Holy Hierarch Ósweald of Worcester

Saint Ósweald of Worcester

Leap-day saints need more love. As mentioned before, I’m a big fan of the Desert Father John Cassian – but it turns out that Yorkshire has its own leap-year saint who deserves some commemoration alongside Venerable Cassian today: Ósweald, Bishop of Worcester.

Ósweald, or Ásvaldi, was an at least half-Danish by-blow (of the second generation) of the Mickle Heathen Here which invaded England in 865, the same army which conquered northern England, martyred Saint Éadmund and came close to defeating Ælfrǽd the Great. However, the descendants of these heathen invaders lost no time adopting the religious beliefs of their new English subjects. Oda or Auði, Ósweald’s paternal uncle, began listening to Christian preaching against the wishes of his heathen father, sought refuge with a Christian nobleman, was baptised, became a monk, and later went on to become Archbishop of Canterbury and a saint in his own right. He was commemorated in the English Church as ‘Oda the Good’, or ‘Oda se Goda’.

One of the things that Saint Oda the Good did for his nephew was to sponsor his upbringing and education. Oda had young Ósweald sent to the Benedictine Abbey at Fleury, which was then a major centre of learning with a massive library and a flourishing ascetic discipline. Ósweald himself was drawn to the holy way of life he learned at Fleury, and there took the cowl and became a Benedictine himself. Upon the death of his uncle in 958, he returned to England from Gaul and was welcomed back by Ósc‎ytel (or Ásketill, clearly another churchman of Danish stock) of York. The bishop and the monk set out together some time later on pilgrimage to Rome, but Ósweald did not range beyond Fleury, where he stayed until Óscytel summoned him back to England.

Ósweald was called on this occasion to assist Archbishop Saint Dúnstán of Canterbury in his monastic reforms of the Church – supported by Éadgár King and by Bishop Æþelwold of Winchester. In particular, Saint Ósweald was tasked with the reinvigoration of the Benedictine Rule, which had grown slack in England over the course of the ninth century, and the replacement of sæcular canons (the equivalent of modern-day deans) with Benedictine monks. Saint Ósweald took to this work with relish. It was little wonder that in 961, then, the monk would be elevated to the see of Worcester. To this office he added also the see of York, after the repose of Óscytel and the resignation of his successor Éadwold.

Saint Ósweald was far more active and vigorous in his southern see, however. He brought a greater rigour to the Benedictine Rule at the abbeys of Ely and St Albans, and consecrated with the aid of the East Anglian ealdorman Æþelwine a new Benedictine house at Ramsey with the help of a brother-monk from his days at Fleury, Saint Abbo. In what seems to be a rather poetic historical twist, Saint Ósweald and Saint Dúnstán directed Saint Abbo to compose a Life of Saint Éadmund, who had been martyred by the Danes (including, presumably, Saint Ósweald’s grandfather) three generations before.

Saint Ósweald was truly given to the Benedictine discipline of total hospitality and self-giving love to the poor, and made a point of washing the feet of the poor in his see every day during Great Lent. He met his repose in the Lord after completing this work of mercy and hospitality, on the twenty-ninth of February, 992. He was recognised as a saint very shortly after his death, and is still regarded as one of the primary patrons of the city of Worcester along with the post-Schismatic Western saint, Wulfstan (who had a particular devotion to Saint Ósweald). Holy Hierarch Ósweald, pray to Christ our God that our souls may be saved!