British Saints

British and Irish Saints

(Including saints having a connection with these lands)

"When the Church in the British Isles begins to venerate her own saints, then the Church there will grow" – St Arsenios of Paros. (1877)

MARCH

1st St David of Wales, Bishop (6th).

Not only in Wales but further afield, St David is greatly venerated today. He is one of the three patron saints of Britain along with St George of England and the Holy Apostle Andrew of Scotland. On his Feast Day, many people exchange daffodils with their friends. St David became a renowned preacher, founding monastic settlements and churches in Wales, Brittany and southwest England. St David reputedly made a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, from which he brought back a stone that now sits in an altar at St David’s Cathedral, built on the site of his original monastery. St David and his brethren led a very austere life. After denouncing Pelagianism, he was declared Archbishop. His dying testimony was: ‘Lords, brothers and sisters: Be joyful, and keep your faith and your creed, and do the little things that you have seen me do and heard about.’ ‘Do the little things’ is much remembered as a guide to the spiritual life.

2nd St Chad, Bishop of Lichfield (672).

St Chad is a very prominent saint in our Calendar. A relic lies now (since 2022) in a tomb in Lichfield Cathedral; St Chad having been Bishop of Lichfield. Born to a noble family around 634, he was educated at Lindisfarne and spent time as Bishop of York and Abbot of Lastingham in North Yorkshire. When he was appointed Bishop of Mercia, one of the most powerful Anglo-Saxon kingdoms, Chad chose to centre his administration in Lichfield. He founded a church and a community there in 669 which became the religious heart of the kingdom. Chad reposed in 672, much loved and revered. Bishop Hedda, his successor, consecrated the first cathedral in Lichfield on his burial site in 700. The shrine of St Chad grew quickly in importance and became one of the three most important centres of mediaeval pilgrimage in the country. St Bede describes him as ‘a holy man, of modest character, well-read in the Scripture, and diligently practising those things which he had learned therein.

3rd St Non, mother of St David (6th).

Her story is harrowing; of noble birth, Non, as a young woman was the victim of a powerful lord who forced himself on her. It is said she gave birth alone during a storm and that an unearthly light shone on her. Thus, she gave birth to David, patron saint of Wales. Non subsequently spent her life in a monastery. She is venerated in the wider Celtic areas, there being a church in Brittany dedicated to her and her son.

5th St Kieran (Irish: Ciarán) of Saighir (5th - 6th).

Kieran is one of the earliest saints of Ireland and referred to as one of the Twelve Apostles of Ireland. He lived for some time as a hermit and attracted many followers. Later he established a monastery at Saighir and became known as its first bishop. This became a burial place for the Kings of Ossory. He had great love for wild animals and stories are told of his miracles. He is not to be confused with the much better-known St Kieran of Clonmacnoise (9 September).

5th St Piran, Hermit of Cornwall (c 480).

St Piran is regarded as the patron saint of Cornwall, a Celtic land. It is said he came from Ireland and led the people in Cornwall to Christ. His feast day is celebrated widely across Cornwall. He may have given Cornwall its flag, a white cross on a black background.

6th St Kyneburga, St Kyneswide, and St Tibba, Abbesses of Castor (c 680).

Kyneburga and Kyneswide were daughters of King Penda of Mercia. The former founded an abbey at Castor, Northamptonshire. She was joined there by Kyneswide. Tibba was probably a relative who entered the same convent. Kyneburga married Alhfrith of Deira, co-regent of Northumbria, who attended the Synod of Whitby in 664, but later founded an abbey for both monks and nuns in Castor, in the Soke of Peterborough. She became the first abbess and was later joined by Kyneswide and Tibba. Kyneswide succeeded Kyneburga as abbess and she was later succeeded by Tibba. She was buried in her church, but the remains of Kyneburga and Kyneswide were translated before 972, to Peterborough Abbey, now Peterborough Cathedral.

7th St Easterwine, Monk of Wearmouth (686).

Abbot of Wearmouth, he was the nephew of St Benedict Biscop. As a young man he led the life of a soldier in the army of King Egfrid. When twenty-four years old he gave up the soldier's profession to become a monk in the Monastery of Wearmouth, then ruled over by St Benedict Biscop. He is described as a noble youth, conspicuous for his humility and gentleness. He was content to perform the lowliest work. He was ordained priest in 679. In 682 St Benedict appointed him Abbot of Wearmouth as coadjutor to himself. In 686 a deadly pestilence spread over the country; it attacked the community at Wearmouth and the youthful abbot was one of its victims. He bade farewell to all, the day before he died, and passed away on 7 March, when only thirty-six years old. St Benedict was absent in Rome at the time of his death and Sigfried was chosen by the monks as his successor.

8th St Senan of Inniscarra (c 544).

