Oswestry’s Patron Saint – King Oswald of Northumbria has his saint’s day on 5th August. It is a very special day this year in Oswestry as we are fortunate enough to have a new Icon, commissioned by Mike Coppock of Rowanthorn, The Icon has been painted by Romanian Iconographer Angela Ludosanu, using the traditional materials, methods and rules of Eastern Christian iconography which go back to the 3rd century and earlier.
The icon as designed is a result of painstaking research into the history, myth and stories associated with King Oswald.
Writings contemporary to the 7th century describe him as having “arms of great length and power, eyes bright blue, hair yellow, face long and beard thin, and his small lips wearing a kindly smile”.
Icons are an important part of Eastern Christian worship, prayer and teaching, and were used across the whole of the Christian world until the Reformation in Western Europe in the 16th century.
Mike Coppock is holding a viewing of the Icon at his shop in Chapel Court in Oswestry on Wednesday 5th August.
Booka Bookshop have an absolutey fascinating book about the historical King Oswald called 'The King in the North' by Max Adams which is well worth reading.
