Ceadda

ON SAINT CEADDA, BISHOP OF THE MERCIANS AND LINDISFARAE, AT LICHFIELD IN ENGLAND, IN THE YEAR 672

HISTORICAL COMMENTARY.

Ceadda, Bishop of the Mercians and Lindisfarae, at Lichfield in England (Saint)

Section I. The Kingdom of Mercia: Episcopal See. The written Life of Saint Ceadda; sacred veneration.

[1] Mercia in the Anglo-Saxon Heptarchy was a very extensive kingdom, comprising seventeen provinces of present-day England, which Henry Spelman enumerates before the Ancient Councils of Britain and William Camden in his Britannia, Mercia, a large kingdom in England; and was named from the English word Mearc, in Camden's sense, because it signifies a boundary, just as the word Marches has been commonly used among other nations. But the reason for the appellation is joined with the fact that six other kingdoms of this Heptarchy bordered on this Mercia. And not only those, but even Wales itself (anciently Cambria) was contiguous to it; and moreover where the province of Lincoln now is, then the principal portion of the Lindisfarae, it borders on the east upon the German Ocean, and Cheshire with its Wirral peninsula between the rivers Dee and Mersey touches on the west the Irish Sea.

[2] The Venerable Bede, at the end of the Ecclesiastical History of the English People, sets forth with a certain recapitulation the state of the English nation in it the episcopal sees of the eighth century as it was in the year 731, and the following Bishops in the kingdom of Mercia are named: Aldwine of the Mercians; and Walstod for the peoples who dwell beyond the river Severn to the west; Wilfrid of the province of the Hwicce; Cynibert of the province of the Lindisfarae. Of these Walstod was the fourth Bishop of Hereford, Hereford, Worcester, and Wilfrid of Worcester. Both sees are reckoned to have begun in the year 680, when Saint Ceadda had already been dead for eight years, and whether these territories were administered by him is not entirely clear. But Eadhed was the first Bishop given to the province of the Lindisfarae or Lindsey in the year 678, under Ecgfrith, King of the Northumbrians, to whom that province was then subject. But when that province was recovered for the Mercians by King Ethelred, Lindisfarae, Bishop Eadhed departed to the monastery of Ripon in the district of York, and Aethelwine was appointed Bishop of the Lindisfarae, whose see was long at the small town of Dorchester in Oxfordshire, at the confluence of the Thame and the Isis rivers, from which the Thames, famous by its name, springs. At length under William the Conqueror the see was once again established at Lincoln. Aldwine of the Mercians, recorded by Bede, died two years later, that is, in the year 737, and in his place Hwicca and Tocca were consecrated Bishops of the Mercians and Middle Angles. Mercians So writes Simeon of Durham in his History of the Kings of England, in whom at the year 764 the following is found: The Bishop of the Mercian nation, named Tocca, died, and Eadberht was ordained Bishop in his place. The see of these Bishops was Leicester, still the capital of the county named after it. But that see was, under King Edgar, joined to the episcopate of the Lindisfarae, as William of Malmesbury reports in Book 4 of his Deeds of the Bishops of England. Bede below in number 5 says that Saint Ceadda received the episcopate of the nation of the Mercians as well as of the Lindisfarae, but in number 15 he reports somewhat more precisely that Winfrith was ordained in his place, to preside with the office of Bishop over the provinces of the Mercians and Middle English and Lindisfarae, just as his predecessors had done. Those who are here called Middle English are above called Middle Angles, of the Middle Angles, and they lived in the counties subject to the same Bishop: Staffordshire, Derbyshire, Cheshire, and parts of Warwickshire and Shropshire.

