Alphege
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Saint Alphege | |
|---|---|
 The painted carving of the martyrdom of Saint Alphege, in Canterbury Cathedral |
|
| Bishop and Martyr | |
| Born | 954, Weston, Somerset, England |
| Died | 19 April 1012, Greenwich, Kent, England |
| Venerated in | Roman Catholic Church; Anglican Communion |
| Canonized | 1078, Rome by Pope Gregory VII |
| Major shrine | Canterbury Cathedral |
| Feast | 19 April |
| Attributes | Archbishop holding an axe |
| Patronage | Greenwich; Solihull; kidnap victims |
| Saint Alphege | |
| Archbishop of Canterbury | |
| Consecration | 1006 |
|---|---|
| Enthroned | unknown |
| Ended | 19 April 1012 |
| Predecessor | Ælfric of Abingdon |
| Successor | Lyfing |
| Birth name | Ælfheah |
| Born | 954 |
| Died | 19 April 1012 |
| Buried | Canterbury Cathedral |
Saint Alphege (also spelt "Alfege") is the commonly used name for Ælfheah (954 – 19 April 1012), an Anglo-Saxon Bishop of Winchester and subsequent Archbishop of Canterbury. Noble-born, he became an anchorite before being elected abbot of Bath Abbey. His piety and sanctity led to his promotion to the episcopate, and eventually becoming archbishop. Alphege was responsible for furthering the cult of Saint Dunstan and he also encouraged learning. In 1011 St Alphege was captured by Viking raiders, and after refusing to be ransomed, was murdered in 1012. Later Alphege was regarded as a saint, and it was to Saint Alphege that Saint Thomas Becket prayed to just before he was slain.
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[edit] Life
St Alphege was born in Weston in Somerset, to a noble family, but in early life became a monk. He first entered the monastery of Deerhurst, but then he moved to Bath, where he became an anchorite. Eventually he was named abbot of Bath Abbey, noted for his piety and austerity.[1] Dunstan's influence probably secured his election in 984 to the Bishopric of Winchester.[2][3] While bishop of Winchester, he was largely responsible for the building of a large organ that was audible over a mile away from the cathedral and said to require more than twenty-four men to operate. He also built and enlarged the city's churches.[4] After a Viking raid in 994, a peace treaty was arranged with Olaf Tryggvason in which not only danegeld was paid to Olaf, but Olaf was converted to Christianity.[5] In the treaty, Olaf also agreed to not raid or fight the English ever again.[6] There are indications that Alphege had a hand in negotiating the treaty, and it is certain that it was Alphege that confirmed Olaf in his new faith.[7]
In 1006, he succeeded Aelfric as Archbishop of Canterbury.[8][9] He went to Rome in 1007, and was robbed while on his journey.[10] While at Canterbury, he furthered the cult of Saint Dunstan,[7] and he ordered the writing of the second Life of Dunstan, composed by Adelard between 1006 and 1011.[11] As well, he introduced new practices into the liturgy. He also brought Saint Swithun's head to Canterbury with him as a relic.[7] Alphege also was behind the recognition of Wulfsige of Sherborne as a saint by the Witenagemot in about 1012.[12]
It was Alphege who sent Ælfric of Eynsham to Cerne Abbey to be in charge of the monastic school there.[13] Alphege was present at the council of May 1008 where Wulfstan II, Archbishop of York preached his sermon Sermo Lupi ad Anglos or The Sermon of the Wolf to the English, which castigated the English for their moral failings and blamed those failings for the tribulations that were afflicting the country.[14]