Born of Christian parents he worked tending his father’s sheep in his youth. He later became a monk and founded a monastery, most likely at Inniscarra near Cork. His sermons attracted great numbers, and he was known for both his holiness and for his miracles. During his life he built several churches and monasteries.

8th St Felix of Burgundy, Bishop of Dunwich and Enlightener of East Anglia (c 648).

St Felix, the Apostle of East Anglia, was born in the Burgundy region of Gaul (now France). It was he who converted Sigebert (September 27), King of East Anglia, while he was in exile in Gaul. He was forced to flee there, to save himself from the intrigues of his kinsmen. When Sigebert was summoned home to claim his ancestral crown, he invited his spiritual father, St Felix, to leave Gaul to assist him in converting his idolatrous subjects to Christianity. St Felix was consecrated as a bishop in 631 by Archbishop Honorius of Canterbury (September 30), who sent him to preach in East Anglia. The new Bishop was quite successful in his ministry. After seventeen years he had converted almost the entire region. He established churches, monasteries, and a school for boys with the help of King Siegbert. St Felix provided him with teachers from Canterbury. St Felix also established schools at Felixstowe and at Flixton. After two years, King Sigebert abdicated in favour of his cousin Egric and entered the monastery at Cnobersburgh, now Burgh Castle in Suffolk, the monastery he had founded for St Fursey who had lived there for about ten years. In 642, after St Sigebert was killed in battle against King Penda of Mercia, St Fursey made a pilgrimage to Rome. He then travelled to Gaul, where he established a monastery at Lagny-sur-Marne, near Paris, around the year 644. Felix has given his name to Felixstowe in Suffolk.

9th St Constantine of Cornwall (6th).

Details about St Constantine are few and uncertain since there were others called Constantine, both local kings and monastics. The St Constantine here mentioned probably means the King of Dumnonia in the mid-6th century. It is said he led an immoral life until, one day when out hunting, he came across St Petroc who so impressed Constantine that he reformed his life. He later abdicated in favour of his son and led a pious life founding churches around Devon.

11th St Angus of Keld (the Culdee) (824)

Born near Clonengh, Ireland, Angus was educated at the monastic school there, not far from the present town of Mountrath. Becoming a hermit, he lived for a time at Disertbeagh, where, on the banks of the Nore, he is said to have communed with the angels. From his love of prayer and solitude he was named the ‘Culdee’; in other words, the Ceile De (Servant of God). Not satisfied with his hermitage, which was only a mile from Clonenagh, and, therefore, liable to be disturbed, Angus moved to a more solitary place eight miles distant. This place was called the Desert of Angus. Here, he built a little oratory in the Dysert Hills. His fame attracted a stream of visitors, so the saint abandoned his oratory and came to the monastery of Tallaght, near Dublin, then governed by St. Maelruan. He entered as a laybrother, concealing his identity, but St. Maelruan soon discovered him, and collaborated with him on the work known as the Martyrology of Tallaght, circa 790. This work is a prose catalogue of Irish saints.

13th St Gerald of Mayo, Abbot 732jpg.jpg

15th St Oswy, King of Northumbria (670).

He was born in Northumbria and became a monk at Lindisfarne. Gerald was one of a number of English monks who felt unable to accept the decisions of the Synod of Whitby, so he and others went first to Iona and then to the west of Ireland. St Colman established separate monasteries for the English exiles, and St Gerald became abbot of one which was in Co Mayo. Mayo's rapid fame and enduring tradition as a beacon of sanctity and learning to much of Ireland owes a lot to that first abbot, Gerald.

15th Apostle Aristobulus, of the Seventy (1st).

One of the Seventy Apostles sent by Christ to spread the faith, Aristobulus was ultimately sent by Apostle Paul to preach in England; at that time part of the Roman Empire and called Britannia. Paul had ordained him as Bishop. Aristobulus probably arrived in England about the time Claudius was Emperor, the middle of the first century. The Church in England was thus of Apostolic foundation.

16th St Finnan, Bishop of Iona, Apostle of Moidart (Argyll, Scotland 661).

The first monk sent from Iona, to replace St Aidan as Bishop of Lindisfarne in 651, was the Irishman St Finnan. His episcopate was prosperous and followed that of his predecessor in both policy and character. It lasted ten years and was not interrupted by any melancholy event, such as those which had troubled the life of St Aidan. St. Finnan always lived on good terms and worked in close co-operation with King Oswiu of Northumbria.

17th St Patrick, Bishop of Armagh, Apostle to the Irish (?461).

