saints of northumbria

Saint Cuthbert (634-687) was a bishop in Northumbria and is regarded as the patron saint of Northumbria (for a bit more on Cuthbert, see one of my posts from last year on the breathtaking Durham Cathedral). And Saint Oswald (604-642) was King of Northumbria and later came to be venerated as a Christian saint. The two saints came to be posthumously associated - they had not been associated in life. Here we see them together in St. Nicholas's Cathedral in Newcastle which dates from the 14th-15th century.

I visited St. Nicholas for the first time last weekend when Susanne was visiting. Same weekend, we spent some 2 hours in the Durham Cathedral, listening to the Evensong and Commemoration of the Battle of Britain - the latter was an interesting "cultural experience"; it was the choir that I really liked. Since St. Nicholas is barely 5-10 minutes away from home, I'm thinking I'll stroll down there and attend Evensong once in a while. Here is a very short piece in The Guardian on the Choral Evensong as one of England's richest traditions.