Ceatta of Lichfield is an obscure Anglo Saxon saint of the

Catholic Church The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

. He is unknown beyond a mention in the 11th-century

Old English Old English (, ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the early Middle Ages. It was brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlers in the mid-5th c ...

listing, ''

On the Resting-Places of the Saints ''On the Resting-Places of the Saints'' is a heading given to two early medieval pieces of writing, also known as ''Þá hálgan'' and the ''Secgan'', which exist in various manuscript forms in both Old English and Latin, the earliest surviving m ...

''. (''Secgan be þam Godes sanctum þe on Engla lande ærost reston''), which states that St. Chad ("Ceadda"), St. Cedd ("Cedde") and St Ceatta are buried in the monastery at

Lichfield Lichfield () is a cathedral city and civil parish in Staffordshire, England. Lichfield is situated roughly south-east of the county town of Stafford, south-east of Rugeley, north-east of Walsall, north-west of Tamworth and south-west o ...

. In the Prosopography of Anglo-Saxon England Ceatta shares a listing with

Headda of Hereford __NOTOC__ Headda or Ceadda (died c. 774) was a medieval Bishop of Hereford. Headda was consecrated between 758 and 770 and died between 770 and 777.Fryde, et al. ''Handbook of British Chronology'' p. 217 Citations References * Extern ...

, alternatively called Ceadda, an 8th-century bishop of Hereford; but this association is not certain. St. Chad

floruit ''Floruit'' (; abbreviated fl. or occasionally flor.; from Latin for "they flourished") denotes a date or period during which a person was known to have been alive or active. In English, the unabbreviated word may also be used as a noun indicatin ...

in the 7th century around

in what was the

Kingdom of Mercia la, Merciorum regnum , conventional_long_name=Kingdom of Mercia , common_name=Mercia , status=Kingdom , status_text=Independent kingdom (527–879)Client state of Wessex () , life_span=527–918 , era=Heptarchy , event_start= , date_start= , ye ...

, and St Cedd was his brother. Ceatta, is an old English personal name meaning a swamp although a Welsh origin has also be postulated. Alternatively the name may be derived from his association with Chad or his well. It is also possible that he is merely a duplication of St Ceadda.Blair, John (2002), "A Handlist of Anglo-Saxon Saints", in Thacker, Alan; Sharpe, Richard, Local Saints and Local Churches in the Early

Medieval In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire ...

West, Oxford:

Oxford University Press Oxford University Press (OUP) is the university press of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world, and its printing history dates back to the 1480s. Having been officially granted the legal right to print books ...

, p.520

References

External links

* (listing shared with

) Anglo-Saxon saints People from Lichfield 7th-century English people {{England-saint-stub