Aldate

Saint Eldad (Aldate) was a bishop, according to tradition of the city of Caer Gloui (modern Gloucester), and died in the year 577, probably killed by the Anglo-⁠Saxons at the battle of Deorham. He is venerated as a saint in the Catholic Church, with a commemoration on 4 February, and in the Orthodox Church.

According to the Russian source, Eldad was the son of Arth, son of Arthog the Freckled, son of Cunedda Cornu. His life is not known historically in detail. He was probably a Briton killed by the Anglo-⁠Saxons at Deorham. It is reported that he roused the country people to resist pagan invasions. The historian David Farmer, however, writes that nothing seems to be known of him, and it has even been suggested, unconvincingly, that his name is a corruption of a word meaning old gate.

Eldad is mentioned in the Sarum and other martyrologies. His feast appears in a Gloucester calendar, as a fourteenth-⁠century addition. Churches were dedicated to him at Gloucester and at Oxford, and a well-⁠known street in Oxford, St Aldate's, and a smaller one in Gloucester bear his name. So do a tavern, a bed-⁠and-⁠breakfast belonging to Christ Church, and a room in the Oxford Town Hall.