Wisdom of Saints: St Cedd

The Feast of Cedd, Missionary, Bishop of the East Saxons, 664

O GOD, our heavenly Father, who by thy Son Jesus Christ didst call thy blessed Apostles and send them forth to preach thy Gospel of salvation unto all the nations: We bless thy holy Name for thy servant Cedd, whose labours we commemorate this day, and we pray thee, according to thy holy Word, to send forth many labourers into thy harvest; through the same Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

St Cedd is another British saint for whom little is known apart from what was recorded by St Bede in his Ecclesiastical History. He was born around 620 and died in 664. He was born into the northern kingdom of Northumbria to a noble family, the eldest of four brothers of whom one was St Chad of Litchfield, and the other two who also became priests. They were all chosen by King Oswald to become a priest and monastic to evangelize the area, and was sent to be educated in Lindisfarne at the priory there under the instruction of St Aidan who was then the bishop of Lindisfarne.

He was ordained a priest in 653 and shortly after began missionary work. The pagan East Anglian king Peada converted to Christianity in exchange for the hand of the daughter of the King of Northumbria in marriage. St Cedd was asked to travel to the kingdom to instruct the king in the Christian faith and to convert the people. He had significant success over the next year, and eventually returned to Lindisfarne.

In 654, owing to his success in converting the people of East Anglia, he was sent to Essex, where again the King of Northumbria’s political actions had opened the door for Christian missionaries. St Cedd was sent by the bishop of Lindisfarne to convert the people there. He began his mission and established two monasteries and several churches there, and upon returning to Lindisfarne again later that year was consecrated Bishop of Essex. As Bede records:

Cedd, having received the episcopal dignity, returned to his province, and pursuing the work he had begun with more ample authority, built churches in divers places, and ordained priests and deacons to assist him in the Word of faith, and the ministry of Baptism, especially in the city which, in the language of the Saxons, is called Ythancaestir, as also in that which is named Tilaburg. The first of these places is on the bank of the Pant, the other on the bank of the Thames. In these, gathering a flock of Christ’s servants, he taught them to observe the discipline of a rule of life, as far as those rude people were then capable of receiving it.

He returned south with newfound episcopal authority, ordaining deacons and priests and continuing to raise up many monks in his two monasteries. He re-established St Paul’s, London as his Cathedral, becoming only the second Bishop of London since the first, Mellitus, had been expelled from London by the East Saxon pagans in 616 shortly after establishing St Paul’s, after he himself had arrived in England with St Augustine of Canterbury in 598.

While St Cedd continued his work in the south, he made frequent return visits to the north. On one of these in 658, he was introduced to King Aethelwald of Deira who had been instructed in the Christian faith by one of St Cedd’s other brothers who had also become a monk with him at Lindisdarne. Finding St Cedd to be a godly man, the King gifted him with land at Lastingham on which he asked St Cedd to build a royal monastery and mausoleum. St Cedd ultimately agreed, but demanded that no construction begin until the area had been cleansed by prayer and fasting. He undertook himself in Lent of 658 to fast forty days, and as St Bede records:

All which days, except Sundays, he prolonged his fast till the evening, according to custom, and then took no other sustenance than a small piece of bread, one hen’s egg, and a little milk and water. This, he said, was the custom of those of whom he had learned the rule of regular discipline, first to consecrate to the Lord, by prayer and fasting, the places which they had newly received for building a monastery or a church. When there were ten days of Lent still remaining, there came a messenger to call him to the king; and he, that the holy work might not be intermitted, on account of the king’s affairs, entreated his priest, Cynibill, who was also his own brother, to complete his pious undertaking. Cynibill readily consented, and when the duty of fasting and prayer was over, he there built the monastery, which is now called Laestingaeu, and established therein religious customs according to the use of Lindisfarne, where he had been trained.

St Cedd spent much of the rest of his life living at his monastery in Lastingham, administering his see from there. He is noted to have served at the Synod at Whiby in 664, under the Abbess Hilda, and supported the Synod’s decision to adopt Romanizing customs for the Catholic Church in the Realm of England in an effort to unify the various kingdoms. Shortly after the synod, a plague broke out in England, and St Cedd died. He was buried at Lastingham.

St Cedd led a life destined for holiness. He was educated from an early age under the pious St Aidan of Lindisfarne and dedicated his life to the transmission of knowledge of God to others. He is commemorated as the evangelist of the Middle Angles and East Saxons, and played a critical role in the spread of the Christian faith throughout many of the English kingdoms, and provided a lasting example through his monastic devotion for generations to come.

