Pre-Norman Stone Crosses: the saints associated with them

One pattern that emerges from a perusal of the sites where pre-Norman stone crosses are to be found is that they are frequently (but not exclusively) associated with parish Churches. Many of these churches are dedicated to British Saints who were, or were thought to be, personally associated with them. In some cases, the saint in question is believed to have spent part of their life in the particular location, perhaps founding the church itself, whilst in others, the dedication is to reflect a commitment on the part of a given Christian community to the aims or ideals of the given saint. This page gives brief biographical notes for some of these saints, listed in alphabetical order, below. Immediately after each saint's name are links to the places at this web site which they are or may be associated with.

NB: the biographies of many saints have become inextricably interwoven with legend, and some of those listed below, such as Helen, for instance have very tenuous claims to be British. So, dear reader, not all that glisters here is necessarily gold, but at the end of reading it, even if you haven't been factually informed, I hope you will have been entertained.

Also known as Bride, Brigid etc. Bridget was the founder of a nunnery at Kildare in Ireland. Many remarkable things are said of her, and some are certainly easier to believe than others. Among the tales are that she was baptised by St. Patrick, that she could miraculously make food multiply in order to feed the poor, and that she was accidentally consecrated bishop. It is also said that her followers kept a flame burning in her memory at Kildare for over a thousand years. Whatever the truth of those stories, it is certainly true that she was held in high regard by those who lived in the community she founded, and when they went out with the Gospel message, they dedicated newly-founded churches in her memory - many of them in Wales, for example.

Cedd was a very busy saint, whose footsteps can be followed in many places. He is one of a group of four missionary priests who came south to Mercia in 653 with Alchfled, on the occasion of her betrothal to Prince Peada, the son of the arch-pagan Penda. After a brief sojourn in Mercia, he was recalled to Lindisfarne, from whence he was sent out again to the Angles of East Anglia, where he became the local bishop, founding the church at Bradwell-on-Sea that still stands. After various vicissitudes in East Anglia, he again returned north to Lastingham in North Yorkshire, where he founded a monastery. He was present at the Synod of Whitby in 664, but on his way home he contracted the plague at Lastingham and died. The crypt of the (later) church at Lastingham is a shrine to his memory, though his remains were removed to the cathedral at Lichfield which was founded by his brother Chad (don't confuse Cedd with Chad!)

David, the Patron Saint of Wales, is a somewhat mysterious person. Very little can be said about him for certain, other than that he was born and lived most of his time in Pembrokeshire, where he was a monk, and in later life he was consecrated a bishop and spoke at the Synod of Llanddewi-Brefi in southern mid-Wales. Much is asserted about him - his saintliness, that he instructed his fellow monks never to drink alcohol and so on, but little can be verified, due to the lack of reliable historical evidence from that period and that location.

The veneration of David seems to date from a significantly later time, and although there is no doubt that pilgrims to St. David's were numerous and generous enough to finance the building of a Cathedral around his shrine (and perhaps more tellingly, a bishop's palace that rivalled the Cathedral in size and prominence), there is much said about David that it may be safest to remain sceptical about. His later claimed connection with the great cross at Nevern simply cannot be true, but that is not to say that he didn't pass that way during his lifetime.

David's feast day, when all loyal Welsh folk wear their daffodils (DAFF-odil a reminder of DAF-ydd, perhaps) is 1 March.

Geoffrey of Monmouth, the great storyteller (but somewhat suspect historian) who popularised most of the stories about King Arthur, said of Helen (sometimes also called Helena) that she was of British descent, daughter of king Cole (that's right, "Old King Cole, the merry old soul") the legendary founder of Colchester. All of this is of course nonsense.

Helen was actually born in Asia Minor. Her prominence as a Christian saint is from the fact that she raised a son Constantine who (partly from her witness) became a Christian, and when he was Emperor of Rome made Christianity the state religion. Geoffrey of Monmouth's story is not necessarily the only nonsense recorded about Helen: she is also alleged to have made a pilgrimage to Jerusalem and discovered the True Cross in exactly the location it had been left after the crucifixion three centuries earlier. Some (but perhaps not much) credence might be given to that story by an apparently ancient relic - the titulus or name board - housed in the church of Santa Croce, in Rome.

