Saint Osmund
| Osmund | |
|---|---|
| Bishop of Salisbury | |
 |
|
| See | Diocese of Salisbury |
| Appointed | 1078 |
| Term ended | 3 or 4 December 1099 |
| Orders | |
| Consecration | c. 3 June 1078 |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Seez, Normandy |
| Died | 3 or 4 December 1099 Salisbury |
| Sainthood | |
| Feast day | 16 July, 4 December |
| Canonized | 1 January 1457 by Pope Callixtus III |
| Patronage | insanity; mental illness; mentally ill people; paralysed people; paralysis; ruptures; toothache |
| Shrines | Salisbury |
Osmund (Norman: Osmond; died 3 December 1099), Count of Sées, was a Norman noble and clergyman. Following the Norman conquest of England, he served as Lord Chancellor (c. 1070–1078) and as the second bishop of Salisbury, or Old Sarum).
Osmund held an exalted position in Normandy, his native land, and according to a late fifteenth-century document was the son of Henry de Centville, Count of Sées, and Isabella de Conteville, daughter of Robert, Duke of Normandy, who was the father of William the Conqueror (Sarum Charters, 373). He certainly accompanied William to England, proved a trusty counsellor, and was made Chancellor of the realm about 1070. The same document calls him Earl of Dorset. He was employed in many civil transactions and was engaged as one of the Chief Commissioners for drawing up the Domesday Book.
Osmund became bishop of Salisbury by authority of Gregory VII, and was consecrated by Archbishop Lanfranc around 3 June 1078. His diocese comprised the counties of Dorset, Wiltshire, and Berkshire, having absorbed the former bishoprics of Sherborne and Ramsbury under its incumbent Herman at the 1075 Council of London. In his Acts of the English Bishops, William of Malmesbury describes medieval Salisbury as a fortress rather than a city, placed on a high hill, surrounded by a massive wall. Peter of Blois later referred to the castle and church as "the ark of God shut up in the temple of Baal."
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