25. SAINT CEDD, BISHOP OF LONDON

Our holy Father Cedd, together with his brothers St. Chad, Cynebil and Caelin, were Anglian boys educated at Linsdisfarne by Saints Aidan and Finan. In 653, St. Finan baptized Peada, king of the Middle Angles at the king's village of Wallbottle at Hadrian's Wall in Northumberland. The king returned «full of joy» with four Northumbrian priests, one of whom was Cedd. The others were Diuma, who later became the holy bishop of Mercia and the Middle Angles, Betti and Addi. The apostolic work of these four men was very successful.

However, King Oswy of Northumbria, who became overlord of Mercia after King Peadás death, then decided to send St. Cedd to the kingdom of East Saxons, which had reverted to paganism after the death of King Sebert and the expulsion of St. Mellitus, bishop of London, earlier in the century. And so, with the blessing of St. Finan, Cedd and another priest set off to re-evanglize the land, whose king, Sigebert, had just been baptized. This mission, too, was very successful, and soon St. Finan consecrated Cedd to the episcopate.

As bishop, St. Cedd built churches and ordained priests and deacons in many places. Thus at Bradwell-on-Sea he built a church out of the rubble of a Roman fort which is still standing today. And he built another monastery at Tilbury, where an early Saxon immersion font that may well have been used by the saint still survives.

The saint often returned to Northumbria to preach, and on one such trip, in 658, he was given land for the foundation of a monastery at Lastingham in Yorkshire. This came about through the intercession of Cedd's brother Caelin, and the monastery was built by another of Cedd's brothers, Cynebil. St. Cedd consecrated the monastery after fasting and praying for forty days.

St. Cedd played an important part in the Synod of Whitby in 664, which ended the schism between the Celtic and Roman Churches in England. Although trained in the Celtic Church, he wholeheartedly accepted the Roman-Byzantine Paschalion. He acted as an interpreter between the Celtic and Roman parties.

St. Cedd died of the plague in Lastingham on October 26, 664. On hearing of his death, some thirty monks travelled north from Bradwell-on-Sea to live near his holy relics. At first he was buried outside the monastery, but then his body was placed to the right of the altar in a new stone church dedicated to the Mother of God.

St. Egbert, abbot of Iona, was once discussing the life of St. Cedd's brother, St. Chad, with his friend, St. Hybald of Hibaldstow, and said:

«I know a man in this island, still in the flesh, who, when that prelate passed out of this world, saw the soul of his brother Cedd, with a company of angels,

descending from heaven, who, having taken his soul along with them, returned hither again... »

St. Cedd is commemorated on October 26.

Holy Father Cedd, pray to God for us!

(Sources: The Venerable Bede, Ecclesiastical History of the English People, III, 22–26, IV, 3; Fr. Andrew Phillips, Orthodox Christianity and the English Tradition, Frithgarth: English Orthodox Trust, 1995, chapter 85; David Farmer, The Oxford Dictionary of Saints, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1979, p. 73)