Rumwold of Buckingham

Saint Rumwold of Buckingham is an infant saint of Anglo-⁠Saxon England who, according to tradition, lived for only three days, in the year 662. The story of his life says that he professed the Christian faith as soon as he was born, asked for baptism and delivered a sermon before he fell asleep. He is commemorated on 3 November.

His life according to tradition

The only account of him is an eleventh-⁠century Latin life, the Vita Sancti Rumwoldi. It says that he was the grandson, through his mother, of Penda, the pagan king of Mercia, and the son of a king of Northumbria. His parents are not named, and scholars have proposed several identifications, none of them without difficulty.

His mother, a pious Christian married to a pagan king, said she would not live with him as his wife until he accepted the Christian faith. The king was baptized, and she conceived. When the time of the birth drew near, Penda summoned them to his court, but the child was born on the way, in a field belonging to the royal estate of Mercia, near Kings Sutton in Northamptonshire.

The account tells that as soon as he was born the infant cried out three times that he was a Christian. He then asked to be baptized and to be named Rumwold. He was baptized at a nearby church by Bishop Widerin, delivered a sermon, foretold his death and said that he wished to be buried at Buckingham.

Veneration

A chapel was built in the field where he was born. The church at Kings Sutton keeps an ancient font said to be the one in which he was baptized. Custom ties two holy wells to his name, one near Kings Sutton and one at Buckingham, where his relics lay. Churches dedicated to him largely follow the mission of Saint Wilfrid and were found as far as North Yorkshire, Lincoln, Essex and Dorset. At least four survive, among them the church at Pentridge in Dorset.

At Boxley Abbey in Kent a statue of him was kept in the Middle Ages. It was small and so light that a child could lift it, yet at times it became so heavy that strong men could not move it. It was believed that only one who had never sinned could lift it. When the monasteries were dissolved in England it was discovered that the statue was held or released by a wooden pin worked secretly by someone behind it.

In 2005 a commemorative plaque was placed on the former church of Saint Rumwold in Lincoln, and streets bearing his name are found in Lincoln and Buckingham. His name is also written Rumbold, Rumwald or Rumbald, and he should not be confused with Saint Rumold of Mechelen.