5 August St Oswald of Northumbria, King and Martyr. (605-642) The
second of 7 sons of Ethelfrid, King of Northumbria, who was killed by
Redwald of East Anglia(who was buried at Sutton Hoo). His family fled to
Scotland, where the children were brought up at Iona. In 635 Oswald set up
a wooden cross at a spot near Hadrian’s Wall, later called ‘Hevenfelt’ nr
Hexham, encouraged by a vision of
St Columba, in order to win
back his father’s kingdom. After
his victory, he spread
Christianity throughout his
lands, aided by Aidan, who was
sent from Iona and established
as bishop in Lindisfarne.
According to Bede, Oswald was
the most powerful king in the
North West, ‘uniting the Britons,
Picts, Scots and English’, 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 8 th 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, where Oswald was depicted as a helper
in case of fire and patron saint of firefighters. (A position perhaps disputed
by St Florian Ed.)
24 August St Bartholomew (1 st century) One of the 12 Apostles, his name
means ’Son of Tolmai’. He is probably identical with ‘Nathanael’, to whom
Jesus said that he had seen him under the fig tree, to which Nathanael gave
a profession of faith. Legend has it that he went to India, Armenia,
Mesopotamia and Persia to preach. This is probably why (as Eusebius tells
us) St Matthew’s Gospel in Hebrew was found in India during the 2 nd
century. St Bartholomew was martyred by being flayed alive, which makes
him the patron saint of tanners! He is portrayed in art with his skin draped
over his arm.
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