Happy St. Osmund's Day!

December the Fourth is the feast day of St. Osmund. (No, not Osmond - OSMUND! People can be so shallow sometimes?!)

St. Osmund was the nephew of William the Conqueror and a fine administrator. Had a thing about canons. He had thirty-two and they were known to be particularly musical. Sadly, he himself was described as "so eminent for chastity that common fame would itself blush to speak otherwise than truthfully concerning his virtue".

His tomb was known as a place for miraculous healings. In particular, healings of toothaches and the mentally ill.

It was said that he had a great reverence for St. Aldhelm, a scholar and poet who was a great erector of buildings ecclesiastical. It is reported that during one of the church constructions, a roof beam was cut too short. So St. Aldhelm prayed over it and, miraculously, it lengthened. Legend also tells us he was a very long-winded preacher and that one sermon lasted so long that his staff took root and became a tree again.

Curiously, St. Aldhelm does not appear to be the patron saint of anything. A missed opportunity there, methinks.

Nevertheless, St. Osmund thought the world of him and saw that he was beatified. One can see why.