Heavenfield

Well, May 5th is Heavenfield’s first birthday. It has been a great year with 17,206 actual visitors to the site and quite a few more I know reading along with syndicated readers.

I think I’ll celebrate the anniversary with a run down of the top 5 posts of the last year with their hit count. I should point out that WordPress does not count visits by the site owner.

Out of 154 blog posts, these are the top 5:

1. Martyrdom: Red, White, and Blue (275)
2. Which Mary? (254)
3. You know Easter is coming early when… (206)
4. Lindisfarne and St. John the Beloved (199)
5. St Aethelthryth of Ely: An Enduring Saint (197)

None of these got more than 50 posts within their first 2-3 days so these are posts that have turned up almost daily in search engine hits. There are another about 5-7 that also turn up nearly daily in search hits. Its been fun the last couple months watching them jockey for position to finish. At least only one (#3) was found by off topic search words like ‘green beer’!

Excluding the ‘about me’ page, Early Medieval Kings has been by far the most popular web page with 509 hits. Going along with this, early medieval kings is by far the most common search term to find Heavenfield.

Last but certainly not least a big THANK YOU to my two biggest referrers: Dr Nokes at Unlocked Wordhoard and Jonathan Jarret at A Corner of Tenth Century Europe!

Now that the semester is winding down to a close over the next week I hope to get back to blogging on a more regular basis. Brendan is getting impatient to move on…

A little fun for the weekend that too many of us are coming to the end of semester crunch… this is a challenge that goes out to all readers and bloggers (but specifically Derek the Anglican, Jonathan Jarret, and Saesferd) to explain your avatar. First, who, what or where is it and then why did you pick it. Reply on your blogs and pass the challenge on. I’ll get it started with my own avatar.

The purple thistle is one of my favorite wild flowers. I like its color and fluffiness, and appreciate that it is one tough, sturdy, prickly plant that most people consider a weed. The cotton thistle is the national flower of Scotland and according to wikipedia, it was allowed to grow around fortresses as a defensive measure. Did I mention it is prickly? Growing in thick, sharp-spiked clusters or hedges it can be quite a barrier, albeit one with pretty purple flowers.

As Heavenfield has been along the border of England and Scotland for as long as there has been a border, I can easily imagine it growing there and elsewhere along Hadrian’s Wall.

St Andrew’s appeal in Britain is one of those stories of meandering coincidences that are common in development of the veneration of saints. After all, Andrew is mainly venerated in the East. His missionary work occurred in Asia Minor where he was martyred. He is the patron saint of Greece, Russia, Sicily, Romania, Malta, Prussia, and Scotland. How Andrew became the patron saint of Scotland is one of those curious East-West connections in a time when Britain is supposedly so isolated.

Here is where only the kind of melding that can take place on Sicily comes into play. Although the church of Rome tends to play down this period in Sicilian history, the island was taken by Justinian I in 535 and remained under the rule of Byzantium until it was taken by the Arabs in the mid-ninth century. Throughout this period, Sicily turned back to its ancestral orientation toward Greece and the East, including in the church. To this day, most of the people of Sicily are genetically closest to Greeks with a veneer of each invader (including the Romans). Although Rome ruled Sicily for six centuries they never heavily settled it or tried to Romanize its Greek culture.

Anyway, Gregory the Great came from a high ranking Roman family with vast Sicilian estates. His mother Silvia may have been Sicilian. It is likely that Gregory spent much of his youth in Sicily. We know that Gregory himself is said to have founded six monasteries on Sicily and one in Rome, in his former home, dedicated to St. Andrew. His knowledge of Eastern customs from Sicily, by then under the rule of Byzantium for nearly 50 years, made Gregory the ideal representative from Rome to Constaninople before he became Pope in 590. It was from his monastery of St. Andrew that Gregory chose his former prior Augustine to send to Britain. The reluctant missionary Augustine brought with him dedication to St. Andrew and founded a church in Rochester in his honor.