[3] The Episcopal See in the said county of Staffordshire was Lichfield, or Licisfield, so called as if it were the "field of corpses," because very many Christians suffered martyrdom there under Diocletian, whose memory is dedicated to the day of January 2, whose episcopal city is Lichfield, as we have noted at that date. In this place, says Camden in his account of Staffordshire, Oswy, King of the Northumbrians, having conquered the pagan Mercians, in the year of our redemption six hundred and fifty-six, founded a church for propagating the true religion of Christ, and ordained Diuma as the first Bishop, to have his see there. For, as Bede asserts in Book 3 of the said History, chapter 21, Diuma was ordained by Bishop Finan as Bishop of the Middle English and the Mercians together. For the scarcity of priests compelled one Bishop to be set over two peoples. Indeed over three, if the people of the Lindisfarae be added. After Diuma's death, Ceollach received the episcopate, whose first Bishops, and when he returned to the monastery on the island of Iona, Trumhere succeeded. But when the Dukes of the Mercians subsequently rebelled against King Oswy, Wulfhere was raised to the kingship, a great champion of the Christian faith; during whose reign the Bishops were the said Trumhere, then Jaruman, and the already mentioned Saint Ceadda and Winfrith. We have said more about Mercia and King Wulfhere on February 13 in the Life of Saint Ermenild, Queen and wife of Wulfhere, who, as we said there, in a certain charter writes himself King of the Mercians, the Middle English, and the southern kingdoms. Bede in Book 3, chapter 24, distinguishes by the River Trent the Northern Mercians, whom King Oswy of the Northumbrians had attached to his kingdom, from the Southern Mercians, over whom Wulfhere ruled; among whom the see of Worcester was afterwards established. Wulfhere's brother Merewalh was king of the Western Mercians beyond the River Severn, to whom the Bishop of Hereford was subsequently given. On Merewalh and his kingdom, consult what has been said in the Life of Saint Milburga the Virgin, his daughter, on February 23. When in the course of time more Bishops were established in those provinces, then called an archiepiscopal city: on account of its antiquity the see of Lichfield stood preeminent above the rest, having from time to time been regarded as archiepiscopal, with a Pallium sent from Pope Hadrian I to Bishop Eardwulf, and all the Bishops of the kingdom of the Mercians and of the East English were subject to him: which dignity, however, could not maintain itself in its full force. For the rest, as William of Malmesbury writes at the place already cited, Lichfield was a small township, far from the concourse of cities; the surrounding region was wooded, a small stream flowing past. The church was on a confined site, displaying the moderation and abstinence of the ancients... There the most holy Ceadda both sat and died. To which Camden also adds: Among the Bishops the most celebrated was Ceadda, enrolled among the saints for his holiness, and with some intervening remarks: When by a Synod in the year 1075 episcopal sees were prohibited from lurking in obscure villages, Bishop Peter of Lichfield transferred his see to Chester; A church built there in honor of Saint Ceadda: but Robert de Limesay, his successor, removed it again to Coventry. Shortly afterward Roger de Clinton brought it back to Lichfield and in the year of Christ 1148 began a most elegant church in honor of Blessed Mary and Saint Ceadda, and restored the castle.

[4] We give the Life of Saint Ceadda extracted from the Ecclesiastical History of the English People, which the Venerable Bede, a nearly contemporary author, accurately wrote; His Life collected from Bede: and elucidated by annotations from the remaining later writers. In it Bede, after the happily administered episcopates of both York and then of the kingdom of the Mercians, records the pious death of this Saint, testimonies of a life led with all perfection, the translation of the body, and miracles divinely wrought through his merits.

[5] Saint Ceadda is reported below in number 13 to have died on the sixth day before the Nones of March, which day was afterward dedicated to his veneration; His name in manuscript Martyrologies; as various Martyrologies, both handwritten and printed, attest. We possess a very ancient one, perhaps written over six hundred years ago, bearing the name of Bede, in which these words are read: On that same day, of Saint Ceadda the Bishop. The same is found in the Brussels manuscript of the Church of Saint Gudula, in the Marchiennes and Cologne manuscripts, the latter preserved in the Carmelite monastery. But in the Jumièges manuscript in Normandy it reads: In Britain, the deposition of Saint Ceadda the Bishop. The manuscript Florarium records: In England, of Saint Ceadda, Bishop and Confessor of Lichfield. About two hundred years ago Hermann Greven inscribed the following encomium in his Supplement to Usuard: and in printed ones: In England, of Blessed Ceadda, Bishop of the people of the Mercians and Lindisfarae: whose virtues Bede commemorates in Books 3 and 4 of the Ecclesiastical History of the English People, praising him among other merits of his virtues as full of the fear of the Lord and constantly mindful of his last end. The author of the Cologne Martyrology printed in the year 1490, Molanus in his notes to Usuard, Canisius, Felicius, and Galesini in their tables of the sacred calendar also have their own encomia. In today's Roman Martyrology the following is read: In England, of Saint Ceadda, Bishop of the Mercians and Lindisfarae, whose illustrious virtues Bede commemorates.

[6] Saint Ceadda is inscribed in the English Martyrologies, of which one is that of Richard Whitford, printed in London in the year 1526, Veneration among the English, and another that of John Wilson, struck and restruck in our century. In the New Legend of the Saints of England, formerly collected by John Capgrave, the Life of Saint Ceadda is also inserted from Bede. There exists, printed in ancient type without indication of place or date of printing, a Breviary according to the use of the Church of Sarum, in which the Office of Saint Ceadda is contained with proper antiphons, responsories, and nine lessons drawn from Bede and variously embellished. A Life of the same, contracted from Bede, exists in the Aberdeen Breviary for the use of the Scottish churches. From the latter, Thomas Dempster inscribed his memory in the Scottish Menology with these words: The Scots, At York in England, of Ceadda the Archbishop, who had previously stood as Bishop of the East English at Lichfield. Behold how many errors in so few words: he had first administered the Church of York, and afterward lived as Bishop not of the East English but of the Mercians and Lindisfarae, and died not at York but at Lichfield in Staffordshire. But on March 3 the same Dempster reports: The relics of Ceadda were brought to Scotland and devoutly deposited at Dundrain. The Calendar of Adam King, or some other Calendar of uncertain identity, is cited. Whether this was the reason for the veneration among the Scots, or rather because a great part of Scotland at the time of Saint Ceadda was subject to the Kings of Northumbria — in which kingdom we shall say below that he was born. Among the Saints of Ireland John Colgan counts the same Ceadda, The Irish. because in the time of his youth, out of desire for a more perfect life and good learning, he is said below in number 12 to have betaken himself to Ireland.

