Alcmund of Hexham

Infobox Saint
name=Saint Alcmund of Hexham
birth_date=8th Century
death_date=death date|781|9|7|df=y
feast_day=7 September
venerated_in=Roman Catholic Church; Anglican Communion


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death_place=Hexham, Northumberland
titles=Bishop
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major_shrine=Hexham Abbey, Northumberland
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Alcmund of Hexham, also spelt Ealhmund, Alhmund or Alchmund (died 7 September 781 AD) became the 7th bishop of the see of Hexham in Northumberland in 767; the see was centred on the church there founded by Saint Wilfrid. Alcmund died in 781 and was buried beside Saint Acca outside the church. Virtually nothing is now known of his life, but he was apparently deeply venerated as one of the Hexham saints.

By the early 11th century, after the Danes had ravaged this part of the country, it seems that his tomb had been entirely forgotten. He is said to have appeared in a vision to Dregmo, a man of Hexham, urging him to tell Alfred, sacrist of Durham, to have his body translated (removed and re-buried as a relic). Alfred did so, but stole one of the bones to take back with him to Durham; the shrine however could not be moved by any strength of man until the bone was replaced.

In 1154, the church, having been ruined again, was again restored, and the bones of the Hexham saints, including Alcmund, were gathered into a single shrine. The Scots however pillaged and finally destroyed both church and shrine in a border raid in 1296.

ee also

*Alcmund of Derby"

References

*"Acta Sanctorum", 7 September, III
*Stanton, Richard, "English Menology" (London, 1892), 438
*"Dictionary of National Biography", s. v.
*Simeon of Durham, and Ælred, "On the Saints of Hexham", both in the Rolls Series
*Raine, J., "The Priory of Hexham" (Surtees Society, London, 1864-65)

External links

* [http://www.orthodox.net/western-saints/acca-and-alcmund-of-hexham.html Bio of Saint Alcmund of Hexham]