In 1011 the Danes once more raided into England, and from 8 September to 29 September they laid siege to Canterbury. The invaders eventually sacked the city through the treachery of a man named Ælfmaer, who had once been saved by Alphege.[15] During the sack, Alphege was captured and kept in captivity for seven months.[16] Captured along with him were Godwine, Bishop of Rochester, Leofrun, abbess of St Mildrith's, and the king's reeve Ælfweard. Ælfmaer, abbot of St Augustine's Abbey managed to escape.[15] Alphege refused to allow a ransom to be paid, and he was murdered at Greenwich, Kent[16] (now London), reputedly on the site of St Alfege's Church there, on 19 April 1012.[8][9]
[edit] Death
An account of Alphege's death appears in The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle:
. . . for there was wine brought them from the south. Then took they the bishop . . . on the eve of the Sunday after Easter . . . They overwhelmed him with bones and horns of oxen; and one of them smote him with an axe-iron on the head; so that he sunk downwards with the blow; and his holy blood fell on the earth, whilst his sacred soul was sent to the realm of God.[17]
After Alphege's capture, the cathedral at Canterbury was plundered and burned by the Danes.[18]
St Alphege was the first Archbishop of Canterbury to die violently.[19] Thorkell the Tall is alleged in a contemporary report to have been present and to have tried to bribe the mob with all his belongings and loot, except his ship, to spare Alphege, but the Anglo Saxon Chronicle does not mention his presence.[20] Some sources record the final blow, with the back of an axe, as being dealt by one Thrum as an act of kindness by a Christian convert. He was buried in St Paul's Cathedral,[21] but his body was removed by King Canute to Canterbury, with great ceremony in 1023.[22][23] After Alphege's death, Thorkell the Tall was appalled at the brutality of his fellow raiders and switched sides to the English king Ethelred the Unready.[21][24]
[edit] Veneration
St Alphege was canonized in the year 1078 by Pope Gregory VII with a feast day of 19 April.[25] Along with Augustine of Canterbury, Alphege was the only pre-Conquest Anglo-Saxon archbishop of Canterbury who Lanfranc kept on the calendar of saints at Canterbury.[26] His shrine, which was neglected by Lanfranc, was rebuilt and expanded under St Anselm of Canterbury in the early part of the twelfth century.[27] After the fire in Canterbury Cathedral in 1174, Alphege's remains were placed, along with Saint Dunstan, around the high altar, where Saint Thomas Becket is said to have commended his life into St Alphege's care just before he was martyred.[7] An incised paving slab to the north of the present High Altar of Canterbury Cathedral marks the place where the medieval shrine is believed to have stood.[25] A Life of St. Alphege in prose—which survives—and verse were written by a Canterbury monk named Osborn at the request of Lanfranc.[7]
A new Catholic church in Bath in 1929 was dedicated to Our Lady and St Alphege, in recognition of the fact that it was close to the saint's birthplace. This "little gem" is by Sir Giles Gilbert Scott, in Bath stone, closely following the model of the Roman basilica of Santa Maria in Cosmedin.[28] Scott commissioned the sculture D.W. Gough to carve 20 scenes from the life of Alphege in the capitals of the pillars on the south side of the nave covering his time at Deerhurst, Bath, Winchester, Greenwich and Canterbury.
[edit] See also
- The Incorruptibles, a list of Catholic saints and recognised holy persons whose bodies are reported to be incorrupt; that is, the bodies did not undergo any major decay after their burial and hence are considered to be under some form of divine protection.