Northern veneration of St Andrew can also be tied to Gregory the Great’s mission to Britain. When Paulinus of York fled from York back to Kent, he was made bishop of Rochester, seated at the Church of St. Andrew. Bishop Wilfrid of York in particular looked to St Andrew (and perhaps Paulinus of York) as a role model. I wonder if the young Wilfrid visited Rochester where the legends of Paulinus and King Edwin were kept during his year in Kent waiting to go to Rome for the first time? When Wilfrid goes to Rome the first time as a teenager he seeks out the oratory of St Andrew where he kneels before the four gospel books and prays for the skills to preach to the nations. Archdeacon Boniface of the oratory of St Andrew takes him in and teaches his Roman law. Could the “Oratory of St Andrews” have been associated with Gregory the Great’s monastery in Rome? And, could Archdeacon Boniface have taken particular interest in Wilfrid because of common interest in Gregory’s mission to Britain? I don’t know.

William Trent Foley has suggested that Wilfrid’s mediation between King Ecgfrith and Queen Æthelthryth (Audrey) was influenced by legends of St Andrew’s similar intervention between a husband and wife that led to his martyrdom. Andrew counsels the wife to maintain her desired abstinence from marital relations. There is no claim that the wife was a virgin but the similarity between Andrew’s legend and Ecgfrith, Æthelthryth, Bishop Wilfrid triangle is uncanny. Wilfrid’s imprisonment and other abuse at the hands of Ecgfrith are similar to the torture Andrew endures before his martyrdom. Makes me wonder if Wilfrid wasn’t looking for martyrdom like his mentor ‘Bishop Dalphinus’ whom he had wanted to die with according to Stephan of Ripon. Wilfrid dedicated his church at Hexham (on land given to him by Audrey) to St. Andrew. This was his second major church, after St Peter’s at Ripon. The dedication to St. Andrew on land gained after his mediation between king and queen could be seen as support for Foley’s assertion that Wilfrid is intentionally following an Andrew life script. He believes that Stephan is portraying Wilfrid’s exile as a type of martyrdom. Yet, I’m getting the sense that Stephan is particularly good at showing Wilfrid escape from martyrdom opportunities, but perhaps that will be a post for another day.

After Wilfrid’s death, Hexham is inherited by his personal priest Acca, who succeeds him as Bishop of Hexham. Acca had long studied at Wilfrid’s knee but unlike his mentor his efforts had to be restricted to the see of Hexham, a minor fraction of Wilfrid’s vast domain. Bede credited Acca with greatly expanding and enhancing the Church of St Andrew at Hexham. After 21 years as bishop, Acca did follow his mentor in being exiled. Where Acca went for the rest of his life is a mystery. There has been speculation that he went to Galloway where there was a new see forming around Whithorn, but I think Bishop Pehthelm of Whithorn was removed or died about the same time. The first action of new Archbishop Egbert of York in 735 was to place new bishops, Frithuberht and Frithuwold, at Hexham and Whithorn. The Continuer of Bede’s summary (in later editions of the History) lists Egbert’s elevation and the consecration of the two new bishops all in one entry. Bishop Frithuberht of Hexham and Archbishop Egbert both retained their sees until their deaths in 766. Chronicles date Acca’s death to about 740, so he had 9 years in exile. There has been much speculation that he went north to King Oengus of Pictland. His predecessor King Nechtan had contacted Wearmouth-Jarrow in the diocese of Hexham for help in modernizing and adopting Roman rites and customs during Acca’s tenure as Bishop of Hexham. King Oengus of Pictland founded the cult of St Andrews in Scotland. Acca would have been keenly interested in turning the Pictish kingdom away from Iona and veneration of St Columba, and may have been actively involved in King Nechtan’s consultations with Abbot Coelfrith. As the kings of Pictland continued to build and favor St. Andrews, he eventually displaced St. Columba and became patron saint of Scotland.