Section II. The brothers, homeland, monastic life, and name in the Benedictine calendars of Saint Ceadda.

[7] We here separate out a few matters to be briefly examined concerning his birthplace, education, Saint Ceadda's three brothers, and monastic life. And first, Bede in Book 3 of his History, chapter 23, records the following: For there were four brothers, Cedd and Cynibil and Caelin and Ceadda (a thing rarely found), all distinguished Priests of the Lord,

and two of them even attained the rank of the supreme Priesthood: Saint Cedd the Bishop, The first, namely, and the eldest of the rest, Cedd or Ceddus, and the last, or youngest, of whom we treat, Ceadda, also called by others Cedda, both enrolled in the Catalog of Saints: Saint Cedd on January 7, on which day we also gave his Acts from Bede. Saint Cedd was one of the first apostolic men who converted to the faith of Christ the Middle English, or Middle Angles, over whom Penda, or Peada, son of King Penda of the Mercians, ruled. But afterward, sent by King Oswy of the Northumbrians to Sigbert, King of the East Saxons, Cedd converted many of his subjects and was made their Bishop and the second Bishop of the city of London after the arrival of the English. To this Saint Cedd, Ethelwald, King of Deira, he built the monastery of Lastingham, son of the holy King Oswald, gave a place and possessions for a monastery which he built, called Lastingham, in the northern part of the Duchy of York, on the borders of the territories of Ryedale and Pickering, the latter of which borders on the German Ocean. That monastery is treated in the Monasticon Anglicanum, page 62 and following, and from the manuscript History of John of Tynemouth the following is added at the end: His brother Thimbel, above called Cynibil from Bede, ruled this place after him, Cynibil, Abbot there, and in the time of the plague was buried there. Indeed he ruled while his brother Saint Cedd was among the East Saxons in his diocese; for, as Bede attests, Saint Cedd, arriving at that same monastery in the time of the plague, was there stricken with bodily illness and died in the year 664 or the following. The third brother, Caelin the Priest, Caelin, Priest of King Ethelwald, a man equally devoted to God, used to minister the word and sacraments of the faith to King Ethelwald and his household. The fourth of the brothers, Saint Ceadda, after the deaths of his elder brothers, became Abbot of the said monastery of Lastingham; in which, after having administered the episcopate of York and having left it by the command of Saint Theodore, Archbishop of Canterbury, he again led a quiet life until he was raised to the episcopate of the Mercians and Lindisfarae.

[8] Having established these facts, we consider these four brothers to have been natives of the kingdom of Northumbria. born in the kingdom of the Northumbrians: Certainly when Saint Cedd, together with a companion Priest, had gathered a great Church for the Lord among the East Saxons, it happened at a certain time that the same Cedd returned home, and came to the Church of Lindisfarne, to confer with Bishop Finan; who, when he learned that the work of the Gospel had prospered for him, made him Bishop among the nation of the East Saxons, calling two other Bishops to himself for the ministry of ordination. So writes Bede in the said Book 3, chapter 23, who then adds: The man of the Lord, Cedd, while exercising the office of Bishop among the East Saxons, used also to revisit frequently his own, that is, the Northumbrian province, for the purpose of exhorting. Behold, Saint Cedd's home and the Church of Lindisfarne are conjoined, and again his own and the Northumbrian province. In the kingdom of Bernicia lay the present-day county of Northumberland, adjacent to which toward Scotland in the German Ocean lies the small island of Lindisfarne, now commonly called Holy Island, so named from the habitation of very many Saints there. There Bishop Saint Finan dwelt, whose Life we gave on February 17, where we treated of that island, and shall treat more accurately in the Life of Saint Cuthbert, likewise Bishop of Lindisfarne, to be given on March 20. It was Saint Finan who, having baptized King Penda with his chiefs and soldiers, sent Saint Cedd with others to convert his people. Furthermore, when he had established the said monastery of Lastingham in the kingdom of Deira, he instituted it with religious customs according to the rite of the Lindisfarne community, where he had been educated.

