He also was overlord over the Welsh kingdom of Strathclyde and ‘sponsor’ at
the baptism of Cynegils, king of Wessex, whose daughter he married.
Oswald was killed in the 8th year of his reign by Penda of Mercia at the battle
of Maserfeld nr Shrewsbury. His body was dismembered and later given to
the monks of Bardney in Lindsey; some of the bones were taken to St Peter’s
in Gloucester, his head to St Peter’s Church at Banborough castle and later
to Lindisfarne, where it was buried in the coffin of St Cuthbert and transferred
in 815 to Durham .His arm and leg, taken to Peterborough in 948, were said
to have remained incorrupt, which was interpreted as a sign of sainthood –
Strangely, I came across a painting in Graz, Austria, in which Oswald was
depicted as a helper in case of fire and patron saint of firemen.
25 August St Ebba, Abbess of Coldingham.
She was the sister of Oswald and fled with him to
Scotland at the death of their father. She returned
to Northumbria when Oswald was king and
established a monastery at Ebchester and another
at ‘Urbs Coludi’= Kirk Hill at St Abb’s Head near
Eyemouth, which evolved into Coldingham, one of
the largest monasteries in the North. It was both
for men and women, the monks and nuns were
first generation Christians from noble families and
said to be undisciplined, so that St Cuthbert
visited to instruct them. Aetheldreda, founder of
Ely Cathedral, was educated there. Ebba was a
skilled politician, negotiating on behalf of the king and the Bishop Wilfrid. Not
long after her death the monastery burnt down and the site was abandoned,
but Kirk Hill remained a pilgrim site. Ebba was said to be one of the many
light in the dark ages, a Northern Saint who converted Northern Britain to
Christianity. The Episcopal Church at Eyemouth is dedicated to St Ebba.
SOME THOUGHTS TO RECENT NEWS REPORTS
Forgiving doesn’t mean Forgetting
This was the title of an article by Marina Cantacuzino in the Guardian
Newspaper on 2 May. She is the founder of the ‘Forgiveness Project’. This is
a strange name for a politically active group in our times.
The article commented on the public reaction to the Holocaust survivor Eva
Kor publicly forgiving the “bookkeeper of Auschwitz”, the 93 year old former
SS guard Oskar Gröning.
In one simple gesture she managed to incite hope and inspiration. The article
goes on to say that forgiveness cuts public opinion in two, some see it as
betrayal others as a miracle cure.
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