
St Cedd Demographics:
- Birth - Early 620s?
- Birth place - kingdom of Northumbria
- Death - October 26, 664 (plague)
- Siblings - 3 brothers, Chad (originally Ceadda), Cynibil & Caelin.
- Occupation - Missionary Bishop
- Most that is known about Saint Cedd comes from the writings of Saint Bede (Ecclesiastical History Of The English People).
- Born in the kingdom of Northumbria.
- Likely he was the oldest of 4 brothers in the family.
- Brought up on the island of Lindisfarne by Saint Aidan.
- He was a priest by the year 653.
- Was acknowledged head of the family.
- While he was alive, he seems to have taken the lead, while his brother Chad was the chosen successor.
- Saint Aidan came to Northumbria from Iona, bringing with him his practices known as the Celtic Rite.
- Aidan was well-known for his austerity & disinterest in wealth & power.
- Bede comments that Cedd & Chad learned from Saint Aidan's example & traditions.
- It is believed that Cedd owed his training as a priest & scholar to Aidan & Lindisfarne.
- King Oswiu sent Cedd & 3 other priests on an evangelical mission to Mercia in 653 AD.
- Peada (son of sub-king Penda) agreed to become a Christian in return for the hand in marriage of Oswiu's daughter, Alchflaed.
- Cedd, with the other 3 priests (Adda, Betti & Diuma) accompanied Peada back to Middle Anglia, making many christian converts on the journey.
- King Oswiu then sent Cedd to the East Saxon kingdom at the request of King Sigeberht to help re-convert his subjects (having been originally converted by Canterbury missionaries).
- King Sigeberht's baptism & decision to reconvert his kingdom to christianity was due to the efforts of King Oswiu.
- Cedd then returned to Lindisfarne and reported to Finan who ordained him as bishop of the East Saxons.
- Once Cedd was a bishop he became very commited to his beliefs & was unafraid to confront the powerful.
- Cedd on one occasion confronted king Sigeberht about associating with an undesirable thegn (whom Cedd had excommunicated) & foretold that the king would die in that house (Sigeberht was later murdered by the pagan Swithelm).
- Swithelm went on to became king after Sigeberht's death, and some time later Swithelm accepted baptism from Cedd at Ethelwald's home.
- Cedd subsequently went on to found many churches, as well as monasteries at Tilaburg & Ithancester.
- He also became abbot of the monastery of Lastingham in Northumbria, where he remained abbott until his death.
- Cedd, however, still kept his position as a missionary bishop & diplomat, so he was not always present at the monastery, thus appointing others to deal with routine matters.
- Cedd was involved in the council negotiations between those trained in the Celtic Rite and those of the Roman Rite.
- When the council ended, he returned to Essex and recommenced his work as a bishop.
- Cedd, following the negotiations, did accept the Roman Rite of observance of Easter.
- He then travelled back to the monastery at Lastingham, where he fell ill with the plague & died on October 26, 664.
- His brother Chad succeeded Cedd as abbot at Lastingham monastery.
- King Swithelm also died at about the same time as Cedd.
- There followed a partial reversion to paganism which was also blamed on the effects of the plague.
Posted by ALCHEssMIST.
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