St. Oswald: the Evangelist King
Over the course of history, we see God raising up leaders in various times and places so full of faith in him that an entire people is brought to revival. Such was the case of King Oswald. By the seventh century AD, Christianity had long reached the island of Great Britain, and missionaries like St. Patrick had taken the gospel from Great Britain to Ireland. However, after a period of embracing Christianity, people in Northumbria, a kingdom spanning what is now northeast England and southeast Scotland, returned to the Pagan beliefs they held before the gospel first reached the British shores. It would take a young Christian king returning from exile with a zeal for evangelism to begin a revival of faith that would last for centuries.
A Life Shaped for Mission
Oswald was born in 604 AD to Æthelfrith, the king who had first unified Northumbria, and his wife Acha, daughter of the former King of Deira. Æthelfrith died in battle against Raedwald of East Anglia. Raedwald then installed Edwin, Acha’s brother, as the new king, forcing Oswald and his family into exile.
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Oswald found refuge in the Scottish kingdom of Dál Riata, where he remained until Edwin’s death. During that time, he earned the nickname Lamnguin (meaning White Blade) while fighting for the Dál Riata’s Christian king, Eochaid. Oswald himself converted to Christianity, likely influenced by his time at the monastery on the Isle of Iona, and gained a reputation as a skilled soldier. Over the years, he grew in faith, and the strong Christian influence of his time in Ireland would equip him perfectly to bring Christianity back to his homeland.
Evangelising a Kingdom
Oswald’s strong Christian faith would profoundly impact Great Britain’s history. At age 30, Oswald ascended the Northumbrian throne. Although Edwin had previously converted to Christianity in 627, Oswald did the most to spread the religion in Northumbria. However, Oswald did not try to make Northumbria Christian by force. Instead, he knew that the only way to establish Christianity in his kingdom in a way that would last was to convert the peoples’ hearts.
Shortly after becoming king, Oswald asked the monks of Iona to send missionaries to establish a Christian community in Northumbria. Iona first sent a bishop named Cormán. However, his harshness alienated the Northumbrian people. When Cormán returned to Iona, complaining about the Northumbrians’ obstinance, another of the monks, the Irish-born Aidan, offered that the bishop should have “followed the practice of the Apostles, and begun by giving them the milk of simpler teaching, and gradually nourished them with the word of God…” It was clear that Aidan himself should take up the mission.
Oswald & Aidan
After being consecrated a bishop, Aidan and twelve others traveled to Northumbria in 634. They established a monastic cathedral on the Island of Lindisfarne, which Oswald apportioned to them as a base of operations. With Oswald’s support, Aidan and his missionaries achieved great success in spreading the Christian faith.
However, Oswald was not one to sit by and let the monks do all the work. The historian Bede informs us that Oswald accompanied Aidan on his missionary journeys. He acted as an interpreter when the bishop was preaching since Aidan did not know English well, and the king had learned Irish during his exile.
The Servant King
Oswald also practiced the radical benevolence characteristic of Christ and his apostles, even appointing a servant to see to the needs of the poor. Once, when Oswald was dining with Aidan with a silver plate of rich delicacies before him, a servant alerted him that there was a crowd at the door begging for alms. Oswald had the food before him on the table distributed to the crowd and the silver plate broken up and done likewise. Impressed with Oswald’s act of charity, Aidan grabbed the king’s right hand, saying, “May this hand never perish!” According to Bede, that hand remained incorrupt long after Oswald’s death.
Oswald died in 642 AD in battle against the Mercians at the Battle of Maserfield. Realizing that his forces were overwhelmed and that he would be killed, Oswald knelt and prayed for the souls of his soldiers. The Mericans struck Oswald down while he prayed, dismembering his body and placing his head and limbs on stakes. According to legend, a raven carried Oswald’s arm from the battlefield and dropped it in an ash tree, which became the namesake of its surrounding area in Shropshire, called Oswestry (from “Oswald’s Tree”).
Oswald’s Legacy
Oswald was quickly venerated and popularly recognized as a saint in the years after his death. He stands to us as an example of a leader dedicated to Christ who led his people into a revival of Christianity, not by force, but through the preaching of the gospel and living out his faith in generous actions toward those in need. Although he amassed a larger geographic territory than any of his predecessors, life reflected a King and a Kingdom still far greater than his own. As Bede records,
Oswald gained from the one God who made heaven and earth greater earthly realms than any of his ancestors had possessed; in fact, he held under his sway all the peoples and kingdoms of Britain, divided among the speakers of four different languages: British, Pictish, Irish, and English. Though he wielded supreme power over the whole land, he was always wonderfully humble, kind, and generous to the poor and to strangers.
May Oswald’s legacy remind us that, in the service of Christ, no service to our fellow humans is beneath us, no matter our stature. We do well to learn from the example of service, evangelism, and prayer he gave until his last minutes of breath when the great King of Northumbria met the King of Kings he had long served.
Image adapted from the St. Oswald window, St. Oswald’s Church, Bidston, UK. Original photo by Rodhullandemu from Wikimedia Commons. Digital editing by Jacob Davis.
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