Tag: stcedd

Saint of the Day – 26 October – Saint Cedd (Died 664) Bishop, Monk , Missionary, Evangelist, Founder of Monasteries and many Churches. Born inNorthumbria, England and died on 26 October 664 at Lastingham, Yorkshire, England of the plague. Patronages – of Interpreters, Essex and Lastingham, England. Also known as – Cedda, Cedde, Ceddus, Ceddi, Ceadwalla.

Cedd was the chief Evangelist of the Middle Angles and East Saxons in England and a significant participant in the Council of Whitby, a Council which resolved important differences within the Church in Ireland and England. The little that is known of St Cedd’s life, comes to us mainly from the writing of the Venerable St Bede in his Ecclesiastical History of the English People.

St Cedd, the eldest of four brothers, was born in 620 into a noble Northumbrian family at the beginning of the 7th century. With his siblings, Cynebil, Caelin and St (Ceadda) Chad (who became the first Bishop of York and then Bishop of Lichfield) he entered the school at Lindisfarne Priory at an early ae and learned the ways of the Irish Monks under Bishop St Aidan. St Aidan was well known for his personal austerity and disregard for the trappings of wealth and power. St Bede several times, stresses that Cedd and Chad absorbed St Aidan’s example and traditions. They were eventually sent to Ireland for further study and all four subsequently became Priests.

In 653, Peada, King of the Middle Angles, asked Aidan’s successor at Lindisfarne, St Finan (of Lindisfarne), for a Bishop for his region and St Finan chose four Monks, including Cedd, from Lindisfarne to evangelise Peada’s people. After making some conversions, Cedd returned to Lindisfarne to report to Finan. In recognition of his success, St Finan Consecrated him Bishop, calling in two other Irish Bishops to assist at the rite. Cedd was appointed Bishop of the East Saxons. As a result, he is generally listed among the Bishops of London.

St Bede’s record makes clear that Cedd demanded personal commitment and that he was unafraid to confront the powerful. He excommunicated a noble ,who was in an unlawful marriage and forbade Christians to accept the man’s hospitality. According to St Bede, when King Sigeberht continued to visit the man’s home, Cedd went to the house to denounce the King, foretelling that he would die in that house. St Bede asserts that the King’s subsequent murder (in 660) was his penance for defying Cedd’s injunction.

Cedd founded three Monasteries of his own, the best known being Lastingham, where he became the first Abbot and he died of the Plague in 664. St Bede has a beautiful story of Cedd’s founding of Lastingham, of how Cedd spent forty days in prayer and fasting in a remote spot given to him by King Ethelwald, to purify the site, although urgent royal business took him away after 30 days and Cynibil, his brother Bishop, took over the fast for him.

In 664, Cedd was present at the Council of Whitby and was a member of the Irish party, those wishing to retain the Irish date for Easter. But when the Council decided in favour of the Roman date, Cedd accepted the decision, not wanting to cause any further disunity in the Churches.

After the Council of Whitby, a Plague struck England,and Cedd was among those who died from the Plague. At the news of his death, thirty Monks came from London to spend their lives where their Founder had died. But they, too, caught the Plague and were buried near the little Chapel that had been erected in Cedd’s memory.

Cedd was the second Bishop of the City of London; the first was Mellitus, who came with St Augustine and later became Archbishop of Canterbury. Mellitus was driven from the See by the King of the East Saxons in 616 and London was without a Bishop until Cedd’s arrival about 654.

St Aidan’s Life:
https://anastpaul.com/2018/08/31/saint-of-the-day-31-august-st-aidan-of-lindisfarne-died-651-apostle-of-northumbria/