Bede considers Oswald the saintliest of all the kings he examines in the Historia Ecclesiastica.
✝️ OSWALD AND CHRISTIANITY Oswald fully embraced the Christian faith as few other northern Anglo-Saxon kings had before him. Bede considers Oswald the saintliest of all the kings he examines in the Historia Ecclesiastica. As a result of his time spent in Dal Riata and beyond, Oswald allied himself with the Celtic Christian faith centred around the monastery of Iona. This brand of Christianity stood in marked contrast with the Rome-oriented community centred in Canterbury to the south, founded by Saint Augustine the Lesser in 597 CE. What exactly `Celtic Christianity' was is unclear and the details – and even the existence – of a different sort of Christianity which diverged markedly from Roman Catholicism is still debated. All that is clearly known is that followers of so-called Celtic Christianity celebrated Easter at a different date and the monks were tonsured (hair was cut) differently but, surely, there were more significant differences than these. Oswald re...