The Martyrdom of King Oswald, August 5, AD 642

ritain in the six hundreds was a war-torn place. Gone were the days of Roman governance and provincial stability in previous centuries; here and now was a mosaic of kingdoms comprised of various Celtic tribes feuding with their Anglo-Saxon invaders, who brought with them the barbarism Rome had once dispelled.

The northern-central British Isles about 700AD

With the Roman withdrawal from Britain in A.D. 410, and the subsequent collapse of the Roman Empire at large, the flame of Christianity that had spread via its roads and infrastructure seemed close to being snuffed out; only in a few remote regions of Christendom were scholarship and the old doctrines kept alive.

Map of Britain showing a series of withdrawals of Roman rule, 383-410AD

One such place was Ireland: a once-ferocious people converted by Patrick, the son of a Roman legate of Britain. In Patrick’s absence from Britain, the morals of the place declined to such a point he did not recognize it upon his occasional returns. Conversely, the pagan Irish took to Christianity with fervor, and in a century’s time they grew to be a harmonious, innovative and learned people. Even as pagans, they had been well-respected for their craftsmanship, their skill on the seas and their warlike bearing, but as Christians these attributes were bent fully in the cause of the Gospel. Their scribes preserved texts and scriptures, and their princes and sailors took the Gospel to foreign lands.

Stained glass window portraying Patrick preaching to Irish kings—Carlow Cathedral, Carlow, County Carlow, Ireland

First stop on these missionary journeys was their neighbor, Scotland. There in the western isles of the Hebrides, an Irish prince by the name of Columba founded a monastery on the isle of Iona, from which he sent forth learned messengers to spread the Gospel and to live amongst the Druidic people of Scotland.

Isle of Iona and Iona Abbey

Just like Ireland before her, and by the grace of Irish missionaries sent to her shores, Scotland fell under the yoke of Christianity and by the year 563 her tiny island of Iona was known as a haven for fugitives and a place of scholarship for the searching.

When one of many conflicts in still-pagan Britain escalated to the murder of her husband by a family member, a Northumbrian queen took her two young sons—fearing for their lives with their inheritance usurped—and sent them northward. She sent them to Scotland, and to the Irish on Iona, to the Christians who even sheltered pagan English and enemies if they were innocent.

Peoples and regions of Britain c. AD 600

One of these young princes would grow in time to be King Oswald, ruler of the kingdom of Northumbria which stretched from York to Edinburgh—a man who almost realized the dream of a united England centuries before Alfred the Great made it a reality. From his reign there are still place names and holy days recognized, and some even argue it was in his halls that the epic poem Beowulf was created.

As a child, Oswald was given sanctuary, education and support by the Christians on Iona, and while still a youth he himself converted to Christianity and was baptized. In time he travelled south again with a small Scottish army, and in a tale that holds all the elements of an epic poem itself, he slew his father’s murderers and took back the throne of Northumbria for himself.

Still in the phase of settling into his newly won kingdom with its volatile subjects and feckless lords, Oswald considered the conversion of his people to be of paramount importance. For this reason he sent word back to the monks that raised him and requested a missionary from Iona to come and evangelize the people of northern England.

Iona Abbey and churchyard

There had been a priest from Rome in these parts before him, and that man did many wonders and baptized thousands of the previous generation—all of it fizzled out before fifty years were passed and all slid back into barbarism.

But at Oswald’s request, Iona sent his people a priest. Neither the English nor King Oswald considered him worthwhile—he was want to preach fire and brimstone and afterwards collect alms. Oswald sent the man back and asked for one who would display what he considered Christian attributes, who would by example as much as preaching show the benighted English the way of Christians.

Aidan of Lindisfarne (died 651) was an Irish monk and missionary credited with converting the Anglo-Saxons to Christianity in Northumbria

Iona then sent Aidan. According to some accounts the man volunteered for the post and was eager to go to that unwelcoming clime and serve the pagan English. Alongside King Oswald and with the king often serving as his interpreter, Aidan would spend himself in service and good works to the people of northern England, even establishing a monastery which mimicked that on Iona. It was built on the tidal island of Lindisfarne, now known as the Holy Isle.

Lindisfarne Priory with memorial statue to Aiden

Tragically, King Oswald of Northumbria would die in battle on this day in the year 642, not even forty years old and having reigned not even a full ten years. He is considered the first English martyr as he was the first Christian king to die by the hands of a pagan king. But despite his short life and tenure in his reclaimed lands, England was changed forever under Oslwald’s reign.

Lindisfarne Priory ruins

Unlike the papist missionaries before him, Oswald succeeded at re-christianizing Britain in a way that stuck, and for many centuries the north held to a starkly different doctrine than the south of England. A doctrine that rejected the supremacy of the pope in favor of the supremacy of Christ—a stance echoed once again, much later, in the English Reformation.

Holy Island of Lindisfarne

Image Credits: 1 Map of Britain, c.700 (wikipedia.org) 2 Map of Roman Withdrawals (wikipedia.org) 3 Patrick preaching to Irish kings (wikipedia.org) 4 Isle of Iona and Iona Abbey (wikipedia.org) 5 Peoples of Britain, c.600 (wikipedia.org) 6 King Oswald (wikipedia.org) 7 Iona Abbey & Churchyard (wikipedia.org) 8 Aiden (wikipedia.org) 9 King Oswald translates for Aiden (wikipedia.org) 10 Lindisfarne Priory & Aiden memorial (wikipedia.org) 11 Linisfarne Priory (wikipedia.org) 12 Holy Island of Lindisfarne (wikipedia.org)