Thurcytel of Crowland

Saint Thurcytel of Crowland (also spelled Thurkytel) was abbot of Crowland Abbey in England and perhaps also of Bedford Abbey. He died, it seems, on 28 June 975. He is known from the history of Crowland Abbey attributed to Pseudo-⁠Ingulf, an unreliable account full of anachronisms, including the claim that Thurcytel was Lord Chancellor of England. The gist of the account is that he was a kinsman and servitor of several kings of England, from Edward the Elder onwards, that he fought at the battle of Brunanburh, and that under King Eadred he retired from secular life to become abbot of Crowland, which he refounded and endowed with lands and treasures in 948.

He has long been identified with the Thurcytel who was abbot of Bedford at about the same time, a kinsman of Oscytel, archbishop of York, and thus also of Oscytel's successor Oswald of Worcester; but a scholar notes that the case is not clear-⁠cut. He is commemorated on 28 June as a saint of the West before the Great Schism (a saint of the undivided Church), by the New Calendar.