Liebermann, Die Heiligen Englands, Hanover, 1889.
- Pfaff, Richard W. (1992), "The Calendar", in Gibson, Margaret T.; Heslop, T. A.; Pfaff, William (eds.), The Eadwine Psalter: Text, Image, and Monastic Culture in Twelfth-Century Canterbury, London: The Modern Humanities Research Association (in conjunction with The Pennsylvania State University Press), pp. 62–87, ISBN 0-947623-46-9
- Susan J. Ridyard, The Royal Saints of Anglo-Saxon England: A Study of West Saxon and East Anglican Cults, Cambridge Studies in Medieval Life and Thought: Fourth Series, 1988.
- D. W. Rollason, "Lists of saints' resting-places in Anglo-Saxon England" in ASE 7 (1978), 61-93.
- Stancliffe, Clare (2004), "Patrick (fl. 5th cent.), patron saint of Ireland", Oxford Dictionary of National Biography , retrieved 2011-02-07
- Swanton, Michael, ed. (2000), The Anglo-Saxon Chronicles (New ed.), London: Phoenix Press, ISBN 1-84212-003-4
- Woolf, Alex (2007), From Pictland to Alba, 789–1070, The New Edinburgh History of Scotland, Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, ISBN 978-0-7486-1234-5
- Yorke, Barbara (2003), Nunneries and the Anglo-Saxon Royal Houses, London: Continuum, ISBN 0-8264-6040-2