Aragorn’s Archetype: Portrait of a Western Orthodox Saint

History

by Matthew Franklin Cooper

There is a particular challenge to being—or rather, becoming—Orthodox in a Western country. One of the largest hurdles that I’ve heard described when people first enter an Orthodox church is how ethnic and foreign it feels; this is a feeling I can sympathize with. The first two Orthodox churches I visited personally (Saint Mary’s Antiochian in Pawtucket, Rhode Island and Saint Aleksandr Nevsky Church in Saimasai, Kazakhstan) certainly left this impression on me, and yet they also filled me with a sense of otherworldly beauty.

It was only when I read the History of the English Church and People by the great English clerical historian Saint Bede the Venerable, and his descriptions of the first Christians to arrive in Kent, England, that I understood that Orthodox Christianity does not have to be foreign to us (The Roman monks who converted the English did so in a procession, with images of the face of Christ painted on wooden boards!). The Orthodox Christian saints of the British Isles in late antiquity can, and should, speak to us converts who arrive from a Western culture. The Church herself assures us in her doctrines that it is not necessary for us to become ersatz Greeks or Russians to be fully Orthodox, but sometimes we may need reminders that are more tangible, indeed more iconic. These can be found in the examples of pre-Schismatic saints such as Óswald, the saintly seventh-century Martyr-King of Northumbria. The man looms large in the Christian imagination of the British Isles, having served not only as Holy Bede’s model of the ideal king, but also—to speak to a ready pop-culture reference—the model for Aragorn in J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings trilogy.

Óswald was born in 604 and raised in exile, his family having met with misfortune before any of the English nobility of the north were ever baptized. His father, Æþelfríð, King of Bernicia (the northern sub-kingdom of Northumbria—the counterpart of York-based Deira in the south), was killed in 616 in battle against the inhabitants of East Anglia (around Norfolk and Suffolk nowadays) when Óswald was probably only 11 or 12 years of age. The boy was forced to flee with his brothers into the Scottish kingdom of Dál Riata (in the far west, nowadays encompassing Argyll and parts of Ulster in Northern Ireland). He became aware of Christianity through the Scottish monks on the isle of Iona, and it was there that he received Christ.

Several of Óswald’s relatives were killed during his absence, and around age 30, he returned to beat back the invaders, mustering an army of about 700 Scots and exiled Angles. On the eve of the battle, he planted a crucifix in the ground and prayed for God’s favor. At the break of dawn, the Angles attacked, setting the Britons to flight and cutting them down as they ran. The crucifix which Óswald had stood there later worked many wonders and was known for healing the sick. For a hundred years after, English folk would still soak wood slivers from this cross in water, such that sick men or beasts might be cured by drinking it.

Óswald carried on the missionary work his deceased uncle had started in the province. He completed the construction of a cathedral in York, and brought back with him several Scottish monks, including the gentle, mild, and moderate Saint Aidan, to whom he gave the isle of Lindisfarne, which would later grow to be hallowed and many-storied through the fruits of Saint Aidan’s ascetic labors. Saint Aidan at first did not speak English, so Óswald himself —who spoke fluent Scottish and English— served as Aidan’s interpreter as he traveled on foot throughout his kingdom. Óswald also gave great sums of money for the establishment of churches and monasteries and invited more holy men and brothers from Scotland to teach the new English monks how to live a regular and disciplined life of prayer. In this way, Óswald became a great benefactor to the Christian tradition of the Celts.

Óswald became famed for his humility, and for his love for the poor. As Holy Bede recounts in his above-mentioned History, on one Pascha, Óswald and Saint Aidan were about to feast on a silver tray loaded down with many fine delicacies and rich meats. Just then one of Óswald’s retainers, whose job it was to stand out in the street and give to the needy, came telling King Óswald that a great throng of poor and homeless folk had gathered to beg alms. Óswald at once ordered the Paschal feast to be given to them, and the silver tray broken up and distributed amongst the needy. When this was done, Saint Aidan prophetically grabbed the king’s hand and exclaimed: “May this hand never perish!”

Not only was Óswald a generous proponent of the poor, but he also was a remarkably effective prince in political terms. He managed to unify, without bloodshed, the kingdoms of Bernicia and Deira into a single Northumbrian kingdom. He kept up friendly relations with the newly-christened West Saxons, who had been baptized by Saint Berin. He served as godfather to Cynegils, King of Wessex, and married his daughter Cyneburg—they had one son together, Œðilwald, who would rule the sub-kingdom of Deira after his father’s death. His kingdom and his influence indeed extended so far that Óswald was called “Brytenwealda”: “Wide-Ruler”, the equivalent of the Irish title of High King.

Bede recounts that Óswald was steadfast in prayer and often rose early in the morning to keep the service of Lauds. The king would also pray constantly throughout the day, and whenever he sat to eat or rest, he would do so with his palms up as his mind was constantly on the Lord. He ruled Northumbria for eight years.

Óswald fell in battle against Penda of Mercia at the Battle of Maserfield in 642, at the age of 38. He is said to have been praying for the souls of his soldiers when he was killed. Penda had Óswald’s body beheaded, and his head and right arm mounted on stakes for display. Óswald’s successor Óswíu would later visit the place and remove the holy king’s relics: the head and body were translated to Lindisfarne, while the arm that Saint Aidan had blessed was sent to Bamburgh, where it proved to be incorrupt as the saint had prophesied. Some years later Óswíu’s daughter Saint Ósþrýð—a fast friend both to the Church and to Óswald’s widow Cyneburg—would have her uncle’s relics translated to Bardney Abbey in Lincolnshire (the arm is now in the care of Peterborough Cathedral).

Bede waxes at length about the number of miracles later attributed to Óswald’s cross, Óswald’s relics, and the spot where Óswald fell at Maserfield. When one of his arms touched the ground there, a holy well was said to have sprung up. A little boy in a monastery was cured of the ague when he went to pray at Saint Óswald’s tomb. A sack of earth from Maserfield, hallowed by the saint’s blood, was hung from a rafter in a thatch-and-wattle house which caught fire; only the beam on which the sack had been hung was spared from the flames. Later, many poor folk would take a pinch of this earth with some water to be cured of various maladies.

Saint Óswald remained highly popular throughout the Old English period, and his name graces 70 churches throughout England. His good name even spread to the Continent—particularly France and Germany—but seems to have fallen into obscurity after the Norman Conquest of England in the 11th century. Still, the literary figure of Aragorn seems to prove that King Óswald’s hold on the English imagination was fairly indelible. Holy and righteous martyr-king Óswald, friend to the poor and bringer of the Gospel to Northumbria, we beseech you to intercede with Christ our God to save our souls!

Matthew Franklin Cooper is an elementary schoolteacher. He maintains the website The Heavy Anglo Orthodox (heavyangloorthodox.blogspot. com), where he writes regularly about Orthodox Christian history (including saints in the pre-Schismatic West), books, geopolitics, and post-Soviet film. He is a father of two and a parishioner at Saint Herman's Orthodox Church in Minneapolis, Minnesota.