Saint Berenwald

Saint Berenwald, also known as Byrnwald and Beornwald, was an 8th-century priest. He is venerated in Bampton, and his feast day is December 21. A royal charter from 1069 mentions a grant to "the holy man of Bampton and the community." His cult in Bampton was recorded in an early 12th-century martyrology, where he is listed as a confessor. A 15th-century work lists him as a priest and martyr. He is likely the same saint as Saint Byrnwold, who appears as a confessor in the early 11th-century Leominster litanies. References to his veneration in Bampton appear occasionally until the Reformation. Possible 14th-century fragments of a reliquary are preserved in the north transept of the parish church.