Oswiu’s Bad Luck

I've been reading Marilyn Dunn's The Christianization of the Anglo-Saxons and just thinking about King Oswiu's bad luck after the Synod of Whitby. He is celebrated by Bede and the Church of England ever after for choosing to accept the authority of Rome over the independent tradition of Iona, the mother house of the Irish...

Oswiu’s Bribe to Penda and to God

Penda's last campaign against Northumbria is one of the few scenes in Bede's History where we can see Northumbrian propaganda exposed. At Penda's siege of Oswiu in 655, Bede reports that Oswiu tried to offer a couple bribes to get out of the situation, first to Penda and then to God. Lets look at what...

Hild and the Snakes of Whitby

Did you know that St Patrick isn't the only early saint who is said to have driven snakes out of the land? Patrick's driving the snakes from Ireland is well known, but how many know about St Hild's driving the snakes from the estate of Whitby? Ok, not quite as impressive as driving them from...

St Hild: The Martha of the Anglo-Saxon England

This past weekend is the feast day of St. Hild of Whitby. According to Bede, she died on 17 November 680 and her feast is celebrated in the Episcopal Church on November 18th and in the Church of England on November 19th. Hild's return to Northumbria from East Anglia in 646 was one of the...

PW: James the Deacon

Our Person of the Week for this week is James the Deacon, who presumably came to Deira with Bishop Paulinus of York in c. 625. He was left behind in Deira when Bishop Paulinus, Queen Æthelburgh and royal children fled to Kent sometime shortly after King Edwin's death on 12 October 633. Bede reports that...

Eata of Melrose: Shouldering the Burden

St. Eata died of dysentery on October 26, 686/7 at Hexham in Bernicia, 22 years to the day after St Cedd, Aidan of Lindisfarne's other famous disciple. I have to admit that I have always like Eata. Although consistently described by Bede as the "gentlest and simplest of men", he was the real worker of...