Suffice it to say that if even a small fraction of what is said about Helen is true, she must have been a formidable and saintly woman, even if it is extremely unlikely that she was British-born.

Most of the more than 100 churches which have Helen as their patron are to be found in Northern England.

St. Oswald,
depicted in stained glass
at Oswaldkirk
(August 2001)

Oswald was born in about 604, one of the sons of King Æthelfrith of Northumbria. As a boy he had to flee to Scotland when Edwin seized the Northumbrian kingdom in 616. He found peace, security and Christ on the Island of Iona, and when he returned south in 633 on Edwin's death, it was as a committed Christian. Once he was in power, he sent to Iona for Christian teachers, and one of those who came was Aidan, a gentle man whose pastoral and teaching gifts were to become legendary. Oswald installed Aidan on the island of Lindisfarne, which is due course became a great centre of Christian learning, and from which many missionaries were sent out to the Saxon kingdoms of the south of Britain.

Oswald lived in troubled times, and although he was able to unite the provinces of Bernicia and Deira, the threat of war with neighbouring kingdoms was ever present. On 5 August 642, Oswald met king Penda of Mercia in battle at a place called Maserfelth. (It is not clear where exactly this battle took place, but the likely location is either Shropshire [near Oswestry] or Cheshire [near Warrington].) Penda was victorious in that battle, with Oswald being slain. After his victory, Penda ordered that Oswald's body be ceremonially dismembered and hung in trees in an act of pseudo-sacrifice to the pagan god Woden. Later, Oswald's remains were recovered by the Northumbrians, and (in a way which may strike us as gruesome, but was pretty typical fourteen centuries ago) the various parts of the body were taken to different places as objects for veneration and pilgrimage. (It is even said that some of these relics were taken to Germany by St. Willibrord, such was Oswald's reputation.) The final resting place of Oswald's head, for example, is Durham Cathedral.

Although Penda won the battle in 642, the Christian mission that Oswald set in motion would ultimately prove unstoppable, and even before Penda's death, Christianity would gain a foothold in Mercia.

Oswald's legacy remains to this day, as he is patron of more than fifty churches around England, many of them ancient foundations. His festival day, on which his martyrdom is commemorated, is 5 August.

Many legends grew up around Oswald, and one of them concerns a raven - hence Oswald is often shown in images with a raven on his shoulder (as in the example on the left). It is said that at Oswald's wedding, a raven brought him a casket containing the wedding ring. It must be said, however, that this association is from much later than Oswald's day, and the fantasy should not be allowed to obscure the truth about this remarkable Christian leader.

Scenes from Wilfrid's life
recorded in modern stained glass
St. Wilfrid's Church, Burnsall
(December 2000)

Wilfrid was born into a noble family, and spent many of his formative years associated with the Northumbrian royal court at Bamburgh. He was educated by the monks of Lindisfarne, but they could not satisfy all his desire for learning, and in his late teens, Wilfrid travelled first to Canterbury and later to Rome to deepen his Christian knowledge. He also spent time in Lyon.

The Christian Church in England was at this time engaged in a major debate about the "right" way of doing things. The indigenous Celtic church of the north had many customs and traditions that differed from those which were being introduced by the Roman church of the south, which had been growing rapidly thanks to the successful mission of Augustine, who had brought that form of Christianity to England in 597. Upon his return from the continent, Wilfrid found himself in the middle of this controversy. At one time he had himself been used to following the Celtic way, but his exposure to the Roman way over several years made him a strong advocate for that point of view. Wilfrid's persuasiveness carried the day at the Synod of Whitby in 664; henceforth, things were officially to be done the Roman way.

