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Saint Aldate

Saint Aldate (/ˈɔːldt/; Old Welsh, Eldad; died 577) was a bishop of Gloucester, venerated as a saint in the Roman Catholic Church with the feast day of 4 February, and the Eastern Orthodox Church. Aldate's life is not detailed historically, but he was probably a Briton killed by the Anglo-Saxons at Deorham.[1]

He is reported to have roused the countryside to resist pagan invasion forces, but nothing seems to be known of him: it was even suggested that his name was a corruption of "old gate".[1]

Veneration

Aldate is mentioned in the Sarum and other martyrologies; his feast occurs in a Gloucester calendar (14th-century addition); churches were dedicated to him at Gloucester[2] and Oxford,[3] as well as a famous Oxford street: St Aldate's, Oxford[4] and a minor street in Gloucester. There is also a St Aldate's Tavern,[5] a bed-and-breakfast, as a annex to Christ Church,[6] and a room at the Oxford Town Hall.[7]

He is also venerated as a saint in the Eastern Orthodox Church.[8]

References

  • Baring-Gould and Fisher, ii. 426–8; Early British Kingdoms after 1100, ii. 40