Oswine of Deira

Oswine of Deira
King, Martyr
Born	Unknown
Died	20 August, 651 Gilling, Yorkshire, England
Honored in	Roman Catholicism, Eastern Orthodoxy, Anglican Communion
Major shrine	Tynemouth, England
Feast	20 August

Oswine (or Osuine) (died 20 August 651) was a King of Deira in northern England. He succeeded King Oswald of Northumbria, probably around the year 644, after Oswald's death at the Battle of Maserfield. Oswine was the son of Osric.

His succession, perhaps the choice of the people of Deira, split the Kingdom of Northumbria. Oswiu was the successor of Bernicia to the north. After years of peaceful rule, Oswiu declared war on Oswine. Oswine refused to engage in battle, instead retreating to Gilling, where he was betrayed by a friend, and murdered by Oswiu’s soldiers.

Veneration

Oswine was buried at Tynemouth, but was later forgotten. It is said that his burial place was made known by an apparition to a monk named Edmund, and his relics were translated to an honorable place in the Tynemouth Priory in 1065. He was culted as a Christian martyr because he had died "if not for the faith of Christ, at least for the justice of Christ".

St. Oswin's Church, Wylam

St Oswins, Wylam, Northumberland

The Anglican Parish Church of Wylam, Northumberland, England is dedicated to St Oswin. The Church was built in 1886 and it currently has a congregation of about 150. The Church has a ring of 6 Bells (in the Tower) and has regular Sunday services with ringing.

Sources

• Bede, Historia Ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum, ed. and tr. B. Colgrave and R.A.B. Mynors, Bede’s Ecclesiastical History of the English People. Oxford, 1969.
• Anonymous, Vita Oswini (twelfth century), ed. James Raine, Miscellanea Biographica. Publications of the Surtees Society 8. London, 1858. 1-59. PDF available from Internet Archive.

Further reading

• Chase, Colin. "Beowulf, Bede, and St. Oswine: The Hero's Pride in Old English Hagiography." The Anglo-Saxons. Synthesis and Achievement, ed. J. Douglas Woods and David A.E. Pelteret. Waterloo (Ontario), 1985. 37-48. Reprinted in The Beowulf Reader, ed. Peter S. Baker. New York and London, 2000. 181-93.

See also

http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/11349a.htm

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Herbermann, Charles, ed (1913). "St. Oswin". Catholic Encyclopedia. Robert Appleton Company. 

Persondata
Name	Oswine Of Deira
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth
Place of birth
Date of death	651
Place of death	Gilling, Yorkshire, England