ST ALCMUND, BISHOP - 7 SEPTEMBER

 

ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN SEPTEMBER

Saints celebrated on the 7th of September

Prayer to the Angels and the Saints

Heavenly Father, in praising Your Angels and Saints we praise Your glory, for by honouring them we honour You, their Creator. Their splendour shows us Your greatness, which infinitely surpasses that of all creation.

In Your loving providence, You saw fit to send Your Angels to watch over us. Grant that we may always be under their protection and one day enjoy their company in heaven.

Heavenly Father, You are glorified in Your Saints, for their glory is the crowning of Your gifts. You provide an example for us by their lives on earth, You give us their friendship by our communion with them, You grant us strength and protection through their prayer for the Church, and You spur us on to victory over evil and the prize of eternal glory by this great company of witnesses.

Grant that we who aspire to take part in their joy may be filled with the Spirit that blessed their lives, so that, after sharing their faith on earth, we may also experience their peace in heaven. Amen.

ST ALCMUND, BISHOP 

Saint Alcmund (Alchmund) was Bishop of Hexham; he died 781. He was regarded with much veneration at Hexham in Northumberland. 

A LIFE OF REMARKABLE PIETY

The church founded by St Wilfrid at Hexham became an episcopal see, and Alcmund, succeeding as bishop, in 767, led a life of remarkable piety until his death, September 7, 781. He was buried beside St Acca outside the church. 

HE WAS BURIED BESIDE ST ACCA 

About two and a half centuries later, after the country had been laid waste by the Danes, all memory of his tomb seemed to have perished, but the Saint is said to have appeared in a vision to a man of Hexham bidding him toll Alured, or Alfred (Alveredus), sacrist of Durham, to have his body translated. 

HE APPEARED IN A VISION

Alured obeyed and, having discovered and exhumed the Saint’s remains, stole one of the bones to take back with him to Durham, but it was found that the shrine could not be moved by any strength of man until the bone was restored. 

THE SHRINE COULD NOT BE E MOVED UNTIL THE BONE WAS RESTORED

In 1154, the church having again been laid waste, the building was restored, and the bones of the Hexham saints, those of Alcmund among the rest, were gathered into one shrine. The whole, however, was finally pillaged and destroyed by the Scots in a border raid, A.D. 1296. 

(From Catholic Encyclopedia, 1913)