Out of the mouth of babes

                                               St.Rumwold of Buckingham


A unusual saint to say the least . While many saints will sometimes show a liking toward the things of God at a early age, for example Thérèse of Lisieux  , or perhaps after a rebellious youth turn to God , St. Augustin of Hippo being the perfect example of this . This saint has none of that .

 He is ,to this parent of 2 young girls ,a great hope and encouragement that God can install his tranforming grace at even at the earliest times in our lives . For you see ,St. Rumwold begin from day one of his life proclaiming and confessing and preaching the truth of Jesus our Lord and remained steadfast in that faith  until his death some 2 days later . I do not say steadfast as a joke , for to remain even a hour in perfect love and devotion with our God is a great Grace that we must never underappreciate .

This may seem well , fantastic and a fable to tell ourselves .A nice bedtime story to tell our children so that they do what is right and abhor that which is wrong . But is anything too hard for God ? This same God who  from nothing caused and upholds all that we see to exist , The same God who made a  simple donkey rebuke Balaam for his errors .The same God who saves even the vilest of sinners even in our own day and time .

No nothing is too hard for our God . Our Lord and Shephard tells us after some reprimanded those who praised him that

"I tell you,” he replied,

“if they( the crowd , the children )  keep quiet, the stones will cry out.” ( Luke 19:40)

and again He receives  criticism from those who wished him evil for receiving the praise from the children who  proclaimed : 

 "Hosanna to the Son of David " he says Do You hear what these children are saying?” And Jesus said to them, “Yes; have you never read, ‘“Out of the mouth of infants and nursing babies you have prepared praise’( Matthew 21:16 )

Here is our Saints story :

    Rumwold's mother, St. Cyneburga , was described as a pious Christian who, when married to the pagan king Alchfrid of Northumbrai, tells him that she will not consummate the marriage until he converts to Christianity; he does so, and she soon becomes pregnant. The two are called by Penda of Mercia ( a pagan , and also Rumwold's grandfather ) to come to him when the time of her birth is near, but she gives birth during the journey, and immediately after being born the infant is said to have cried out:

"Christianus sum, christianus sum, christianus sum" ("I am a Christian, I am a Christian, I am a Christian").

He went on to further profess his faith by reciting the Creed, to request baptism, and to ask to be named "Rumwold", afterwards giving a sermon on the Trinity . He predicted his own death, and said where he wanted his body to be laid to rest, in Buckingham

Later in 1262 a Sir Alured was chastised by the saint for swearing on his wedding day . Alured repented and cleaned up his language. However, at a royal feast some ice cream made his tooth ache, which caused him to curse with much gusto. Romwold suddenly appeared in a window, and Sir Alured’s bride disappeared in a puff of perfume, leaving behind her clothes.