Lives Of The Saints

December 4

St. Osmund of Salisbury

Quick answer

At a glance

What it is
St. Osmund of Salisbury: Osmund was a bishop-builder and organizer whose sanctity was quiet, disciplined, and bookish rather than dramatic.
Feast
December 4
Source
Butler's Lives of the Saints, Volume IV (October-November-December), December 4, St Osmund, Bishop of Salisbury, Christian Classics 1990, pp. 492-493. Read the source standards.
Colored statue of Saint Osmund of Salisbury

Saint Osmund colored statue

Brief life

Osmund was a Norman churchman of rank and responsibility who came to England with the Conquest, served as royal chancellor, and then became bishop of Salisbury. At Old Sarum he completed the cathedral, formed its chapter on a disciplined model, fostered a clergy school, and helped bring order to the liturgical books and ceremonies that later became famous as the Sarum Use throughout much of England.

His weakness in the investiture struggle, when he sided with the king against St. Anselm, is not concealed; but he repented of that judgment before his death. The life is therefore not only one of church building and organization, but of humility enough to acknowledge a serious mistake.

Historical note

This life uses St. Osmund because Butler gives him a firmer and more substantial historical life than several of the thinner or more legendary notices on the same date.

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