The last but not least piece of evidence that links Hexham to St. Andrews in Scotland is circumstantial. Since the time that St Andrew became the patron saint of Constantinople, the legends of St Andrew and Constantine the Great became associated. When Wilfrid, Acca and others went to Rome and did research on St. Andrew they likely would have come across legends of Constantine the Great. It has been observed in a variety of places that Hexham’s version of the events at Heavenfield in Bede’s History (III.2) resemble accounts of Constantine at Milvan Bridge. I have never been convinced of this as much as others, but it is certainly told with Roman/Imperial language. The Pictish foundation legend of St. Andrews in Scotland is a far stronger comparison to the Constantine legend that the Heavenfield account. King Fergus of Pictland sees the X shaped Cross of St Andrew in the sky, just as Constantine sees the cross at Milvan Bridge. Fergus promises that he will make Andrew the patron saint of his kingdom Scotland/Pictland if he is victorious in the coming battle, just as Constantine does. St Oswald certainly does not give God or a saint such a challenge! A detraction to the Pictish story is that it is preserved so late that the Constantine imagery could have come at a much later date.

Andrew’s tale in Britain is a thin, long winding story but, ultimately, it leads back to Gregory the Great and his monastery in Rome. As large as Gregory the Great may loom over early Britain, it is clear that Wilfrid looms equally large over the interest in St. Andrew (and his little brother St Peter).

For further reading:

Bede, Ecclesiastical History of the English People. McClure and Collins, eds. Oxford UP, 1994

William Trent Foley. (1989) “Imitatio Apostoli: St Wilfrid of York and the Andrew Script” American Benedictine Review 40(1): 13-31.

Ursula Hall. (1994) St Andrew and Scotland. St Andrew’s University Library.

Today is the feast of St. Acca, Bishop of Hexham 710-731. He is best known as the person to whom Bede dedicated most of his works. He was Bede’s bishop for most of his adult life. The same year that Bede finished his History, Acca was ‘driven out’ of his see and went into exile. There are legends about where Acca went in his exile but no conclusive proof. He seems to have been buried at Hexham in c. 737 (ASC). All we know of Acca comes from Bede’s History, Stephan’s Life of Wilfrid, and Bede’s dedications to him in the preface of his works.

Bede praised Acca for building up the church and monastery of Hexham. He continues many of the building efforts of his mentor Wilfrid, but with all his efforts focused on the single small diocese of Hexham. He particularly notes that Acca builds up the library at Hexham and is a great collector of stories about the saints. Stephan reports that he wrote the Life of Wilfrid at the command of Bishop Acca and Abbot Tatberht of Ripon.

“Wilfrid’s nominee, Acca, was accepted as abbot in his place. The depth of his love he bore his father in God can be seen in the numerous practices he instituted in his honour. Acca himself celebrated a private mass daily for the repose of his soul [Wilfrid's] and had every Thursday, the day of his death, kept as a feast just like Sunday. He decided to mark every anniversary of the death by giving a tenth part of all his herds and flocks to the poor — all this over and above the charity he distributed every day for the repose of his master’s soul and the welfare of his own, always in Wilfrid’s name.” (Stephan, Life of Wilfrid, ch. 65, Famer ed., 1988, Age of Bede, p. 178-179)

Acca diligently collected relics and builds multiple alters within the church of St. Andrew and it is to his tenure that we should date the chapel of St. Oswald at Heavenfield. In his reports on Oswald’s miracles, we see Acca gathering stories as early as 704 while he was still the confessor of exiled Bishop Wilfrid. The three chapters of material in Bede’s Ecclesiastical History that can be credited to Acca directly or to Hexham in his time really define and solidify the veneration of St. Oswald. To be sure, Acca had a vested interest in developing the veneration of this most local saint because the site of Heavenfield is within the monastic estate of Hexham.

