Unwona


Unwona was a medieval Bishop of Leicester.
Unwona was consecrated between 781 and 785. He died between 801 and 803.
Unwona appears as a witness to records of ecclesiastical councils and Mercian royal charters twenty times between 785 and around 800. Unwona's name is rare or even unique among Anglo-Saxon names, and seems to derive from Old English wana, and to mean 'not lacking'. It is possible that he was the addressee of a letter sent in 797 by Alcuin of York to one 'Speratus'; the letter includes Alcuin's most famous injunction: 'verba Dei legantur in sacerdotali convivio: ibi decet lectorem audiri, non citharistam, sermones patrum, non carmina gentilium. Quid Hinieldus cum Christo?'.

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