During the latter years of the Roman occupation there must have been many among the Roman soldiers stationed in Cheshire who had heard the message of the Gospel, and, following the example of their emperors, professed the faith of Christ. But, as we have before stated, there is no proof that a Christian church existed in Cheshire in those days, though tradition says that where the cathedral church of Chester now stands there was a church dedicated to S. Peter and S. Paul, which had previously been a temple of Apollo. In Wales and Ireland the Church flourished greatly through the troublous period of the Anglo-Saxon invasions. We are told that Kentigern, the first bishop of Glasgow, on his return to Wales landed in Wirral and founded a church there. In the previous chapter we have seen that at Bangor-Iscoed on the Dee there was a monastery of great importance, which after the victory of Aethelfrith of Northumbria was razed to the ground. Yet it was from Northumbria that Christianity was destined to be brought and preached to the Angles and Saxons of Cheshire. Oswald, the son of the heathen Aethelfrith, had during his exile in Scotland been converted by Celtic missionaries. During the reign of this 'most Christian king, a man dearly beloved of God, and fenced with the faith of Christ', missionaries from Scotland 'began with great and fervent devotion to preach the word of faith to those provinces which King Oswald governed, baptising all such as believed. Therefore churches were builded in places convenient: the people rejoicing assembled together to hear the word of God,' The ancient churches dedicated to S. Oswald at Chester, Malpas, Brereton, Peover, Bidston, and Worleston, are proof of the great part played by King Oswald in the conversion of Cheshire and of the high repute in which he was held as a champion of Christianity. The tiny hamlet of Chadkirk near Marple suggests to us a famous missionary who lived at a time when Cheshire had become part of the kingdom of Mercia. This was Ceadda or Chad, who was sent by the Irish saint Colomba to preach the gospel to the people of Mercia, and became in later times the patron saint of the bishopric of Mercia, founded by King Offa. Chad, who like Oswald had received Christianity from the Celtic missionaries of North Britain, continued the good work of the Northumbrian missionaries. At the village of Over were formerly two stone crosses which may well mark the spots where Chad preached to the Saxons of Cheshire, baptizing the converts in the river Weaver that flows hard by. The old church of Over is dedicated to him, as are also the churches of Farndon and Wybunbury. It is worthy of note that all the Cheshire churches named after him were built on the banks of streams, which leads us to suppose that S. Chad, like S. John the Baptist by the banks of Jordan, chose places where his preaching might be immediately followed by the ceremony of baptism.