So lets look at the three chapters of the Ecclesiastical History that come from Acca personally or Acca’s Hexham:

• Book III Chapter 2 Heavenfield : The account of heavenfield comes entirely from this chapter which includes a miracle for Bothelm of Hexham (who was still living in c. 731) and its account of the recent church built there. This account makes no mention of St. Columba or Dalriada. It also stresses the Latin name for the place that Bede claims predated Oswald’s actions (though one wonders if it might not come from an early Latin account) and notes its location near the Roman wall, perhaps trying to link events to Rome as much as possible. The previous chapter with its tight historical narrative of events in 633-634 refers only to the battlefield of Denisesburn. It is possible that there was some competition between the two sites, and Denisesburn may have been outside of Hexham’s estate.
  • “To this place the brethren of the church at Hexham, not far away, have long made it their custom to come every year, on the day before that on which King Oswald was killed, to keep vigil there for the benefit of his soul, and to sing many psalms of praise, and, the next morning to offer up holy sacrifice and oblation on his behalf. And since that good custom has spread, a church has lately been built there so that the place has become still more sacred and worth of honour in the eyes of all. And rightly so: for, as far as we know, no symbol of the Christian faith, no church, and no altar had been erected in the whole of Bernicia before that new leader of the host, inspired by his devotion to the faith, set up the standard of the holy cross when he was about the most savage enemy.” (McClure and Collins eds, 1994, p. 112).

• Book III Chapter 13 Willibrord in Frisia: This chapter tells us that English peregrani like Willibrord carried relics of native saints like Oswald on their journeys. Miracle are credited to Oswald in Ireland and Frisia. Thus, it shows that Hexham’s local saint had become an international saint. It is also a dig at the Irish who are very learned but lacking in faith.

• Book IV Chapter 14 Vision of Peter and Paul in Sussex: According to the editors, this chapter is not found in the c class of the manuscript. The editors suggest that it may have been added to the manuscript late by Bede. A small boy has a vision of Peter and Paul who told him the monastery would be saved from a plague except him alone and that:
  • “This divine mercy has deigned to grant the brethren by the intercession of the saintly King Oswald, beloved of God, who once reigned gloriously over the Northumbrian people with the authority of temporal kingship and with the devotion and Christian virtue which brought him to the everlasting kingdom . It was on this very day that the king was slain in battle by the heathen and was forthwith carried to the everlasting joys of the souls in heaven, joining the ranks of the elect. Let them seek in their books in which the deposition of the dead is noted down and they will find that it was on this day that he was taken from the world. So let them celebrate masses in all the chapels of this monastery, both in thankfulness for answered prayers and in memory of King Oswald, who once ruled over this people though strangers …” (McClure and Collins ed., 1994, p. 196)

  Look at how much Acca achieve in this one vision? First of all, he has shown that Oswald is acceptable to Peter and Paul and immediately accepted into heaven. If he is acceptable to St Peter, no one can object to his relationship with Iona/Lindisfarne. This miracle shows that Oswald’s intercession is available to all the people he once ruled over, even if they don’t ask for it. Bede comments that from this time not only this monastery but many over places began to celebrate Oswald’s feast.

So what does Acca’s information or actions accomplish?

1. Establishes Heavenfield as a pilgrimage site and its cross as a healing relic.
2. Establishes Oswald as an international saint.
3. Establishes that Oswald is acceptable to God (by coming to heaven immediately) and endorsed by Sts. Peter and Paul.
4. All three accounts are tied to healing miracles, the most common type of miracle and the most immediate to the average believer.

Acca has done the necessary work to establish Oswald among the saints of the church catholic. In the process he as brought the monastery of Hexham a saint who is less divisive than Wilfrid and more likely to bring royal patronage.

Today is Holy Cross Day, a day to remember and celebrate the cross as an instrument of salvation. Holy Cross Day began as a celebration of the founding of the true cross in Jerusalem by St. Helena and later the dedication of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. So, I think this is a good day to take a look at the role of Oswald and his cross at Heavenfield had on the development of Northumbrian ethnogenesis, a process that included their becoming a Christian people.

Ethnogenesis is the process of developing a sense of ethnicity; of “us” vs. “them” and who “we” are. Ethnogenesis is one of the first steps toward national unity, nationality.

