Our school’s patron saint is St. Oswald. His feast day is celebrated on 5th August, however as a school family we celebrate his feast day at our first school mass of the new school year.

St. Oswald was born into a royal family. Due to much fighting between kingdoms, St. Oswald was sent to live with monks on island of Iona as a child. Here he was safe and was able to be educated and grow in faith. Many years later, St. Oswald became King of what we now know as Northumberland and tried to spread the Good News of Jesus throughout his kingdom. He was describes as being a ‘saintly king’.

St. Oswald knew he needed help to spread Christianity, so he invited St. Cuthbert to join his journey spreading the Good News on the Holy island of Lindisfarne. When he was back in his kingdom, St. Oswald lived out the Gospel values by looking after the poor and gave food and silver to the poor who knocked at his door.

As a king in the Middle Ages, St. Oswald had to fight many battles to protect his kingdom. During each battle, St. Oswald carried a cross to show he was fighting for Christianity. St. Oswald died in battle defending his Christian Kingdom and is remembered still as a King and Martyr.

St. Oswald is the patron saint of soldiers. He always took a cross into battle with him and prayed at the foot of the cross to ask God to protect him and his soldiers. In our daily life, we also take inspiration from St. Oswald and pray at the cross during Collective Worship time, daily prayers, visits to mass and during assembly time.

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If you would like to learn more about St. Oswald, you can watch this video:

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Celebrating St. Oswald’s Day