[edit] Notes
- ^ Knowles, et. al. Heads of Religious Houses, England and Wales pp. 28, 241
- ^ Fryde, et. al. Handbook of British Chronology p. 223
- ^ Barlow English Church 1000-1066 p. 109 footnote 5
- ^ Hindley A Brief History of the Anglo-Saxons p. 304-305
- ^ Stenton Anglo-Saxon England p. 378
- ^ Williams Æthelred the Unready p. 47
- ^ a b c d e Leyser "Ælfheah (d. 1012) (subscription required)" Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
- ^ a b Walsh A New Dictionary of Saints p. 28
- ^ a b Fryde, et. al. Handbook of British Chronology p. 214
- ^ Barlow English Church 1000-1066 p. 298-299 footnote7
- ^ Barlow English Church 1000-1066 p. 62
- ^ Barlow English Church 1000-1066 p. 223
- ^ Stenton Anglo-Saxon England p. 458
- ^ Fletcher Bloodfeud p. 94
- ^ a b Williams Æthelred the Unready p. 106-107
- ^ a b Hindley A Brief History of the Anglo-Saxons p. 301
- ^ Anglo Saxon Chronicle for 1012 accessed on 4 November 2007
- ^ Barlow English Church 1000-1066 pp. 209–210
- ^ Fletcher Bloodfeud p. 78
- ^ Williams Æthelred the Unready p. 109-110
- ^ a b O'Brien Queen Emma and the Vikings p. 75-76
- ^ Hindley A Brief History of the Anglo-Saxons p. 309-310
- ^ O'Brien Queen Emma and the Vikings p. 129-130
- ^ Stenton Anglo-Saxon England p. 383
- ^ a b Delaney Dictionary of Saints p. 29-30
- ^ Stenton Anglo-Saxon England p. 672
- ^ Brooke Popular Religion in the Middle Ages p. 40
- ^ Christopher Martin, A Glimpse of Heaven: Catholic churches of England and Wales, English Heritage, 2006: pp 183-186
[edit] References
- Barlow, Frank (1979). The English Church 1000-1066: A History of the Later Anglo-Saxon Church, Second Edition, New York: Longman. ISBN 0-582-49049-9. OCLC 4514947.
- Brooke, Christopher; Brooke, Rosalind (1996). Popular Religion in the Middle Ages: Western Europe 1000-1300, (reprint), New York: Barnes & Noble. ISBN 0-76070-093-1. OCLC 36029027.
- Delaney, John P. (1980). Dictionary of Saints, Second Edition, Garden City, N.Y: Doubleday. ISBN 0-385-13594-7. OCLC 54709118.
- Fletcher, R. A. (2003). Bloodfeud: Murder and Revenge in Anglo-Saxon England. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-516136-X.
- Fryde, E. B.; Greenway, D. E.; Porter, S.; Roy, I. (1996). Handbook of British Chronology, Third Edition, revised, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-56350-X. OCLC 183920684.
- Hindley, Geoffrey (2006). A Brief History of the Anglo-Saxons: The Beginnings of the English Nation. New York: Carroll & Graf Publishers. ISBN 978-0-78671-738-5. OCLC 70637347.
- Knowles, David; London, Vera C. M.; Brooke, Christopher (2001). The Heads of Religious Houses, England and Wales, 940-1216, Second Edition, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-80452-3. OCLC 133161958.
- Leyser, Henrietta (September 2004). "Ælfheah (d. 1012) (subscription required)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (October 2006). Oxford University Press. Retrieved on 2007-11-07.
- O'Brien, Harriet (2005). Queen Emma and the Vikings: A History of Power, Love and Greed in Eleventh-Century England. New York: Bloomsbury USA. ISBN 1-58234-596-1. OCLC 59401757.
- Stenton, F. M. (1971). Anglo-Saxon England, Third Edition, Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-280139-5. OCLC 185499725.
- Walsh, Michael J. (2007). A New Dictionary of Saints: East and West. London: Burns & Oats. ISBN 0-8601-2438-X. OCLC 154691725.
- Williams, Ann (2003). Aethelred the Unready: The Ill-Counselled King. London: Hambledon & London. ISBN 1-85285-382-4. OCLC 51780838.
[edit] External links
- The Martyrdom of Ælfheah, from the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle
- Prosopography of Anglo Saxon England: Ælfheah
- 20 Carvings of the Life of St Alphege at Our Lady & St Alphege, Bath
| Roman Catholic Church titles | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Æthelwold |
Bishop of Winchester 984–1006 |
Succeeded by Cenwulf of Winchester |
| Preceded by Ælfric of Abingdon |
Archbishop of Canterbury 1006–1012 |
Succeeded by Lyfing |
| Persondata | |
|---|---|
| NAME | Alphege |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Ælfheah |
| SHORT DESCRIPTION | Bishop of Winchester; Archbishop of Canterbury; Saint |
| DATE OF BIRTH | 954 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | |
| DATE OF DEATH | 19 April 1012 |
| PLACE OF DEATH | Greenwich, Kent |
