OSWALD OF YORK, ST.

Archbishop; d. Worcester, Feb. 29, 992. As bishop of Worcester (961) and archbishop of York (972), Oswald shared with dunstan and ethelwold the glory of establishing the 10th-century Anglo-Saxon monastic revival. A Dane by birth, he was brought up by his uncle, Archbishop odo of canterbury. Ordained deacon and priest at Fleury, he introduced its reformed practices into England, founding a small Benedictine monastery at Westbury (c. 962), an influential house at ramsey (c. 971), and communities at Winchcombe, Pershore, and perhaps Deerhurst, Ripon, and Evesham. Unlike Ethelwold, Oswald avoided violent reform, monasticizing the See of worcester gradually and by example (c. 974–977). With Dunstan, he helped to crown Kings edgar, edward the martyr, and Ethelred II. Sources about his life include the Vita sancti Oswaldi auctore anonymo (ed. j. raine, Historians … York, Rerum Britannicarum medii aevi scriptores. [London 1858–96]), eadmer's Vita sancti Oswaldi, as well as the Chronicon abbatiae Rameseiensis, and the works of florence of worcester and william of malmesbury.

Feast: Feb. 28.

Bibliography: Acta Sanctorum Feb. 3:755–762. w. hunt, The Dictionary of National Biography From the Earliest Times to 1900 (London 1885–1900) 14:1217–19. j. a. robinson, The Times of Saint Dunstan (Oxford 1923). e. s. duckett, Saint Dunstan of Canterbury (New York 1955). e. john, "St. Oswald and the Tenth Century Reformation," The Journal of Ecclesiastical History 9 (1958) 159–172. d. knowles, The Monastic Order in England, 943–1216 (Cambridge, England 1962). St. Oswald of Worcester: Life and Influence, ed. n. brooks and c. cubitt (London 1996).

[w. a. chaney]