Deiniol – September 11
St Deinol was born the son of a Celtic chieftain in the early 6th cen-tury and was an important figure in Christianity’s development in North Wales. He founded two monasteries, both named Bangor, one of which was close to the modern town of that name.
These monasteries had over 2000 monks, though many were to perish near Chester at the hands of a pagan king of Northumbria.
Deiniol is regarded as the first bishop of Bangor. There are numerous dedications to him in North Wales including the famous library which Prime Minister Gladstone established at Hawarden near Chester.
In 545, he and St. Dyfrig took part in a synod with St David, which settled many matters regarding the discipline of penance. Deinol’s presence there suggests that he was regarded as David’s equal. He died about the year 584.
Edith of Wilton – September 16
Born at Kensing in 961 to King Edgar of England, Edith was brought as a young child to Wilton Abbey by her mother Wulfrida, who lat-
er became a nun there and abbess.
Saint Edith became a nun at the age of fifteen and she refused to leave the convent to become queen as many of the nobles re-quested, when her half-brother, King Edward the Martyr was mur-dered.
She built St Denis Church at Wilton. Saint Dunstan was invited to the dedication and wept during the Mass, when asked why, he said it was because Edith would die in three weeks. This came true, and Edith went to her rest on 16 September AD 984.
Theodore of Canterbury – September 19
Theodore was born about the year 602 and was a native of Tarsus in Cilicia. Having studied at Athens, he visited Rome and whilst there was appointed to the See of Canterbury by Pope Vitalian. The See had been vacant for four years when Theodore arrived in England in 669. He was well received and was (as Bede distinctly tells us) the first Archbishop whose authority the whole English Church was willing to acknowledge.
Theodore aimed to organize the Church and encourage learning, he therefore consecrated Bishops to fill the vacant Sees and subdi-vided the existing dioceses.
The diocesan system which Theodore sought to establish was ac-cepted by a synod of the united English Church held at Hertford in 673. Another synod, held at Hatfield in 680, affirmed the adher-ence of the English Church to the Catholic faith. It was his inter-vention that prevented an escalation of war between the two kingdoms of Northumbria and Mercia.
Learning flourished in England under the zeal of Theodore, under his direction and with the help of others such as Benedict Biscop,
seminaries were founded at many of the monasteries.
Theodore died in the year 690 at the age of 88 having been archbish-op for 22 years.
Finbar – September 25
Finbar was the son of an artisan and a lady of the Irish royal court. He was born in Connaught, Ireland and was baptized Lochan. He was educated by monks at Kilmaca-hil, Kilkenny, where he was named Fionnbharr which meant white head because of his light hair.
He may have preached in Scotland but definitely in southern Ireland.
On the River Lee, at an Corcach Mór (in the area now known as Munster), he founded a monastery that be-came famous, attracting numerous disciples and visi-tors. As it’s fame grew, the monastery became the city of Cork, of which Finbar was the first bishop. The motto for the University College in Cork is “Where Finbar taught let Munster learn”. He died in Cloyne about the year 633 and after he died the sun did not set for two weeks.
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