English and Irish Identity in Early Medieval Accounts of St. Oswald

Bede’s Historia Ecclesiastica and Adomnán’s Vita Columbae present St. Oswald as a figure who bridged English and Irish monasticism and language. Oswald was brought up among the Irish in Dál Riada, spoke Irish, and turned to Irish institutions when establishing a Christian seat in Northumbria. Both Bede and Adomnán recognized the importance of this aspect of Oswald’s identity: Bede’s description of Oswald’s life and the networks established by his early cult emphasized ethnicity throughout, and Adomnán’s Vita Columbae tied Oswald’s legacy to the institution at Iona. Different facets of Oswald’s identity (king, Northumbrian, Irish-speaker, folk hero) were represented in the primary demographics of the people engaged with Oswald’s related sites at Bamburgh, Lindisfarne, and Maserfelth. Bede’s narrative around the early spread of Oswald’s cult suggests that Oswald was meaningful to various ethnic groups, which was enabled by his own multicultural background.