Editing Oswald of Northumbria (section)

==Veneration and legacy==
{{Infobox saint
|name=Saint Oswald<br />of Northumbria
|titles=Martyr|birth_date=c. 604
|death_date=5 August 641/642
|feast_day=5 August
|venerated_in=[[Catholic Church|The Roman Catholic Church]], [[Anglican Communion|The Anglican Communion]], [[Eastern Orthodox Church|Eastern Orthodoxy]]
|birth_place=[[Deira]], [[Northumbria]]
|canonized_date= [[Pre-Congregation]]
| patronage =
|attributes= king in crown, carrying sceptre and orb, ciborium, sword, palm-branch, and/or with his raven
|major_shrine=[[Bardney Abbey]], [[Lincolnshire]], [[England]]; [[relic]]s later translated to [[St Oswald's Priory, Gloucester]], [[England]]
|suppressed_date=
|issues=
}}

[[File:Kopfreliquiar St. Oswald.jpg|thumb|upright|St Oswald relic receptacle, [[Hildesheim]], 12th century]]
Oswald soon came to be regarded as a saint. Bede says that the spot where he died came to be associated with [[miracle]]s, and people took dirt from the site, which led to a hole being dug as deep as a man's height.<ref name="Bede nine"/> Reginald of Durham recounts another miracle, saying that his right arm was taken by a bird (perhaps a [[common raven|raven]]) to an ash tree, which gave the tree ageless vigour; when the bird dropped the arm onto the ground, a spring emerged from the ground. Both the tree and the spring were, according to Reginald, subsequently associated with healing miracles.<ref>Tudor, p. 190.</ref><ref name="Rollason">Rollason, p. 170.</ref> Aspects of the legend have been considered to have pagan overtones or influences<ref name="Rollason"/>—this may represent a fusion of his status as a traditional Germanic warrior-king with Christianity. The name of the site, Oswestry, or "Oswald's Tree", is generally thought to be derived from Oswald's death there and the legends surrounding it.<ref name="Where"/> His [[Calendar of saints|feast day]] is 5 August. The cult surrounding him even gained prominence in parts of continental Europe; cf. [[Ožbalt]] in Slovenia.

Bede mentions that Oswald's brother [[Oswiu of Northumbria|Oswiu]], who succeeded Oswald in Bernicia, retrieved Oswald's remains in the year after his death.<ref name="Death"/> In writing of one miracle associated with Oswald, Bede gives some indication of how Oswald was regarded in conquered lands: years later, when his niece [[Osthryth]] moved his bones to [[Bardney Abbey]] in [[Kingdom of Lindsey|Lindsey]], its inmates initially refused to accept them, "though they knew him to be a holy man", because "he was originally of another province, and had reigned over them as a foreign king", and thus "they retained their ancient aversion to him, even after death". It was only after Oswald's bones were the focus of was said to be a miracle, in which, during the night, a pillar of light appeared over the wagon in which the bones were being carried and shone up into the sky, that they were accepted into the monastery: "in the morning, the brethren who had refused it the day before, began themselves earnestly to pray that those holy relics, so beloved by God, might be deposited among them".<ref>[[wikisource:Ecclesiastical History of the English People/Book 3#11|Bede, Book III, chapter 11.]]</ref>

In the early 10th century, Bardney was in Viking territory, and in 909, following a combined West Saxon and Mercian raid led by [[Æthelflæd]],<ref>{{cite episode |first=Michael |last=Wood |author-link=Michael Wood (historian) |title=Lady of the Mercians |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b038dbd5 |date=13 August 2013 |series=King Alfred and the Anglo Saxons |series-link=King Alfred and the Anglo Saxons |network=BBC |language=English}}</ref> daughter of [[Alfred the Great]], St Oswald's relics were translated to a new minster in [[Gloucester]], which was renamed [[St Oswald's Priory, Gloucester|St Oswald's Priory]] in his honour.<ref>Heighway, p. 108.</ref> Æthelflæd, and her husband [[Æthelred, ealdorman of Mercia]], were buried in the priory, and their nephew, King [[Æthelstan]], was a major patron of Oswald's cult.<ref>Karkov, pp. 77–79</ref>

[[File:Kleinkirchheim Pfarrkirche Sankt Oswald.jpg|thumb|Saint Oswald's church, [[Bad Kleinkirchheim]], [[Carinthia (state)|Carinthia]], one of many churches and place names which commemorate Oswald]]
Oswald's head was interred in [[Durham Cathedral]] together with the remains of [[Cuthbert of Lindisfarne]] (a saint with whom Oswald became posthumously associated, although the two were not associated in life; Cuthbert became bishop of Lindisfarne more than forty years after Oswald's death) and other valuables in a quickly made coffin, where it is generally believed to remain, although there are at least four other claimed heads of Oswald in continental Europe.<ref>Bailey.</ref> One of his arms is said to have ended up in [[Peterborough Cathedral|Peterborough Abbey]] later in the Middle Ages. The story is that a small group of monks from Peterborough made their way to Bamburgh where Oswald's uncorrupted arm was kept and stole it under the cover of darkness. They returned with it to Peterborough and in due time a chapel was created for the arm, Oswald's Chapel. Minus the arm, this can be seen to this day in the south transept of the cathedral. When creating this chapel the monks of Peterborough had thought of how they had acquired it and built into the chapel a narrow tower—just big enough for a monk to climb to the top by an internal stair and stand guard over Oswald's arm 24 hours a day, every day of the year. The monk had to stand because the tower is not large enough for him to sit, sitting could lull him to sleep, and they knew what could happen when no-one was watching.{{citation needed|date=January 2021}}

Several churches bear the name of St Oswald, including [[St Oswald's Church (Heavenfield)|The Church of Saint Oswald]] on the location of the wooden cross left by Oswald at Heavenfield, the night before the battle. This was rebuilt in 1717. The site is visible from the [[B6318 Military Road]]. St Oswald's [[Grasmere (village)|Grasmere]] is purportedly on one of the sites he preached on, on a bank of the [[River Rothay]]. William Wordsworth's grave is located in the cemetery here. St Oswald's Church, Compton Abdale in Gloucestershire was dedicated to St Oswald following Æthelflæd's foundation of St Oswald's Priory in 909. St Oswald's Catholic Church lies to the north of Peterborough City Centre.

Some English place names record his reign, for example it has been claimed that [[Oswaldtwistle]] in [[Lancashire]], meaning the [[wiktionary:twistle|twistle]] of Oswald, is linked to the saint, although it's more likely to be the name of the owner of the land. [[Kirkoswald, Cumbria|Kirkoswald]] in Cumbria is so named because it is believed that his body was taken there after his death. The local church is ascribed to him. Another [[Kirkoswald, South Ayrshire|Kirkoswald]] in Scotland also commemorates him.<ref>{{cite web|title=Kirkoswald|publisher=Gazetteer for Scotland|url=http://www.scottish-places.info/towns/townhistory481.html}}</ref>

Oswald is [[Calendar of saints (Church of England)|remembered]] in the [[Church of England]] with a [[Lesser Festival (Anglicanism)|Lesser Festival]] on 5 August.<ref>{{Cite web|title=The Calendar|url=https://www.churchofengland.org/prayer-and-worship/worship-texts-and-resources/common-worship/churchs-year/calendar|access-date=27 March 2021|website=The Church of England|language=en}}</ref>