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Earconwald or Erkenwald (died 693) was
Bishop of London
A bishop is an ordained clergy member who is entrusted with a position of authority and oversight in a religious institution.
In Christianity, bishops are normally responsible for the governance of dioceses. The role or office of bishop is ca ...
between 675 and 693.
Life
Earconwald was born at
Lindsey Lindsey may refer to :
Places Canada
* Lindsey Lake, Nova Scotia
England
* Parts of Lindsey, one of the historic Parts of Lincolnshire and an administrative county from 1889 to 1974
** East Lindsey, an administrative district in Lincolnshire, a ...
in
Lincolnshire
Lincolnshire (abbreviated Lincs.) is a county in the East Midlands of England, with a long coastline on the North Sea to the east. It borders Norfolk to the south-east, Cambridgeshire to the south, Rutland to the south-west, Leicestershire ...
,
[Walsh ''A New Dictionary of Saints'' p. 182] and was supposedly of royal ancestry.
[ In 666, he established two ]Benedictine
, image = Medalla San Benito.PNG
, caption = Design on the obverse side of the Saint Benedict Medal
, abbreviation = OSB
, formation =
, motto = (English: 'Pray and Work')
, foun ...
abbeys, Chertsey Abbey in Surrey
Surrey () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South East England, bordering Greater London to the south west. Surrey has a large rural area, and several significant urban areas which form part of the Greater London Built-up Area. ...
[Kirby ''Earliest English Kings'' p. 83] for men, and Barking Abbey for women.[Yorke "Adaptation of the Anglo-Saxon Royal Courts" ''Cross Goes North'' pp. 250–251] His sister, Æthelburg, was Abbess of Barking,[ while he served as ]Abbot
Abbot is an ecclesiastical title given to the male head of a monastery in various Western religious traditions, including Christianity. The office may also be given as an honorary title to a clergyman who is not the head of a monastery. The fem ...
of Chertsey.[
In 675, Earconwald became the Bishop of London, after ]Wine
Wine is an alcoholic drink typically made from fermented grapes. Yeast consumes the sugar in the grapes and converts it to ethanol and carbon dioxide, releasing heat in the process. Different varieties of grapes and strains of yeasts are m ...
.[Fryde, et al. ''Handbook of British Chronology'' p. 219] He was the choice of Archbishop Theodore of Canterbury.[Kirby ''Earliest English Kings'' pp. 95–96] While bishop, he contributed to King Ine of Wessex
Ine, also rendered Ini or Ina, ( la, Inus; c. AD 670 – after 726) was King of Wessex from 689 to 726. At Ine's accession, his kingdom dominated much of southern England. However, he was unable to retain the territorial gains of his predecessor ...
's law code, and is mentioned specifically in the code as a contributor.[Yorke ''Conversion of Britain'' p. 235] Current historical scholarship credits Earconwald with a large role in the evolution of Anglo-Saxon charters, and it is possible that he drafted the charter of Caedwalla to Farnham.[Kirby ''Earliest English Kings'' p. 102] King Ine of Wessex named Earconwald as an advisor on his laws.[Kirby ''Earliest English Kings'' p. 103]
Earconwald died in 693[ and his remains were buried at ]Old St Paul's Cathedral
Old St Paul's Cathedral was the cathedral of the City of London that, until the Great Fire of London, Great Fire of 1666, stood on the site of the present St Paul's Cathedral. Built from 1087 to 1314 and dedicated to Paul of Tarsus, Saint Paul, ...
. His grave was a popular place of pilgrimage in the Middle Ages, and was destroyed together with a number of other tombs in the cathedral during the Reformation.
Earconwald's feast day
The calendar of saints is the traditional Christian method of organizing a liturgical year by associating each day with one or more saints and referring to the day as the feast day or feast of said saint. The word "feast" in this context d ...
is 30 April, with translations being celebrated on 1 February, 13 May and 14 November.[Farmer ''Oxford Dictionary of Saints'' p. 175] He is a patron saint
A patron saint, patroness saint, patron hallow or heavenly protector is a saint who in Catholicism, Anglicanism, or Eastern Orthodoxy is regarded as the heavenly advocate of a nation, place, craft, activity, class, clan, family, or perso ...
of London.[Farmer ''Oxford Dictionary of Saints'' p. 494]
See also
* St. Erkenwald (poem)
''St Erkenwald'' is a fourteenth-century alliterative poem in Middle English, perhaps composed in the late 1380s or early 1390s. It has sometimes been attributed to the ''Pearl'' poet who probably wrote the poems ''Pearl'', ''Patience'', ''Cle ...
Notes
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External links
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Earconwald
630s births
693 deaths
Abbots of Chertsey
Mercian saints
Anglo-Saxon Benedictines
Bishops of London
7th-century English bishops
7th-century Christian saints
7th-century Latin writers
7th-century English writers
Burials at St Paul's Cathedral