Conditions required for (medieval) ethnogensis:

1. Common ancestral past
2. Religious conversion
3. Victory in battle over a traditional enemy

Common ancestral past

Oswald’s ancestry united the two kingdoms that provided Northumbrian royal dynasties and are considered the core of Northumbria. His father Æthelfrith was a heir to the kingdom of Bernicia and his mother Acha was the daughter of Ælle, King of Deira. The conditions of their marriage have been much speculated over because Ætethelfrith eventually ruled over both kingdoms, but nevertheless Oswald united both dynasties. Indeed, Bede presented Oswald as the natural successor (but not heir) of his uncle King Edwin, heir of Deira. The term ‘Northumbria’ was unknown in Oswald’s time and he would have been known as King of Bernicia and Deira, or just King of Angles.

Through Bede’s History we can see the persistence of the identity of the two “sub” kingdoms, Deira and Bernicia. Bede does claim that both kingdoms were populated by Angles and any other claim to common ancestry of the people would have been based on pre-immigration ethnic ties and mythological genealogy links. Interestingly, the oldest genealogy to list these mythical ancestors (like Woden) is believed to have been fixed during the reign of Oswald, the most Christian king of the Northumbrians.

It is true that after Oswald’s death, the united kingdom of Bernicia and Deira broke apart for about a decade. Oswald’s successor in Deira, Oswine, was succeeded by Oswald’s son Oethelwald and Oswald’s nephew Ecgfrith united the kingdoms for the final time without the pretense of a subking during his reign (r. 670-685). It was Ecgfrith’s queen who gave Hexham with Heavenfield to Bishop Wilfrid to found a monastery, and Ecgfrith’s sister Osthryth, Queen of Mercia, who founded the shrine of St. Oswald at Bardney in Lindsey.

Religious conversion

We know that Oswald was a figure of religious conversion during whose reign the conversion of Northumbria progressed at least to the point that the both Bernicia and Deira remained Christian after his death. The same could not be said for his uncle King Edwin, the previous convert Christian king of Deira and Bernicia.

Adomnan of Iona is specific in saying that the only Christians with Oswald at Heavenfield were those who had been in exile with him and the remainder promised to be baptized after the coming battle. Oswald was not a priest, nor apparently did he have one with him, so baptism was not part of the events at Heavenfield.

“Oswald, when he was about to engage in battle, set up the sign of the holy cross, and on bended knees, prayed God to send heavenly aid to His worshippers in their dire need….when a cross had been hastily made and hole dug in which it was to stand, he seized the cross himself in the ardour of his faith, placed it in the hole and held it upright with both hands until the soldiers had heaped up the earth and fixed it in position. Thereupon he raised his voice and called out to the whole army, ‘Let us all kneel together and pray the almighty, everliving, and true God to defend us in his mercy from the proud and fierce enemy; for he knows that we are fighting for a just cause for the preservation of our whole race.‘ They all did as he commanded, advancing on the enemy just as dawn was breaking, and gained the victory that their faith merited.” (Bede HE III.2, McClure and Collins, 1994:111).

I’ve always wondered if Oswald’s victory itself was considered a miracle. In the previous chapter, Bede summarizes the account

After his brother Eanfrith was killed, Oswald came with an army small in numbers but strengthened by their faith in Christ, and destroyed the abominable leader of the Britons together with an immense force which he had boasted was irresistible, at a place called in the English tongue, Denisesburn, that is the brook of the Denise. (Bede HE III.1; McClure and Collins 1994:111)

Although Bede thought he was being very specific, the placename has been lost. It is interesting that it was the cross at the battle camp that became the site of pilgrimage and not the battlefield.

In both Adomnan and Bede’s accounts there are also ties to pre-Christian royal behavior here — Oswald the king is the intermediary between God and the people, not a Christian priest or bishop. He is taking on the Old Testament role of David and Melchizedek as a king-priest. The role of a king-priest would have been comforting to his yet unconverted (or barely converted) people, who were accustomed to their kings being an intermediary with their gods. By taking this pagan role and putting it to Christian uses, Oswald was making a bold statement of Christian evangelism. We can not underestimate the importance of the king as a Christian role model.

