Alcmund of Hexham

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Saint Alcmund of Hexham
Bishop
Born	8th Century
Died	7 September 781, Hexham, Northumberland
Venerated in	Roman Catholic Church; Anglican Communion
Major shrine	Hexham Abbey, Northumberland
Feast	7 September
Saints Portal

Alcmund of Hexham, also spelt Ealhmund, Alhmund or Alchmund (died 7 September 781 AD) became the 7th bishop of the see of Hexham in Northumberland in 767; the see was centred on the church there founded by Saint Wilfrid. Alcmund died in 781 and was buried beside Saint Acca outside the church. Virtually nothing is now known of his life, but he was apparently deeply venerated as one of the Hexham saints.

By the early 11th century, after the Danes had ravaged this part of the country, it seems that his tomb had been entirely forgotten. He is said to have appeared in a vision to Dregmo, a man of Hexham, urging him to tell Alfred, sacrist of Durham, to have his body translated (removed and re-buried as a relic). Alfred did so, but stole one of the bones to take back with him to Durham; the shrine however could not be moved by any strength of man until the bone was replaced.

In 1154, the church, having been ruined again, was again restored, and the bones of the Hexham saints, including Alcmund, were gathered into a single shrine. The Scots however pillaged and finally destroyed both church and shrine in a border raid in 1296.

[edit] See also

Alcmund of Derby

[edit] References

Acta Sanctorum, 7 September, III
Stanton, Richard, English Menology (London, 1892), 438
Dictionary of National Biography, s. v.
Simeon of Durham, and Ælred, On the Saints of Hexham, both in the Rolls Series
Raine, J., The Priory of Hexham (Surtees Society, London, 1864-65)