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Alcmund of Hexham

Our Father among the Saints Alcmund, Bishop of Hexham

Bishop · d. 780/781

Commemorated 7 September — Repose at Hexham

Alcmund (†780/781) was the seventh bishop of Hexham in Northumbria, holding the see of Wilfrid, John of Beverley and Acca from his consecration in 767 until his death on September 7, 780 or 781. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle records his death to the day, and nothing of his acts is recorded beyond the annals of his episcopate; his sanctity is attested instead by his cultus at Hexham, where he was buried beside St Acca, and by the eleventh-century elevation of his relics into the church after — the Durham tradition says — he appeared in a vision commanding it. He is commemorated with his successor Tilbert on September 7.

The surviving record of Alcmund is annalistic, and this Life is accordingly short. He was consecrated bishop of Hexham in 767 — on April 24, by the modern chronologies — in succession to Frithuberht, seventh in the line of bishops that began with Wilfrid and included John of Beverley and Acca. Of his fourteen years in the see nothing is transmitted. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle gives his death in one line: "Alhmund, bishop of Hexham, died on the seventh before the Ides of September" — September 7 — "and Tilbert was consecrated in his place" (annal for 780 in the received text; the modern reference chronologies allow 780 or 781). Baring-Gould states the position plainly: "Nothing is known of their acts."

He was buried outside the east wall of the church at Hexham, near his predecessor Acca. The tradition transmitted under the name of Symeon of Durham relates that some two and a half centuries later, the tomb having been forgotten in the disorders of the Danish wars, the saint appeared in a dream to a man of Hexham (named Dregmo in the received account), bidding him tell the priest Alfred — Alfred son of Westou, the sacrist of Durham — to translate his body to a more honourable place within the church; the same account adds that Alfred kept back a bone for Durham and that the shrine could not be moved until it was restored. Baring-Gould records a translation of the relics of both bishops in the twelfth century, with an account of the miracles then wrought written by a canon of Hexham. After the church was plundered and restored in the mid-twelfth century, the relics of the Hexham saints were gathered into a common shrine; shrine and church were destroyed in the Scottish raid of 1296.

Feast and commemoration

September 7 (Old Calendar civil September 20), the day of his repose as the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle records it. The St Constantine York calendar (the Antiochian GB&I witness) commemorates him jointly with his successor: "SS. Alcmund (781) and Tilbert (789), bishops of Hexham." The Romanian Orthodox Archdiocese of Great Britain and Northern Ireland keeps both bishops on the same day. Orthodox England lists him at September 7, and Baring-Gould notes the pair at this day from the Benedictine martyrologies of Menardus and Bucelinus. He is not in the Greek or Slavonic liturgical books, and no OCA commemoration was found.

Iconography

No early depiction of Alcmund is known, and no verified image of the saint was found for this collection. He would be painted as a Northumbrian hierarch in episcopal vestments; the medieval shrine at Hexham that held his relics was destroyed in 1296.

Disputed questions

  • Year of death: 780 or 781. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle annal, Baring-Gould and the 1903 Hexham parish account give 780; the York calendar, Orthodox England and the Romanian Archdiocese notice give 781; the modern reference chronologies print "780 or 781" (the Northumbrian annals' year-reckoning is the difficulty). The day, September 7, is not in dispute.
  • Not to be confused with Alcmund (Alkmund) of Derby, a martyred prince of Northumbria (†c. 800), commemorated March 19 — a different saint of the same name, venerated at Lilleshall and Derby.

Sources

  1. St Constantine York, Calendar of Saints and Readings (ICS feed), retrieved 2026-07-29 — the GB&I witness for the commemoration and date.
  2. Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, annal for 780 (tr. J. A. Giles, public domain): "Alhmund, bishop of Hexham, died on the seventh before the Ides of September, and Tilbert was consecrated in his place on the sixth before the Nones of October."
  3. Orthodox England (Fr Andrew Phillips), saints list, s.v. "Alcmund, Sept 7" (via the Wayback Machine, retrieved 2026-07-29): "†781. The seventh Bishop of Hexham in England."
  4. S. Baring-Gould, Lives of the Saints, vol. X (September), September 7, "SS. Alkmund and Gilbert, BB." — consecration 767, death September 7, 780; the Benedictine martyrology witness; the twelfth-century translation and the canon of Hexham's miracle account; "Nothing is known of their acts."
  5. Romanian Orthodox Archdiocese of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (roarch.org.uk), "Sts. Alcmund and Tilbert, Bishops of Hexham" — the consecration date April 24, 767; burial beside Acca; the vision and translation account attributed to Symeon of Durham; the 1154 gathering of the relics and their destruction in 1296.
  6. J. W. Fawcett, "Bishops of the Ancient See of Hexham," Hexham Parish Magazine, April 1903 (via the Hexham Abbey heritage pages) — the consecration and burial details from the chronicle tradition.
  7. The underlying medieval witnesses — Symeon of Durham, Roger of Howden, and the Hexham canon's translation narrative (Ailred of Rievaulx's circle) — were not consulted directly; they are known to this entry through sources 3–6, and Wikipedia ("Alchmund of Hexham") was used as a lead only.