Oswald’s cross became a tangible reminder of the divine sanction for the Northumbrian people. Bede reported that all kinds of people visited the cross and removed splinters or moss from it as relics. Oswald’s cross at Heavenfield was out in the open and freely accessible to the people, unlike the corporal remains kept in monasteries or even a royal chapel where access was strictly guarded. Bede seems to indicate that Oswald’s veneration began with relic collecting by the common people, regular wayfarers who needed a little extra help or healing in their everyday lives.

Scholars have speculated in the past that Oswald’s cross was also the role model for the proliferation of large stone crosses in Northumbria like the Ruthwell cross, a trend that seems to have predated the erection of stone crosses in the south.

Victory in battle over a traditional enemy

Oswald’s greatest victory was at the battle of Denisesburn against Caedwalla (Cadwallon) King of Britons, immediately after the events at Heavenfield. Bede did not specify which British kingdom Cadwallon ruled, and this has caused some speculation of late. Bede portrays Cadwallon as a great ethnic and political enemy, but also a religious enemy. “Cadwallon , although a Christian by name, was nevertheless a barbarian in heart and disposition and spared neither women or innocent children” (Bede HE II.20). Throughout his History, Bede portrays the Britons as false Christians who refused to cooperate with Augustine and Rome in general, refusing to evangelize the English (with or without Rome). In effect, Bede considered the British to be heretics. So while Canon Brown is correct, that Oswald did fight other Christians, heretics are not quite brothers in the church. Bede relates the story of Augustine’s Oak to legitimize war against the British.

“It is said that Augustine, the man of God, warned them with threats, if they refused to accept peace from their brethren, they would have to accept war from their enemies; and if they would not preach the way of life to the English nation, they would suffer the vengeance of death at their hands. This, through the workings of divine judgment, came to pass in every particular as he had foretold. For later on, that very powerful king of the English Æthelfrith [Oswald's father]…collected a great army against the city of the legions [Chester]…and made great slaughter of that nation of heretics.” (Bede, HE II.2, McClure and Collins, 1994, p. 73)

It is true that in our modern terms, we believe the British were in communion with the Irish of Iona and by extension Lindisfarne but in terms of ethnogensis what is important is how the past is viewed by later generations; here, Bede’s view dominates. Given that Cadwallon was ravaging Oswald’s homeland, Cadwallon’s Christianity should not be expected to alter Oswald’s response. Besides, no where in scripture does it say do less physical violence to other Christians than to pagans!

Politically, in the year before the battle of Denisesburn, Cadwallon had slain three kings, two from Deira (Edwin and Osric) and one from Bernicia (Oswald’s elder brother Eanfrith). Cadwallon was a common enemy to both Anglo-Saxon kingdoms that formed the core of Northumbria. Therefore, he was an ethnic, political and religoius foe whose defeat could be savored by all the peoples of Bernicia and Deira, the proto-Northumbrian state.

In summary then, Oswald and the events at Heavenfield played an important role in the development of the Northumbrian state. The cross at Heavenfield became the tangible reminder and a continuing witness. Oswald became the native national saint of Northumbria, one accepted by king, commoner, and cleric alike of all factions.

For the feast of St. Oswald (August 5th), I’d like bring the new hill walkers trail, St. Oswald’s Way, to your attention and offer a few reflections.

