Happy Saint Oswald’s Day!
Today, February 29th, is the feast of Saint Oswald of Worcester1. He is also known as Oswald of York, since he became archbishop there in the year 972. Prior to this he had served as Bishop of Worcester since 961. Weirdly, on his accession to York, both dioceses were semi-combined for the next half-century.
Oswald was a Benedictine monk and a monastic reformer associated with Fleury Abbey in France, one of the great centers of western monasticism and at the time a center of learning with the largest library in Europe. With a name like Oswald, he was obviously originally from England. In fact, his grandfather had been a Viking, though he had been brought up by his uncle Oda, who was Archbishop of Canterbury.
Although he had a reputation as being politically astute and a hard-nosed reformer, he was also a deeply holy man. When he died on February 29, 992, he was in the middle of carrying out his Lenten custom of washing the feet of the poor.
In non-leap years, his feast – where it is celebrated – is on February 28th.
- Not to be confused with the marginally more famous Saint Oswald of Northumbria, whose feast is August 5th.