[9] Let what has been said about the birthplace of these four brothers (for the same reasoning appears to apply to all of them) suffice. educated in the monastery of Lindisfarne, The eldest is said to have been educated on the said island and in the monastery of Lindisfarne — why not the other brothers also? — therefore under the discipline of Saint Aidan the Bishop, who came from the monastery of the Scots (which acknowledges its founder in the most holy man Columba on the island of Iona) with other monks, summoned by the holy King Oswald; and lived with them and taught others to live according to the monastic rule prescribed by the said Columba. He presided as Bishop over the Church of Lindisfarne from the year 634 until August 31, when he died in the year 651, having obtained as his successor the said Saint Finan. Saint Ceadda also, as Bede asserts below in the Life at number 2, was a disciple of Aidan, and strove by the same acts and conduct, under Saint Aidan, following the example of both him and his brother Cedd, to instruct his hearers; to whom in number 8 he commends the same principles of spiritual warfare that they had either learned from him or seen in him; and in number 5 the traces of the regular life instituted by him are said to remain in the monastery built by him in the province of Lindsey. When Saint Finan died in the year 661, Saint Colman succeeded, with whom Saint Wilfrid, not yet a Bishop, disputed and raised the following objection, as found in Bede, Book 3, chapter 35: according to the rule of Saint Columba the Abbot: Concerning your Father Columba and his followers, whose holiness you claim to imitate and whose Rule and precepts, confirmed by heavenly signs, you profess to follow, I can respond, etc. That there were among these Scots, or Irish, four different Rules, Ussher reports in his book On the Beginnings of the British Churches, chapter 17, page 919, and the first of them is called that of Columba-cille, also observed in England. Returning from that disputation, Saint Cedd, as the same Bede says in chapter 26, having abandoned the Scottish practices, returned to his See, having recognized the observance of the Catholic Easter. We have treated of that controversy in the Life of Saint Colman on February 18, Sections 2 and 3.

[10] Edward Maihew, in his Trophies of the English Congregation of the Order of Saint Benedict, whether the Rule of Saint Benedict was adopted from the year 664? in the entry on Saint Ceadda at this day, March 2, thinks that he, at least after that celebrated conference between Saint Wilfrid and Colman, embraced the Rule of Saint Benedict: so all agree. But so far we do not yet know a single one among them all who writes that the Rule of Saint Benedict was discussed for adoption at that conference. Perhaps it is implied from the Life of Saint Wilfrid, published by William of Malmesbury in Book 3 of his Deeds of the Bishops of England, as if it seemed to provide sufficient testimony for all, when he, being asked to prefer to live privately in quiet, responded: Nothing contributes equally to the sum of a man's disgrace as if he were to condemn himself by his own voice; that he was the first who taught the true Easter in Northumbria after the Scots were expelled, who instituted the antiphonal method of ecclesiastical chanting, who ordered the Rule of the most holy Benedict to be observed by monks; for all of which a Bishop now old and of nearly seventy years should receive this reward, that he be compelled to condemn himself in writing. Behold, seventy and more years had elapsed after the above-named conference, Saint Ceadda does not yet seem to have adopted the Roman rite of Easter: about which, at the beginning of the said book, the same William of Malmesbury writes: When Colman was convicted of the erroneous Easter by Wilfrid in the said conference, the same Wilfrid, elected to the episcopate of York, was sent to Gaul by King Alfrid, son of King Oswy, to be consecrated. While he delayed his stay overseas, King Oswy, led astray by the counsels of the Quartodecimans (who were so called because they celebrated Easter on the fourteenth moon with the Jews), intruded Ceadda, a most holy man, yet contrary to the rules, upon the throne of York. Behold, they did not yet follow the true Easter, even though Saint Wilfrid had taught it. Then, as regards the antiphonal method of ecclesiastical chanting he instituted, we are taught by Bede, Book 4, chapter 2, that in the time of Archbishop Theodore of Canterbury, the practice of singing in the Church, which until then had been known only in Kent, began to be learned in all the English churches; and that the first singing-master of the Northumbrian churches, except for James, was Heddi surnamed Stephen, after his death the ecclesiastical chant was changed, invited from Kent by the most reverend man Wilfrid, who was the first among Bishops of the English nation to have learned to teach the Catholic manner of living to the English churches. So writes Bede. Moreover, since Pitsaeus and others report that Heddi Stephen flourished when Osric reigned in Northumbria, in the year of restored salvation 720, and that, at the urging of Acca, Bishop of Hexham, he wrote in polished prose one book on the Life of Saint Wilfrid the Bishop (which William of Malmesbury claims was written with a great body of words which he himself condensed into a compendium), it is necessary that he came from the Canterbury monastery to Saint Wilfrid in the last years of Archbishop Theodore of Canterbury, at least after the year 680, already a man known by celebrated fame. Finally, what is most pertinent here, Wilfrid asserts that he ordered the Rule of the most holy Benedict to be observed. Indeed, when after the death of Saint Cuthbert, who died in the year 687, he presided over the Church of Lindisfarne as well for a full year, and the Rule of Saint Benedict began to be introduced. he perhaps wished the same Rule to be observed by the monks of Lindisfarne; so that it was perhaps for this very reason that Bede wrote, in his Life of Cuthbert at number 61, that such a blast of temptation shook that Church that many of the Brothers preferred to yield their place rather than be present amid such dangers. We shall treat of the prescriptions of regular life established there by Saint Cuthbert in his Life on March 20. But these events are far distant from the times of Saint Ceadda, who died in the year 672: whom we have said to have lived according to the example and rule of his master, Saint Aidan, and to have commended the same institutions to his followers.