First, for the hikers, St. Oswald’s Way is a 97 mile hiking trail that charts a route from Lindisfarne (Holy Isle) to Heavenfield. It is divided into six stages. The route follows the North Sea past the impressive castle at Bamburgh (where archaeologists recently found a cemetery from St. Oswald’s era) and the church of St. Aidan (where Aidan died) along the pristine white beaches of Northumbria to the River Croquet. The current castle and church of Bamburgh are built on top of Oswald’s castle and Aidan’s church. The castle of Bamburgh still preserves the outline of St. Oswald’s chapel within the grounds where his arm shrine would have been kept in the late Saxon era. The island at the mouth river Croquet is where St. Cuthbert met Abbess Ælfflaed in the Life of St. Cuthbert. The trail follows the river Croquet inland to Rothbury and then goes through the hill country to Hadrian’s Wall, and from there to Heavenfield. Heavenfield is marked today by a modern commemorative cross and a chapel from the 1700s. The nearly 1000 years between Oswald’s battle camp and the building of this chapel make the location unverifiable. We really should consider a several mile radius around the modern site to be Heavenfield. From Heavenfield it is worth your time to proceed on to the Abbey of Hexham, where you can pick of the train or pick up a car. Part of the crypt built by St. Wilfrid remains, along with the medieval Bishop’s throne and part of St. Acca’s cross. There are other Roman era sites to see in the area as well.

All along St. Oswald’s Way the trail is marked with the logo featuring Oswald’s raven.

Given that they are walking to Heavenfield, where Oswald planted the miracle-working cross, it is unfortunate that the way could not have been marked by crosses, but apparently that is the logo for St. Cuthbert’s Way (Melrose to Lindisfarne). I suppose I don’t mind the raven too much, even though there is no connection between Oswald and ravens prior at least the last Saxon period. The Woden inspired ravens do remind us of the blending of traditions that occur in any conversion period. It should be another reminder to Anglicans that the English are still not immune to this type of blended Christian and pre-Christian tradition that we see elsewhere in newer missionary fields like southern Africa and the Caribbean. Indeed, no church that calls the feast of the Resurrection Easter, after a pagan goddess, should ever forget their origins. In Oswald’s Northumbria, no doubt many of his people still worshiped the goddess Eostre. When Oswald publicly celebrated Easter with Bishop Aidan, it was an act of evangelism as well as piety.

To look at St. Oswald’s way in another sense, what made him Bede’s ideal king and the first native English saint? Oswald was first recognized as a saint by the common people who made pilgrimages to the site of his death and to Heavenfield. These sites were openly accessible to the people, unlike his relics that were sequestered in royal or monastic churches where the people had little or no access. I don’t believe this was merely because of his violent death, or ancestral king worship. Plenty of other early Christian kings met violent deaths without being considered a saint. Oswald was different — a strong king who was active and visible in his evangelism. He could lead his people in prayer before battle without the aid of a priest. Oswald could translate Bishop Aidan’s sermons before the people without looking weak. He was a respected warrior who prayed for his soldiers and perhaps his enemies. Oswald’s proverb summed up what the common people needed to know about Oswald (Bede, HE III.12):

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’.

It has been observed that this proverb falls easily into Old English verse. Bede has obviously interpreted this proverb for us to mean that Oswald prayed for his own soldiers who were falling around him. The Mercian Old English Martyrology interprets it to mean that he was praying for his enemies, like Jesus from the cross. Given that no Northumbrians should have survived near their fallen king to hear his last words, it is possible that –if the proverb is historical– it was remembered by his Mercian enemies. Prayer for his slayers would have made quite an impression on them and it was the Mercians who built his most impressive shrine at Bardney in Lindsey. Such early acceptance by his mortal enemies must surely say volumes that Oswald had that special something extra. Let us remember Oswald with one of his traditional collects:

“Lord God almighty, who so kindled the faith of King Oswald with your Spirit that he set up the sign of the cross in his kingdom and turned his people to the light of Christ: grant that we, being fired by the same Spirit, may always bear our cross before the world and be found faithful servants of the gospel; through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, who is alive and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever.”

Heavenfield is a rural site near Hadrian’s wall, within the medieval monastic estate of the Abbey of Hexham. This rural patch of pasture is far from the traditional holy sites in Britain and yet it has a number of saints associated with it that could rival anywhere else in England. Here is a synopsis of the Heavenfield saints:

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.