Today October 26

Today we have the feast of St. Cedd (died 664). He was one of four brothers, whose parents all gave them the same first initial. He was the bishop of the East Saxons (and thus was sent basically as a missionary to Essex), friend of kings and bishops, princes and prelates, founder of monasteries, and died a total failure! Well, not really, of course. He is a saint and thus a friend of God in heaven; and anyone who is a saint can be said to be, in the truest sense of the word, a winner.

But in the eyes of the world, he died a failure. All three of his monasteries, including the celebrated Lastingham, which he carved out of the wild and swampy fens of Yorkshire, "an inaccessible spot" - Butler's Lives, were entirely destroyed by Vikings. He died a broken man. He was carried off by the plague, as were all of his (religious) brothers. Only one escaped to tell the tale: an unbaptized boy, who later got baptized and grew to be a priest and missionary. He followed Cedd's simple Rule "as far as these rough people were capable of receiving it" - Venerable Bede. St. Cedd, pray for us.