Beornwald

Saint Beornwald was a priest, and our source calls him a hieromartyr. He is thought to have lived in the eighth century. Before the Reformation he was venerated in the village of Bampton near Oxford, in England. He is commemorated on 21 December.

His name also appears as Berenwald or Byrnwald. His relics lie in the north transept of the church at Bampton. The place is marked by a plaque on which the saint is shown in vestments, with a staff but without a mitre. About the manner of his death the sources say nothing.

His name is written in litanies of the eleventh century and in martyrologies of the twelfth and fifteenth. There is other evidence of his existence, but it brings no further details. It is possible that he founded the great Mercian church at Bampton. We know of no formal act of canonization.