Perhaps the most famous saint of all since he is so closely connected with Ireland and the Irish diaspora and most especially in the USA where some ten percent of the population claim Irish heritage. Actually British, Patrick was captured as a young man and taken to Ireland as a slave, and worked mostly as a shepherd. It was there he learned the local language. After six years Patrick escaped but, inspired by a vision, he turned to the priesthood, having been trained by St Germanus of Auxerre. St Germanus arranged for Patrick to be ordained bishop and blessed him to return to Ireland to preach the Gospel. He used the shamrock to explain the Holy Trinity. Patrick laboured for forty years in Ireland. Some of his writings survive.

St Withburga, Solitary at Holkham & East Dereham c 743.jpg

17th St Withburga, Solitary at Holkham & East Dereham (c 743).

From a family of saints, Withburga was the youngest of the saintly daughters of Anna, King of East Anglia. Her sisters were Saints Ethedreda and Sexburga; they had an elder half-sister St Saethrith. Withburga was also aunt of St Ermengild. When a young girl, she was sent to live with her nurse at Holkham in Norfolk where, in process of time, a church was built in her honour and the place called Withburgstowe. After her father's death, she built a convent at East Dereham. Little is known about her for certain as she is not mentioned by St Bede.

18th St Edward the Martyr, King of England (c 978).

He was King of the English from 8 July 975 until he was killed in 978. He was the eldest son of King Edgar (959–975). On Edgar's death, the succession to the throne was contested between Edward's supporters and those of his younger half-brother, the future King Æthelred. Edward's short reign was ended by his murder in March 978 in unclear circumstances. Medieval kings were believed to be sacrosanct, and Edward's murder deeply troubled contemporaries who regarded it as a mortal sin. He soon came to be revered as a saint.

20th St Cuthbert of Lindisfarne, Bishop (687). St Herbert, Hermit of Derwentwater (687).

These are paired because Herbert was a devoted follower of St Cuthbert who was his spiritual father. St Cuthbert is one of the most prominent saints in the English Calendar. His life is fully documented by St Bede in a separate ‘Life’ as well as in his ‘Ecclesiastical History of the English People’. Cuthbert was from a well-to-do family and led a normal boyish childhood until his life changed when he was about 17 years old. He was looking after some neighbour's sheep on the hills. Gazing into the night sky he saw a light descend to Earth and then return, escorting, he believed, a human soul to Heaven. The date was 31 August 651 - the night that Aidan died. Cuthbert went to the monastery at Melrose, also founded by Aidan, and asked to be admitted as a Novice. After some years, Cuthbert moved to a new monastery at Ripon in North Yorkshire. After the Synod of Whitby (664), the Abbot of Melrose became Abbot of Lindisfarne and Cuthbert its Prior. Cuthbert loved to pray in harsh solitude; a famous story is of his praying in the cold North Sea, and otters warming his feet afterwards. There are other accounts of his great sanctity. He reluctantly accepted being made Bishop of Lindisfarne. He gave up his earthly life at his hermitage on Inner Farne Island, and his body was brought to Lindisfarne for burial. His remains now lie in Durham Cathedral.
Herbert was devoted to Cuthbert and saw him once a year for spiritual guidance. Herbert lived on a small island in Lake Derwentwater in Cumbria. He prayed that he might pass on from the earthly life at the same time as Cuthbert. His prayer was heard.

21st St Enda of Innismore (c 530).

A warrior king in western Ireland, Enda was converted to the Christian faith by his sister who was abbess of a monastery. He studied for the priesthood, was ordained, and took monastic vows. He built a church in eastern Ireland but was then given the Aran Islands by the King of Munster. The Aran islands are off the west coast of Ireland. Enda established a monastery on the largest of the islands. Enda’s community followed the example of the early Egyptian fathers in asceticism and simplicity. The monastery became well known and St Columba called it the ‘Sun of the west’. Other well-known saints came to visit. St Enda had a great impact on the development of Irish monasticism. Enda is a popular boy’s name to this day.

30th St Osburga of Coventry, Virgin (c 1015

All we can say about St Osburga is that she was the abbess of a convent founded by King Canute in Coventry in Mercia. She was greatly venerated in the Middle Ages, and this continued even after the Reformation. Her shrine became a place of many miracles. She is the patron saint of Coventry.

28th St Oswald, Archbishop of York (992).

He was born in England to a noble Danish family. King Edgar, having been made aware of Oswald’s holy life, appointed him to the See of Worcester. Together with St Ethelwold of Winchester, he became the foremost supporter of St Dunstan, who had succeeded to Canterbury, and had a great and successful scheme for the revitalisation of the church in the country. He was also appointed to the See of York but did not relinquish the See of Worcester, where he preferred to be. He died, still on his knees, after his daily ministration to twelve poor people, by washing their feet. He was known for his gentleness and kindness and was greatly loved by the people. After twelve years, when his grave was opened, ‘his stole remained in all its freshness and beauty.’ Many miracles took place at his shrine.