[11] Notwithstanding these considerations, we highly praise the inscription of Saints Cedd, Ceadda, Aidan, Finan, Cuthbert, and others of this kind in the sacred calendars of the Benedictines, and the setting forth of their veneration and imitation at the same time: since those monasteries in later times, along with their own proper institutions, adopted the Rule of Saint Benedict to be observed in very many matters. But they not only inscribe Saint Ceadda in their Martyrologies, Trithemius assigns Saints Ceadda and Cedd to the Benedictines, but also in the Benedictine Order. Trithemius led the way, and as though he had never read Bede, he makes two persons out of each of Saint Ceadda and his brother Saint Cedd, when he treats of them in his treatise On Illustrious Men of the Order of Saint Benedict; and of Ceadda in Book 3, chapter 117, and Book 4, chapter 59. In the former book he calls him Abbot of Lastingham, in the latter of Lentesgen; in the former he calls him Archbishop of the Lindisfarae and the Mercian nation, when he should have been called Bishop; in the latter, Archbishop of York and brother of Cedd, Bishop of Lindisfarne. Finally he says he flourished in the former place in the year 680, in the latter in the year 675, with many errors: when it is certain from Bede that he died in the year 672. Concerning Saint Cedd the same Trithemius treats twice in Book 4, namely at chapters 66 and 110; in the former place from an Abbot of Lastingham he creates an Archbishop of London; in the latter from a monk he makes a Bishop of the Church of Lindisfarne and brother of Saint Ceadda, Archbishop of York. Finally he says he flourished in the former place in the year of the Lord 680, and in the latter in 670, who

had died around the year 664. But he was not a Bishop or Abbot of Lindisfarne, but a monk, and afterward Bishop of the East Saxons, or of London; he built the monastery of Lastingham in the district of York, as was said above. But whether Trithemius knew that the Lindisfarae, of whom Saint Ceadda was Bishop, were distinct from the Lindisfarnenses, we plainly doubt: the latter were in the county of Northumberland and the kingdom of Bernicia, the former chiefly in the county of Lincoln and the kingdom of Mercia. such as are in the charter of King Ecgfrith. Among the ten writers of English history printed in London in the year 1652, there appears after the Durham history, column 57, a Donation of Ecgfrith, King of the Northumbrians, made to Saint Cuthbert, but, as we shall show in his Life, plainly corrupted by the insertion of many errors, and it is said to be signed in the year 685, to which are fictitiously made to subscribe Cedd, Bishop of the East Saxons, and Ceadda, Bishop of Lichfield. There also subscribes Sexwulf, Bishop of the Mercians: he was the Bishop of Lichfield, before whom, after the death of Saint Ceadda, Winfrith had held the same see. In the same manner the Bishop of London at that time was Erkenwald, the successor of Wini, who had been appointed after the death of Saint Cedd. Whether Trithemius was perhaps deceived by a similar charter, or whether these errors are to be ascribed to his own carelessness, let others inquire. It suffices for us to have pointed out the errors so that they may be avoided.

[12] Of the Benedictine Martyrologists, the first is Arnold Wion, Saint Ceadda inscribed in the Martyrologies of Wion, who at this day, March 2, transcribes the encomium of Saint Ceadda largely from Molanus, and in his Annotations, citing Trithemius, indicates that from a monk and Abbot of the monastery of Lastingham he was made Bishop of Lichfield of the Northumbrians: who, abandoning that episcopate in the third year of his government, returned to his monastery, not without errors, in which he died around the year of the Lord 690. So writes Wion, not without many errors, so that he seems not to have read, or at least not examined, the passages from Bede which he accurately cites and from which we give the Life: otherwise he would have avoided the enormous error of eighteen years in assigning his death, since, as we said above, it is certain from Bede that he died in the year 672. Moreover, having left the archiepiscopate of London — which Wion does not mention — he returned to his monastery of Lastingham, not indeed to Lichfield, where he died, a city not of the kingdom of the Northumbrians, but of the Mercians, and indeed of the Middle Angles, in the county of Staffordshire. It may be added that, since Molanus and Wion following him report in the encomium that he was Bishop of the Mercians and Lindisfarnorum, in place of Lindisfarorum, they seem to have understood it as the episcopate of Lindisfarne in Northumbria. Menard transcribes Wion's encomium and is silent about it in his Observations. and of others. Dorganius mentioned him briefly, but Bucelin more fully, and yet he omits the archiepiscopate of York, makes him Bishop of the Lindisfanae in place of the Lindisfarae, and finally cites only Harpsfield, in whom, however, he had not read that he was either a Benedictine monk or the founder of the episcopate of Lichfield. Harpsfield treats of Saint Ceadda in the seventh century, both in chapter 28 among the Archbishops of York, and especially in chapter 22 among the Bishops of the kingdom of Mercia.

