December 4
Saint Osmund was a member of the Norman (French) nobility, who conquered England in 1066. He took part in this conquest and became chancellor to King William the Conqueror of England. In 1078, he was appointed bishop of Salisbury. He completed the cathedral there and founded a chapter of canons regular (to staff the cathedral and pray the Divine Office) and a school for clerics. Osmund assisted the king in compiling what is now called the Domesday Book, a massive census of the entire country. Osmund collected manuscripts for the cathedral library, copied and bound books, wrote Life of Saint Aldhelm, and drew up the liturgical books for the Mass and Divine Office, called the Sarum Use books. He was canonized in 1457 by Pope Callistus III. He was the last English person to be declared a saint until the canonizations of Saints Thomas More and John Fisher in 1935.
(image © Giogo, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons)