Bosa of York

Bosa of York
Bishop of York
Appointed	678 (first appointment) 691 (second appointment)
Term ended	687 (first tenure) c. 705 (second tenure)
Predecessor	Wilfrid
Successor	John of Beverley
Orders
Consecration	678
Personal details
Born	unknown
Died	c. 705
Sainthood
Feast day	9 March

Bosa (died c. 705) was an Anglo-Saxon Bishop of York during the 7th and early 8th centuries. He was educated at Whitby Abbey, where he became a monk. Following Wilfrid's removal from York in 678 the diocese was divided into three, leaving a greatly reduced see of York, to which Bosa was appointed bishop. He was himself removed in 687 and replaced by Wilfrid, but in 691 Wilfrid was once more ejected and Bosa returned to the see. He died in about 705, and subsequently appears as a saint in an 8th-century liturgical calendar.

Life

Bosa was a Northumbrian, educated at Whitby Abbey under the abbess Hilda.^[1] He subsequently joined the monastery as a monk,^[2] and became one of five men educated at Whitby who went on to become bishops.^{[3][lower-alpha 1]}

In 678, after Wilfrid was removed from the bishopric of York and banished from Northumbria,^[1] the diocese of York was divided into three.^[4] Bosa was appointed to the now greatly reduced diocese of York,^[1] which included the sub-kingdom of Deira,^[2] thanks to the support of King Ecgfrith of Northumbria and Theodore of Tarsus, the Archbishop of Canterbury.^{[1][lower-alpha 2]} Bosa was consecrated in his cathedral at York in 678 by Theodore,^[2][4] but Wilfrid declared that he was unable to work with Bosa because he did not consider him to be a member of the Catholic Church.^[5] Bosa's episcopate lasted nine years, but with Wilfrid back in favour, in 687 Bosa was removed just as his predecessor had been.^[1] He returned to York in 691,^[6] after Wilfrid was once again expelled.^[1] While bishop, Bosa introduced a communal life for the clergy of the cathedral, and set up a continuous liturgy in the cathedral.^[2]

Death and legacy

The date of Bosa's death is unknown;^[7] he was still alive in 704 but must have died before 706, when his successor was named.^[8] His successor at York was John of Beverley, the Bishop of Hexham.^[9] A contemporary writer, Bede, praised Bosa as a man of "singular merit and sanctity".^[10] Bede also praised Bosa's humility.^[11] Bosa was also responsible for the early education of Acca, later Bishop of Hexham, who grew up in his household.^[12]

Bosa appears as a saint in an 8th-century liturgical calendar from York, the only sign that he was venerated as a saint before the Norman Conquest of England.^[13] The 16th-century English antiquary John Leland included Bosa in his list of saint's resting places in England, giving it as York.^[13][14] Bosa's feast day is 9 March.^[15]

Notes

1. The other four were Oftfor, Ætla, John of Beverley, and Wilfrid II.^[3]
2. Theodore initially split the diocese into two bishoprics; the newly created Bernicia was given to Eata, while Bosa became bishop of the greatly reduced diocese of York. Bernicia had two episcopal sees, one at Hexham and the other at Lindisfarne. Eata was bishop of the whole of Bernicia for three years, after which Bernicia was itself divided: the see of Hexham was assigned to Trumbert, and Lindisfarne to Eata.^[2]

Citations

1. Thacker "Bosa (St Bosa)" Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
2. Stenton Anglo Saxon England pp. 135–136
3. Blair World of Bede p. 148
4. Brooks Early History of the Church of Canterbury pp. 75–76
5. Kirby Earliest English Kings p. 91
6. Fryde, et al. Handbook of British Chronology p. 224
7. Kirby Earliest English Kings p. 120
8. Palliser "John of Beverley (St John of Beverley)" Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
9. Higham (Re-)Reading Bede pp. 59–60
10. Quoted in Higham (Re-)Reading Bede p. 159
11. Higham (Re-)Reading Bede p. 174
12. Higham (Re-)Reading Bede p. 180
13. Blair "Handlist of Anglo-Saxon Saints" Local Saints and Local Churches p. 518
14. Blair "Saint for Every Minster?" Local Saints and Local Churches pp. 487–489
15. Farmer Oxford Dictionary of Saints p. 71

References

• Blair, John (2002). "A Handlist of Anglo-Saxon Saints". In Thacker, Alan and Sharpe, Richard. Local Saints and Local Churches in the Early Medieval West. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. pp. 495–565. ISBN 0-19-820394-2.
• Blair, John (2002). "A Saint for Every Minster? Local Cults in Anglo-Saxon England". In Thacker, Alan and Sharpe, Richard. Local Saints and Local Churches in the Early Medieval West. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. pp. 455–494. ISBN 0-19-820394-2.
• Blair, Peter Hunter (1990) [1970]. The World of Bede (Reprint ed.). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-39819-3.
• Brooks, Nicholas (1984). The Early History of the Church of Canterbury: Christ Church from 597 to 1066. London: Leicester University Press. ISBN 0-7185-0041-5.
• Farmer, David Hugh (2004). Oxford Dictionary of Saints (Fifth ed.). Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-860949-0.
• Fryde, E. B.; Greenway, D. E.; Porter, S.; Roy, I. (1996). Handbook of British Chronology (Third revised ed.). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-56350-X.
• Higham, N. J. (2006). (Re-)Reading Bede: The Ecclesiastical History in Context. New York: Routledge. ISBN 0-415-35368-8.
• Kirby, D. P. (2000). The Earliest English Kings. New York: Routledge. ISBN 0-415-24211-8.
• Lapidge, Michael (2001). "Bosa". In Lapidge, Michael; Blair, John; Keynes, Simon; Scragg, Donald. The Blackwell Encyclopaedia of Anglo-Saxon England. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing. p. 71. ISBN 978-0-631-22492-1.
• Palliser, D. M. (2004). "John of Beverley (St John of Beverley) (d. 721)" ((subscription or UK public library membership required)). Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/14845. Retrieved 16 July 2012.
• Stenton, F. M. (1971). Anglo-Saxon England (Third ed.). Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-280139-5.
• Thacker, Alan (2004). "Bosa (St Bosa) (d. 706)" ((subscription or UK public library membership required)). Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/2926. Retrieved 9 November 2007.

External links

• Bosa 1 at Prosopography of Anglo-Saxon England