LIFE FROM SAINT BEDE

Book 3, chapters 28, and Book 4, chapters 2 and 3.

Ceadda, Bishop of the Mercians and Lindisfarae, at Lichfield in England (Saint)

BHL Number: 0000

CHAPTER I.

Saint Ceadda's care of the monastery of Lastingham, the Archbishopric of York.

[1] Meanwhile King Alcfrith sent the Priest Wilfrid to the King of the Gauls, to have him consecrated Bishop for himself and his people. But the King sent him to be ordained by Agilbert, who, having left Britain, had become Bishop of the city of Paris; While Saint Wilfrid delayed in Gaul, and he was consecrated with great honor by him, with many Bishops gathering in the royal town which is called Compiègne. While he was still lingering in those overseas parts after his ordination, King Oswy, imitating the industry of his son, sent to Kent a holy man, modest in character, sufficiently instructed in the reading of the Scriptures, Saint Ceadda, illustrious in virtue and learning, and diligently carrying out in deeds what he had learned in the Scriptures should be done, to be ordained Bishop of the Church of York. He was a Priest named Ceadda, brother of the most reverend Bishop Cedd, whom we have often mentioned, and Abbot of the monastery called Abbot of Lastingham, Lastingham. The King sent with him his own Priest, named Eadhed, who afterward, in the reign of Ecgfrith, became Bishop of the Church of Ripon. But when they arrived in Kent, they found that Archbishop Deusdedit had already departed this life, and no other Pontiff had yet been appointed in his place. Whence they turned aside to the province of the West Saxons, to be appointed Archbishop of York. where Wini was Bishop; and by him the aforesaid man was consecrated Bishop, two Bishops of the British nation being associated in the ordination, who celebrate the Lord's Easter day, as has often been said, He is consecrated by Saint Wini and two British Bishops. contrary to canonical custom, from the fourteenth to the twenty-first moon. For there was at that time no canonically ordained Bishop in all Britain, except that Wini alone.

[2] Having been consecrated to the episcopate, Ceadda immediately began to devote the greatest care to ecclesiastical truth and chastity, to apply himself to humility, self-restraint, and reading; He exercises episcopal zeal: to traverse towns, countryside, cottages, villages, and castles for the sake of preaching the Gospel, not riding on horseback but going on foot in the manner of the Apostles. For he was a disciple of Aidan, and strove by the same acts and conduct, following the example of both him and his brother Cedd, to instruct his hearers.

p. Saint Aidan is venerated on August 31; we have treated of him above.

CHAPTER II.

The Episcopate of Lichfield among the Mercians. Death.

[3] And so Theodore, surveying all things (this Theodore had been ordained Bishop at Rome by Pope Vitalian, [By command of Saint Theodore, Archbishop of Canterbury, he relinquishes the episcopate.] and sent to Britain), was ordaining Bishops in suitable places and correcting with their help whatever he found less than perfect. Among these, when he charged Bishop Ceadda with not having been rightly consecrated, the latter, answering in a most humble voice, said: If you know that I did not rightly receive the episcopate, I willingly resign from the office; for I never deemed myself worthy of it; but, commanded by obedience to undertake it, I consented, although unworthy. But Theodore, hearing the humility of his response, said that he should not resign the episcopate; but he himself completed his ordination anew according to Catholic rite.

[4] At that time King Wulfhere ruled the province of the Mercians; and when, after the death of Jaruman, he asked Theodore to give a Bishop for himself and his people, He rests in his monastery, Theodore did not wish to ordain a new Bishop for them, but asked King Oswy that Bishop Ceadda be given to them; who was then living a quiet life in his monastery at Lastingham, while Wilfrid administered the episcopate of the Church of York and also of all the Northumbrians and even of the Picts, as far as King Oswy could extend his dominion. While Saint Wilfrid administered the episcopate of York: And because it was the custom of that most reverend Bishop to accomplish the work of the Gospel by walking to places rather than riding, Theodore commanded him to ride whenever a longer journey lay ahead; and when he strongly resisted out of his zeal and love for pious labor, Theodore himself lifted him onto the horse with his own hands, because he perceived him to be a holy man, and compelled him to travel by horse wherever it was necessary.

