Osmund, Bishop of Salisbury

16 July -- Commemoration
If celebrated as a Lesser Festival, Common of Bishops, page 483

Born the son of a Norman count, Osmund came to England in the wake of William the Conqueror and was quickly promoted to Chancellor in 1072. Six years later he became Bishop of Salisbury and completed the building of the new cathedral at Old Sarum. He was a scholar and a good administrator but was best loved for his lack of avarice and ambition, traits apparently not common in the new hierarchy of Church and state. He took part in collecting the information for the Domesday Book and was present at Sarum when it was presented to the king in 1086. Osmund died on 4 December 1099 and his remains were translated to the new cathedral in Salisbury on this day in the year 1457.