Eadwold of Cerne ( – 29 August ), also known as Eadwold of East Anglia, was a 9th-century hermit, East Anglian prince and patron saint of Cerne, Dorset, who lived as a hermit on a hill about four miles from Cerne. His feast day is 29 August.
Life
Eadwold was born , the son of Æthelweard of East AngliaEadwold of Cerne and reputed brother of Edmund, king of East Anglia. He left his homeland possibly due to a Viking Invasion, to live as a hermit on a hill about four miles from Cerne, Dorset. William of Malmesbury said he lived on bread and water,Michael Winterbottom, Rodney Malcolm Thomson, William of Malmesbury: Gesta Pontificum Anglorum, The History of the English Bishops : Volume I: Text and Translation: Volume I: Text and Translation (Oxford University Press, 2007) page 291 and worked many miracles. Edwold (Eadwold) of Cerne in The Oxford Dictionary of Saints He is known from the writing of William of Malmesbury and the Hagiographies of St Eadwold of Cerne, by Goscelin of Saint-BertinLicence, Tom. "Goscelin of St. Bertin and the Life of St. Eadwold of Cerne", The Journal of Medieval Latin, vol. 16, 2006, pp. 182–207, JSTOR and also the Secgan.
Veneration
Eadwold died on 29 August , at Cerne and is said to have been buried in his cell, and was later moved to a nearby monastery, dedicated to St Peter. His veneration is credited with making Cerne Abbey the third richest in England during the 11th century.
A 2024 study proposed that the Cerne Abbas Giant was created CE, depicting Hercules, as a muster station for West Saxon armies to gather but that by the 11th century, the figure was being reinterpreted by the monks at the Abbey as portraying Eadwold. Archaeologist Martin Papworth says the image, likely originally clothed, was probably of Eadwold pointing the way to Cerne Abbey.Brown, Marley. "Man of the Moment", Archaeology, September/October 2021
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