[5] Having thus received the episcopate of the people of the Mercians and of the Lindisfarae together, Ceadda took care to administer it, He becomes Bishop of the Mercians and Lindisfarae: following the examples of the ancient fathers, with great perfection of life. King Wulfhere also gave him land of fifty families for the building of a monastery in a place called Barrow, that is, "at the wood," in the province of Lindsey. In which the traces of the regular life instituted by him persist to this day. He builds a monastery: he resides at Lichfield: He had his episcopal see in the place called Lichfield, where he also died and was buried, and where to this day the see of the succeeding Bishops of that province continues. He had made himself a dwelling somewhat removed from the church, in which he was accustomed to pray and read in greater seclusion with a few companions, that is, seven or eight Brothers, whenever he was free from labor and the ministry of the word.

[6] When he had governed the Church in that province most gloriously for two years and a half, the time came, by the dispensation of the judgment from above, of which Ecclesiastes speaks: Ecclesiastes 3. "A time to cast away stones, and a time to gather them together." For a divinely sent plague came upon them, which would transfer the living stones of the Church from their earthly dwellings to the heavenly edifice through the death of the flesh. As death approached, he was alone with Saint Owine, And when many had been taken from the flesh out of the Church of that most reverend Bishop, and the hour came for him to pass from this world to the Lord, it happened one day that he chanced to be staying in the aforesaid dwelling with only one Brother, whose name was Owine,

the rest of his companions having returned to the church for some appropriate reason. Formerly steward of the royal court, now a holy monk: This same Owine was a monk of great merit, who, with a pure intention of obtaining heavenly reward, abandoned the world, and was in all respects worthy to have the Lord specially reveal His secrets to him, and worthy that those who heard him narrate should give credence. For he had come with Queen Etheldreda from the province of the East Angles, and was the chief of her servants and head of her household. When, with his fervor of faith increasing, he resolved to renounce the world, he did not do so half-heartedly; but he so divested himself of worldly things that, leaving behind all that he had, clad only in a simple garment and carrying an axe and hatchet in his hand, he came to the monastery of the same most reverend Father, called Lastingham. For he signified that he was entering the monastery not for idleness, as some do, but for labor, which he also demonstrated by his deeds. For the less he was capable of meditating on the Scriptures, the more he devoted his effort to manual labor. Finally, kept in the aforesaid dwelling with the Bishop out of reverence for his devotion among the Brothers, while they within were occupied with reading, he himself was outside performing whatever work seemed necessary.

[7] One day when he was engaged in some such task outside, the companions having gone away to the church, as I began to say, and the Bishop was alone in the oratory of the place devoting himself to reading or prayer, he suddenly heard, as he afterward related, a most sweet voice of singers rejoicing, descending from heaven to earth. He said that he first heard this voice from the southeast, that is, from the direction of the winter sunrise, and then that it gradually drew nearer to him until it reached the roof of the oratory He is summoned to heaven by a celestial song: where the Bishop was; which, entering it, filled the whole place and surrounded it in a circle. And while he attentively directed his mind to what he was hearing, he heard again, after about half an hour had passed, the same song of joy ascending from the roof of the same oratory and returning to heaven by the same way it had come, with ineffable sweetness.

[8] When he had remained for some time as if astonished, and was searching with attentive mind what these things might be, the Bishop opened the window of the oratory, and making a sound with his hand, as he very often used to do, he ordered whoever was outside to come in to him. He entered hastily; to whom the Bishop said: Go quickly to the church and make those seven Brothers come here, and you also be present. When they had come, He summons the monks and delivers pious admonitions: he first admonished them to preserve the virtue of mutual love and peace toward one another and toward all the faithful; and to follow with untiring zeal the institutions of regular discipline which they had either learned from him and observed in him, or had found in the deeds or words of their predecessors. Then he added that the day of his death was now very near at hand. For, he said, that beloved guest who used to visit our Brothers has deigned to come to me also today and to summon me from this world; therefore, returning to the church, tell the Brothers He commends his departure to their prayers and good works: to commend my departure to the Lord in their prayers, and to remember to anticipate their own departure as well — the hour of which is uncertain — by vigils, prayers, and good works.

[9] And when he had spoken these and more things of this kind, and they, having received his blessing, were already very sorrowful, the one who had heard the heavenly song returned alone, and prostrating himself on the ground said: I beseech you, Father, may I be permitted to ask something? Ask, he said, what you will. And he said: I beseech you, tell me, what was that song of those who were rejoicing, which I heard coming from heaven over this oratory and after a time returning to heaven? He answered: If you heard the voices of the song and recognized the coming of the heavenly hosts, I command you in the name of the Lord not to tell this to anyone before my death. Under secrecy he predicts the day of his death: In truth they were the spirits of Angels, who came to call me to the heavenly rewards which I have always loved and desired, and they promised that they would return after seven days and take me with them. And this was indeed fulfilled in deed just as it had been foretold to him. For immediately he was seized with bodily weakness, and as this grew worse over the days, on the seventh day, as had been promised to him, after he had fortified his departure by receiving the Body and Blood of the Lord, Fortified by the Eucharist he dies, his holy soul, released from the prison of the body and escorted, as it is right to believe, by Angel companions, sought the eternal joys.

