⛪ Saint of the Day : January 9
(A.D. 731)
[Bede, lib. v., c. 8, 23. William of Malmesbury : De Gest. Pontificum Anglorum; Roger of Hoveden; Matthew of Westminster, etc. He is called also Bretwald and Berthwald.]
Bede says that after the death of Saint Theodore, Arch- bishop of Canterbury, in 690, “Berthwald succeeded, being abbot of the monastery of Reculver, which lies on the north side of the mouth of the river Inlade. He was a man learned in the Scriptures, and well instructed in ecclesiastical and monastic discipline, yet not to be compared with his predecessor. He was chosen Bishop in the year of our Lord’s Incarnation, 692, on the first day of July, Withred and Suebhard being kings of Kent; he was consecrated the next year, on Sunday, the 29th June, by Godwin, Metropolitan Bishop of France, and was enthroned on Sunday, April 31st.”
“In the year of our Lord’s Incarnation, 731, Archbishop Berthwald died of old age, on the 9th of January, having held his see thirty-seven years six months and fourteen days.”
Source : Lives of the Saints, by Sabine Baring-Gould
