Catholic - Universal Church ST. OSWALD - 29FEB (d. 29 February 992)

St. Oswald was born into a military family in 10th-century England. He was the nephew of the archbishop of Canterbury. Thearchbishop raised him and fostered his early education. He traveled to France to study andbecame a Benedictine monk. Oswald was appointed bishop of Worcester in 962 and began working hard to promote monastic reform. He continued his monastic reformation when he was appointed archbishop of York in 972. Oswald also founded numerous monasteries, which improved the scholarship and morals of his clergy. He invited great thinkers insuch fields as mathematics and astronomy to share the monastery's learning. He was widely known for his sanctity, especially his love for the poor. At the start of Lent in 992, Oswaldresumed his usual practice of washing the feet of 12 poor men each day. On Leap Year Day, February 29, he died after kissing the feet of the twelfth man. He is remembered as one of threesaints who revived English monasticism. SOURCE: http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/saint.php?n=682 Oswald was of a noble Saxon family; he was endowed with a very rare and handsome appearance and with a singular piety of soul. Brought up by his uncle, Saint Odo, Archbishop of Canterbury, he was chosen, while still young, as dean of the secular canons of Winchester, at that timevery lax. His attempt to reform them was a failure, and he saw, with that infallible instinct which so often guides the Saints in critical times, that the true remedyfor the corruption of the clergy was the restoration of monastic life. He therefore went to France and took the habit of Saint Benedict. When he returned to England it was to receive the news of Odo’s death. He found, however, a new patron in Saint Dunstan, Archbishop of Canterbury, through whose influence he was nominated to the see of Worcester. To these two Saints, together with Ethelwold of Winchester, the monastic revival of the tenth century is mainly due. Oswald’s first care was to deprive of their benefices all disorderly secular clerics, whom he replaced as far as possible by religious priests. He himself founded seven religious houses. Considering thatin the hearts of the secular canons of Winchester there were yet some sparks of virtue, he would not at once dismiss them, but rather reformed them through a holy artifice. Adjoining their cathedral church he built a chapel in honor of the Mother of God, causing it to be served by a body of strict religious. He himself assisted at the divine Office there, and his example was followed by the people. The canons, finding themselves isolated and the church deserted, chose rather to embrace the religious life than continue to injure their own souls, and be also a mockery to their people, through the contrastoffered by their worldliness and the regularity of their religious brethren. Later, as Archbishop of York, SaintOswald met a like success in his efforts. God manifested His approval of his zeal by discoveringto him the relics of his great predecessor at Worcester, Saint Wilfrid, which he reverently translated to the church of that city. He died while washing the feet of the poor, as he did daily during Lent, on February 29, 992. SOURCE: http://www.magnificat.ca/cal/engl/02-8.htm#oswald—