Centwine of Wessex

Centwine of Wessex was king of Wessex from about 676 until 685 or 686, in Anglo-⁠Saxon England. Our sources present him as a king and warrior, not as a saint, and mention no veneration, feast day or miracles; so we cannot say that he is venerated as a saint.

He was the son of Cynegils, the first Christian king of the West Saxons, and brother of Cenwalh; he succeeded Æscwine. According to Bede, after the death of Cenwalh the kingdom went through a decade of troubles, and Centwine seems to have put an end to the divisions. The Anglo-⁠Saxon Chronicle says that in 682 he drove the Britons back to the sea. He was the father of Saint Edburga, third abbess of Minster-⁠in-⁠Thanet, in Kent, from 716 to 751. According to some sources he died in 685, while according to others in that year he only abdicated, entering the clergy.