Cælin was one of four brothers named by

Bede Bede (; ; 672/326 May 735), also known as Saint Bede, Bede of Jarrow, the Venerable Bede, and Bede the Venerable (), was an English monk, author and scholar. He was one of the most known writers during the Early Middle Ages, and his most f ...

as active in the early Anglo-Saxon Church. The others were

Cedd Cedd (; 620 – 26 October 664) was an Anglo-Saxon monk and bishop from the Kingdom of Northumbria. He was an evangelist of the Middle Angles and East Saxons in England and a significant participant in the Synod of Whitby, a meeting which r ...

Chad Chad, officially the Republic of Chad, is a landlocked country at the crossroads of North Africa, North and Central Africa. It is bordered by Libya to Chad–Libya border, the north, Sudan to Chad–Sudan border, the east, the Central Afric ...

, and

Cynibil Cynibil was one of four Northumbrian brothers named by Bede as prominent in the early Anglo-Saxon Church. The others were Chad of Mercia, Cedd and Caelin. Bede comments on how unusual it would be for four brothers to become priests and two of th ...

. The name Caelin is a spelling variant of the name of a West Saxon king Ceawlin, and is of Celtic rather than Anglo-Saxon derivation.Ward-Perkins, B., ''Why did the Anglo-Saxons not become more British?'' ''The English Historical Review'' 115.462 (June 2000): p. 513. Bede portrays Cælin as a chaplain at the court of Ethelwald, a nephew of King

Oswiu of Northumbria Oswiu, also known as Oswy or Oswig (; c. 612 – 15 February 670), was King of Bernicia from 642 and of Northumbria from 654 until his death. He is notable for his role at the Synod of Whitby in 664, which ultimately brought the church in Northu ...

. Ethelwald was appointed to administer the coastal area of

Deira Deira ( ; Old Welsh/ or ; or ) was an area of Post-Roman Britain, and a later Anglian kingdom. Etymology The name of the kingdom is of Brythonic origin, and is derived from the Proto-Celtic , meaning 'oak' ( in modern Welsh), in which case ...

. It was on the initiative of Cælin that Ethelwald donated land for the building of a monastery at

Lastingham Lastingham is a village and civil parishes in England, civil parish in North Yorkshire, England. It is on the southern fringe of the North York Moors, north-east of Kirkbymoorside, and to the east of Hutton-le-Hole. It was home to the early m ...

in the

North York Moors The North York Moors is an upland area in north-eastern Yorkshire, England. It contains one of the largest expanses of Calluna, heather moorland in the United Kingdom. The area was designated as a national parks of England and Wales, National P ...

. The monastery became a base for Cedd, who was serving as a missionary bishop in Essex, and for Chad, who succeeded him as

abbot Abbot is an ecclesiastical title given to the head of an independent monastery for men in various Western Christian traditions. The name is derived from ''abba'', the Aramaic form of the Hebrew ''ab'', and means "father". The female equivale ...

References

External links

* Anglo-Saxon people 7th-century English people 7th-century Christian clergy Burials at Lastingham Priory {{England-reli-bio-stub