Following this success, Wilfrid was chosen to be bishop of York, but because there were not enough bishops in England to perform the necessary consecration, Wilfrid again travelled to France. Perhaps he enjoyed the French hospitality a little too much, because he was delayed in returning to take up his see, and when he finally did so in 666, he discovered that things had changed in his absence. The king who had sponsored him, Alcfrith, was gone, replaced by Oswiu, and there was another Bishop at York - Chad (see Cedd, above), Oswiu's nominee. Chad's consecration was somewhat dubious, but Wilfrid was gracious enough to defer to him (and of course wise enough not to upset Oswiu) and so retired to Ripon. Archbishop Theodore of Canterbury resolved matters in 669 by dethroning Chad and reinstating Wilfrid to the see of York. (Chad may have been foolish in allowing himself to be manipulated by Oswiu, but Theodore did not hold a grudge, and Chad was in due course consecrated bishop of the Mercians at Repton.)

If Wilfrid expected plain sailing after that, he would prove to be disappointed. In 679, Theodore redefined the See of York, breaking it up into four dioceses, but without at the same time elevating Wilfrid to the status of Archbishop. Wilfrid felt somewhat aggrieved, and appealed to Rome. Whilst Rome sided with Wilfrid, the realities of seventh century Northumbrian politics meant that victory was useless. The new king Ecgfrith put Wilfrid in prison, but eventually freed him and sent him into exile. Wilfrid took this as a challenge, going to Sussex on a mission to convert what was by then the last remaining focus of pagan worship in England. After success there, Wilfrid was again recalled to Northumbria serving for a few years before again becoming involved in political controversy with yet another new king, Aldfrith. Another cycle of exile and imprisonment, mixed with Christian service in East Mercia. By 705, all this was resolved, with Wilfrid being appointed Bishop of Hexham. He died four years later, having combined an extremely successful career of Christian evangelism with a woeful talent for being in politically the wrong place at the wrong time.

Wilfrid is remembered as Patron of numerous churches, many of which he was instrumental in founding. The fact that they are so widespread merely reflects his own enforced pilgrimage. His feast day is 12 October.

* The Ordnance Survey National Grid Reference (and corresponding Latitude/Longitude) given at the top of the pages describing individual sites usually refer to the location of the closest or most prominent entrance to the site where the monument is to be found - e.g. a gate into a churchyard. For monuments located in open country, or at a significant distance from the site entrance as just defined, the co-ordinates usually refer to the exact location of the monument.
Please allow for a small error in the co-ordinates of up to a couple of dozen metres.

Thanks to the people at streetmap.co.uk, if you click on the Grid References in the magenta boxes on the site pages,
you'll see an extract from the relevant Ordnance Survey 1:50000 Landranger map!

As the official mapping agency of the United Kingdom Government, the Ordnance Survey produces the definitive maps of the country. They contain a wealth of information.
For more details, visit www,ordnancesurvey.co.uk/leisure

Click here if you need an explanation of the terminology on these pages

Click here if you would like to see a bibliography

Click here if you would like to download the freeware "Mordred" font (in True-type for Windows)
so that the headings used on these pages will then look like the following:

Click to go to Pre-Norman crosses in:	England	the island of Ireland	the Isle of Man	Scotland	Wales	Read about the Saints
Click to go to Mediaeval crosses in:	England	the island of Ireland	the Isle of Man	Scotland	Wales

Locality maps at this web-site have been developed using Microsoft AutoRoute Express 2000 (and later editions).

This page is a part of Chris Tolley's web-site. Latest update: Saturday, November 09, 2002 20:47
Links on my pages can point to other web-sites. If you find that the administrators of those web-sites have made changes which mean you can't access them, please let me know, so I can update or remove the links. As far as I know, none of my links point to sites likely to contain offensive material - but if you discover otherwise, please let me know, as I would like to remove such links from my pages.
return to my home page.	Frequently asked Questions	send me an e-mail
©1996 to 2002: Christopher J. Tolley

Saints connected with the Pre-Norman Stone Crosses