ST WULSTAN, BISHOP - 19 JANUARY

 

ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN JANUARY

 Saints celebrated on the 19th of January 

Prayer to the Angels and the Saints

Heavenly Father, in praising Your Angels and Saints we praise Your glory, for by honouring them we honour You, their Creator. Their splendour shows us Your greatness, which infinitely surpasses that of all creation.

In Your loving providence, You saw fit to send Your Angels to watch over us. Grant that we may always be under their protection and one day enjoy their company in heaven.

Heavenly Father, You are glorified in Your Saints, for their glory is the crowning of Your gifts. You provide an example for us by their lives on earth, You give us their friendship by our communion with them, You grant us strength and protection through their prayer for the Church, and You spur us on to victory over evil and the prize of eternal glory by this great company of witnesses.

Grant that we who aspire to take part in their joy may be filled with the Spirit that blessed their lives, so that, after sharing their faith on earth, we may also experience their peace in heaven. Amen.

ST WULSTAN, BISHOP OF WORCESTER, CONFESSOR

Saint Wulstan [Wulfstan] was a native of Icentum, in Warwickshire. In his youth, perceiving himself somewhat touched with wanton love on seeing a woman dance, he withdrew into a thicket hard by, and lying prostrate, bewailed his fault before God, with very great contrition.

WATCHFULNESS OVER HIS SENSES

And he was endowed from that time by Almighty God, with the gift of such a constant watchfulness over his senses, as prevented his being evermore annoyed with the like temptations. 

He laid the foundation of his studies and education in the monastery of Evesham, but completed the same at Peterborough. 

HIS PARENTS TOOK THE MONASTIC HABIT AT WORCESTER

His parents having by mutual consent taken the monastic habit at Worcester; his father, Athelstan, in the great monastery of men; and his mother, Wulfgeva, in a nunnery; St Wulstan put himself under the direction of Brithege, bishop of Worcester, by whom he was advanced to the holy orders of priesthood. 

In this station he redoubled his ardour for prayer, and practised greater austerities in the world, than monks in their convents. 

HE VOWED NOT TO EAT MEAT

At first, he allowed himself the use of flesh; but being one day distracted in saying mass, by the smell of meat that was roasting in the kitchen, he bound himself by vow, never more to eat any flesh. 

Not long after he entered himself a novice in the great abbey at Worcester, where he was remarkable for the innocence and sanctity of his life. 

INSTRUCTING THE CHILDREN

The first charge with which he was entrusted in the monastery, was the care of instructing the children. He was afterwards made precentor, and then treasurer of the church. In these two last stations, he devoted himself totally to prayer, and watched whole nights in the church. 

As the meanest employments were always the object of his love and choice, it was contrary to his inclination that he was made prior of Worcester, and, in 1062, bishop of that see, when Aldred was translated to that of York. 

HE ALWAYS RECITED THE PSALTER WHEN HE TRAVELLED

Though not very learned, he delivered the word of God with so much dignity and unction, as often to move his whole audience to tears. 

He always recited the Psalter whilst he travelled, and never passed by any church or chapel without going in, to pour forth his soul before the altar with tears which seemed to stand always ready in his eyes for prayer. 

ST WULSTAN KEPT HIS SEE

When the conqueror had deprived the English, both nobility and clergy, of the posts of honour they possessed in the church and state, in favour of his Normans, on whose fidelity he could depend, Wulstan kept his see, though not without a miracle, as St Ælred, Florentius, and Capgrave relate, as follows: 

THE SYNOD AT WESTMINSTER

In a synod, held at Westminster, in which archbishop Lanfranc presided, Wulstan was called upon to give up his crosier and ring, upon pretext of his simplicity and unfitness for business. The saint confessed himself unfit for the charge, but said, that King Edward, with the concurrence of the apostolic see, had compelled him to take it upon him, and that he would deliver his crosier to him. 

Then going to the king’s monument, he fixed his crosier in the stone; then went and sat down among the monks. No one was able to draw out the crosier till the saint was ordered to take it again, and it followed his hand with ease. From this time the conqueror treated him with honour. Lanfranc even commissioned him to perform the visitation of the diocese of Chester for himself. 

"THIS IS A SCOURGE OF GOD FOR YOUR SINS"

When any English complained of the oppression of the Normans, he used to tell them, "This is a scourge of God for your sins, which you must bear with patience." 

HE SHOWED THE MOST TENDER CHARITY FOR PENITENTS

The saint caused young gentlemen who were brought up under his care, to carry in the dishes and wait on the poor at table, to teach them the practice of humiliation, in which he set the most edifying example. He showed the most tender charity for penitents, and often wept over them, whilst they confessed their sins to him. 

He died in 1095, having sat thirty-two years, and lived about eighty-seven. He was canonised in 1203. 

(From Fr Butler's Lives of the Saints)