CHAPTER III.

The Virtues of Saint Ceadda. Miracles.

[10] It is not surprising that he looked upon the day of death, or rather the day of the Lord, with joy — the day which he always, as long as he lived, took care to await with solicitude. For among many merits of self-restraint, humility, learning, prayer, voluntary poverty, and other virtues, he was so subject to the fear of the Lord, and so mindful of his last end in all his works, that, as a certain Brother named Trumbert, And of the fear of God and the last judgment, who was among those who instructed me in the Scriptures and had been educated in his monastery and under his teaching, used to tell me, if by chance while he was reading or doing something else a sudden stronger gust of wind arose, he would immediately invoke the mercy of the Lord and beg that it be propitious to the human race. In every storm he prays anxiously: But if the wind blew more violently, he would then close his book and fall on his face and devote himself to prayer. But if a stronger storm or rain pressed harder, or if lightning and thunder terrified the earth and air, then he would come to the church and with fixed mind devote himself anxiously to prayers and psalms until the calm of the air returned.

[11] And when he was asked by his people why he did this, he answered: Have you not read: "The Lord thundered from heaven, and the Most High uttered His voice; He sent out His arrows and scattered them; He multiplied His lightnings and confounded them"? Psalm 17 And he explains the reasons for his fear: For the Lord moves the air, stirs up the winds, hurls lightning, and thunders from heaven in order to rouse the inhabitants of the earth to fear Him, to recall their hearts to the memory of the future judgment, to scatter their pride and confound their audacity, by bringing to mind that terrible time when He Himself, with the heavens and the earth burning, shall come in the clouds with great power and majesty to judge the living and the dead. Wherefore, he said, And he prescribes what should be done: it behooves us to respond to His heavenly admonition with due fear and love: so that whenever He has raised His hand as if threatening to strike by agitating the air, and yet does not strike, we may immediately implore His mercy, and searching the depths of our hearts and purging the refuse of our vices, let us act with care that we never deserve to be struck.

[12] Moreover, with the revelation and account of the aforesaid Brother concerning the death of this Bishop, the testimony of the most reverend Father Egbert, of whom we have spoken above, agrees. He, while still a youth, together with the same Ceadda, then also a youth, in Ireland, diligently led a monastic life of prayer and self-restraint and meditation on the divine Scriptures. He is led into heaven by the appearing of his brother Saint Cedd: But after the latter returned to his homeland, Egbert himself remained a pilgrim for the Lord to the end of his life. When therefore, after a long time, a most holy and continent man named Higbald came to visit him from Britain (he was an Abbot in the province of Lindsey), and, as befitted Saints, they were discussing the lives of the earlier Fathers and delighting in emulating them, the mention of the most reverend Bishop Ceadda came up, and Egbert said: I know a man on this island still remaining in the flesh who, when that man passed from the world, saw the soul of his brother Cedd descend from heaven with a company of Angels, and taking up his soul with them, return to the heavenly kingdom. Whether he said this of himself or of some other, remains uncertain to us.

[13] He is buried: he is translated: Ceadda died on the sixth day before the Nones of March, and was first buried near the church of Saint Mary; but afterward, a church of the most blessed Prince of the Apostles Peter having been built there, his bones were translated into it; in both of which places, as a sign of his virtue, frequent miracles of healing are accustomed to be worked. Recently indeed a certain madman, as he wandered about in every direction, came there in the evening, without the knowledge or concern of the guardians of the place, He is renowned for miracles: and resting there the whole night, in the morning he went out with his mind healed, showing to all who marveled and rejoiced that he had there obtained his health by the Lord's bounty.

[14] The place of his burial is a wooden tomb, made in the shape of a small house and covered, having an opening in the wall through which those who come there out of devotion even through the dust of his sepulcher. are accustomed to put their hand in and take some of the dust from it; which, when they have put it into water and given it to ailing beasts or people to drink, the affliction of the illness is immediately removed and they return to the joys of longed-for health.

[15] In his place Theodore ordained Winfrith, a good and modest man, who, like his predecessors, should preside with the office of Bishop over the provinces of the Mercians and Middle English and Lindisfarae; in all of which Wulfhere, Winfrith succeeds, who was a Deacon under him. who was still living, held the scepter of the kingdom. Winfrith had been of the Clergy of the Bishop whom he succeeded, and had served in the office of deacon under him for no short time.

feast he had arranged to be celebrated in the Roman manner on the island of Iona and in other places.