Ceatta of Lichfield is an obscure Anglo Saxon saint of the Catholic Church.

Saint Ceatta of Lichfield
Venerated inCatholic Church
CanonizedPre-Congregation
Major shrineLichfield (destroyed)

He is unknown beyond a mention in the 11th-century Old English listing, On the Resting-Places of the Saints. (Secgan be þam Godes sanctum þe on Engla lande ærost reston), which states that St. Chad ("Ceadda"), St. Cedd ("Cedde") and St Ceatta are buried in the monastery at Lichfield.[1][2]

In the Prosopography of Anglo-Saxon England Ceatta shares a listing with Headda of Hereford, alternatively called Ceadda, an 8th-century bishop of Hereford;[3] but this association is not certain. St. Chad floruit in the 7th century around Lichfield in what was the Kingdom of Mercia, and St Cedd was his brother.

Ceatta, is an old English personal name meaning a swamp although a Welsh origin has also be postulated.[4] Alternatively the name may be derived from his association with Chad or his well.[5] It is also possible that he is merely a duplication of St Ceadda.[6]

References edit

  1. ^ Liebermann, Felix (1889). Die Heiligen Englands: Angelsächsisch und Lateinisch (in German). Hanover.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) p. 11, at 6a.
  2. ^ Michelle P. Brown, Carol A. Farr, Mercia: An Anglo-Saxon Kingdom in Europe (Continuum, 2005) page 85
  3. ^ "Headda 13". Prosopography of Anglo-Saxon England. Retrieved 26 January 2016.
  4. ^ Johannes Hoops, Lexicon of Germanic Antiquity, Volume 23 (Walter de Gruyter) p373.
  5. ^ David Horovitz, "A Survey and Analysis of the Place-Names of Staffordshire, Archived 2014-01-02 at the Wayback Machine p560.
  6. ^ Blair, John (2002), "A Handlist of Anglo-Saxon Saints", in Thacker, Alan; Sharpe, Richard, Local Saints and Local Churches in the Early Medieval West, Oxford: Oxford University Press, p.520

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