Oswald was a nephew of St Odo, Archbishop of Canterbury, and of Osketill, who was bishop first of Dorchester and then of York. Odo educated him, and he became a canon and then dean of Winchester. He then took the monastic habit at the abbey of Fleury in France. Odo called him back to England, where he won the favour of St Dunstan, who recommended him to King Edgar, and on the king's orders he was chosen Bishop of Worcester around 959.

One of his first acts was to settle twelve monks at Westbury. He went on to build Ramsey Abbey on an island in Ramsey Mere. A council in 969 ordered the clergy either to live unmarried or to give up their cures, and Oswald and Ethelwold of Winchester were charged with enforcing it. Oswald was later made Archbishop of York without giving up Worcester. He founded a Benedictine (monks following the Rule of St. Benedict) monastery of the Mother of God at Worcester, and its church became the cathedral.

Every day he washed the feet of twelve poor men and then fed them. On the Tuesday after the third Sunday of Lent, 29 February, he was doing this as usual. He dried the feet of the last poor man, bent to kiss them, said 'Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost,' and quietly died. He was buried at Worcester. Ten years later his successor Adulph moved his remains to York.

He was educated by S. Odo, and made first canon and then dean of Winchester, but he took the monastic habit in the abbey of Fleury, in France, and was recalled by S. Odo to England, where he found favour with S. Dunstan, who commended him to king Edgar, and, by his command, he was chosen bishop of Worcester, about the year 959.

Archbishop of York, d. on 29 February, 992. Of Danish parentage, Oswald was brought up by his uncle Odo, Archbishop of Canterbury, and instructed by Fridegode. For some time he was dean of the house of the secular canons at Winchester, but led by the desire of a stricter life he entered the Benedictine [monks following the Rule of St. Benedict] Monastery of Fleury, where Odo himself had received the monastic habit. He was ordained there and in 959 returned to England betaking himself to his kinsman Oskytel, then Archbishop of York. He took an active part in ecclesiastical affairs at York until St. Dunstan procured his appointment to the See of Worcester. He was consecrated by St. Dunstan in 962. Oswald was an ardent supporter of Dunstan in his efforts to purify the Church from abuses, and aided by King Edgar he carried out his policy of replacing by communities the canons who held monastic possessions. Edgar gave the monasteries of St. Albans, Ely, and Benfleet to Oswald, who established monks at Westbury (983), Pershore (984), at Winchelcumbe (985), and at Worcester, and re-established Ripon. But his most famous foundation was that of Ramsey in Huntingdonshire, the church of which was dedicated in 974, and again after an accident in 991. In 972 by the joint action of St. Dunstan and Edgar, Oswald was made Archbishop of York, and journeyed to Rome to receive the pallium [a woolen band the pope gives to archbishops as a sign of their authority] from John XIII. He retained, however, with the sanction of the pope, jurisdiction over the diocese of Worcester where he frequently resided in order to foster his monastic reforms (Eadmer, 203). On Edgar's death in 975, his work, hitherto so successful, received a severe check at the hands of Elfhere, King of Mercia [the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of the English Midlands], who broke up many communities. Ramsey, however, was spared, owing to the powerful patronage of Ethelwin, Earl of East Anglia. Whilst Archbishop of York, Oswald collected from the ruins of Ripon the relics [the bodily remains of a saint, or objects they used, kept with honor] of the saints, some of which were conveyed to Worcester. He died in the act of washing the feet of the poor, as was his daily custom during Lent [the forty days of fasting before Easter], and was buried in the Church of St. Mary at Worcester. Oswald used a gentler policy than his colleague Ethelwold and always refrained from violent measures. He greatly valued and promoted learning amongst the clergy and induced many scholars to come from Fleury. He wrote two treatises and some synodal decrees. His feast is celebrated on 28 February.

Historians of York in Rolls Series, 3 vols.; see Introductions by RAINE. The anonymous and contemporary life of the monk of Ramsey, I, 399-475, and EADMER, Life and Miracles, II, 1-59 (also in P.L., CLIX) are the best authorities; the lives by SENATUS and two others in vol. II are of little value; Acta SS., Feb., III, 752; Acta O.S.B. (Venice, 1733), saec. v, 728; WRIGHT, Biog. Lit., I (London, 1846), 462; TYNEMOUTH and CAPGRAVE, ed. HORSTMAN, II (Oxford, 1901), 252; HUNT, Hist. of the English Church from 597-1066 (London, 1899); IDEM in Dict. of Nat. Biog., s.v.; LINGARD, Anglo-Saxon Church (London, 1845).