Wisdom of Saints: St Aidan of Lindisfarne

The Feast of Aidan, Missionary, Bishop of Lindisfarne, 651

O GOD, our heavenly Father, who by thy Son Jesus Christ didst call thy blessed Apostles and send them forth to preach thy Gospel of salvation unto all the nations: We bless thy holy Name for thy servant Aidan, whose labours we commemorate this day, and we pray thee, according to thy holy Word, to send forth many labourers into thy harvest; through the same Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

St Aidan of Lindisfarne was born in Ireland, but little else is known of the details of his early life, though St Bede later recorded in significant detail much of his later life. Whatever the exact details and when and where he was born, he ultimately became a Christian monk living in St Columba of Iona’s monastery at Iona. He would later go on to become a great missionary to Northern England, helping to bring the kingdom of Northumbria to faith.

The history of Christianity in England plays a significant role in St Aidan’s life. It had likely arrived within the first century brought by Roman soldiers who had been converted to Christianity. Over the next centuries, however, despite initially flourishing in Britain, as the Western Roman Empire suffered collapse and Roman troops were pulled out of Britain, pagan invaders began to de-Christianize Britain. While Christianity was never fully stamped out, many of the Christians in Britain lost contact with the Christians of the rest of the world, including the Celtic Christians of Scotland and Ireland.

When St Aidan was still a younger man, in 597, St Augustine of Canterbury landed in Kent on a mission from the Bishop of Rome to restore the connections with the Western Catholic Church on the continent. St Augustine began sending missionaries north from his base in Canterbury, while Iona and the Celtic Christians had been making some efforts to send missionaries into the north. The King of Northumbria, Edwin, was converted to Christianity by one of the southern missions, however after only a few years he was killed. His nephew, Oswald, had been exiled. Fortuitously, Oswald had gone to Iona to stay with the monks during his exile, before eventually returning to Northumbria to reclaim the kingdom from the pagans who had killed King Edmund.

Upon regaining the kingdom, King Oswald sought to re-Christianize it, but rather than turning to the southern missionaries from Rome who had originally brought the Gospel to his uncle, Oswald turned to the monks with whom he had resided during his exile. The first missionary sent from Iona returned in failure, though St Aidan commented that the other monk’s methods had perhaps been too strict. Citing St Paul, St Aidan argued that the English people needed milk and not just solid food (I Cor 3. 2) and sought to try a gentler approach. St Aidan replaced him and, rather than seeking to establish himself at York, as his predecessor had, St Aidan established a new monastery at Lindisfarne off the NE coast of England.

Over the years, St Aidan was able to restore Christianity in Northumbria, and eventually his missionary journeys took him as far south in England as London. He established missions all over the North, and St Bede recorded numerous stories of his works, commending his piety, humility and love of the Gospel, and commending him as model for other missionary Bishops in England.

St Bede writes:

Among other lessons in holy living, Aidan left the clergy a most salutary example of abstinence and continence; it was the highest commendation of his doctrine with all men, that he taught nothing that he did not practice in his life among his brethren; for he neither sought nor loved anything of this world, but delighted in distributing immediately among the poor whom he met whatsoever was given him by the kings or rich men of the world. He was wont to traverse both town and country on foot, never on horseback, unless compelled by some urgent necessity; to the end that, as he went, he might turn aside to any whomsoever he saw, whether rich or poor, and call upon them, if infidels, to receive the mystery of the faith, or, if they were believers, strengthen them in the faith, and stir them up by words and actions to giving of alms and the performance of good works. [Bede’s Ecclesiastical History of England III:V]

Bede commended St Aidan for his study of the Scriptures, and his encouragement to all those who followed him to do the same. He also regularly fasted on Wednesdays and Fridays. Whenever he received gifts from wealthy visitors he would distribute them to the poor and needy. St Bede also records that he would use money he received as gift to ransom slaves taken by pagans, many of whom after receiving their freedom he converted to Christianity, and in many cases instructed them and ultimately ordained them into Holy Orders.

St Aidan maintained a close relationship with King Oswald, who was himself sainted, feast day of August 5th, who was himself a holy man upon his conversion and under St Aidan’s continued influence. One story recorded by St Bede says that as they sat down to eat, a servant came and told the king that a great number of needy were outside begging for alms. King Oswald, ordered his meal to be served to the poor on its silver platter and then for the platter to be broken up and distributed to the poor as alms.

King Oswald was killed in battle a few years later, and recognizes as a martyr, and succeeded by St Oswin, another man who followed St Aidan’s teachings, though not without some need for correction. In another story told by St Bede, St Oswin gifted St Aidan with a horse and cart, which St Aidan gave to a beggar. St Oswin, upon hearing this, chastised him saying that had he known St Aidan was going to give the gift away there were plenty of more common horses in the stable suited for a beggar. St Aidan chastised the King, asking him if he considered the foal of a mare more highly than a son of God. King Oswin wept tears of repentance and promised never again to criticize St Aidan’s acts of charity.

His faith, piety, gentleness, charity and earnestness is living out the Gospel that he so cherished and preached throughout his missionary journeys made him an extremely successful missionary, helping to establish Christianity throughout England.