Saints celebrated on the 19th of May
SAINT DUNSTAN, ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY, CONFESSOR
Saint Dunstan was a native of the town of Glastonbury, of noble birth, and received his education under certain Irish monks who were excellent masters of the sciences, and at that time resided at Glastonbury, which the wars had left in a most ruinous condition.
HE WAS CALLED TO THE KING'S COURT
Dunstan outstripped his companions in every branch of literature which he thought worth his attention, and through the recommendation of Athelmus, archbishop of Canterbury, his uncle, with whom he had lived some time, was called to the court of the great king Athelstan, a lover of virtue and learned men. He enjoyed the favour of that prince above all the rest who had the honour to approach his person, till envy made him feel the usual instability of the fortune of courtiers.
HE HAD RECEIVED THE CLERICAL TONSURE
Dunstan had in his youth received the clerical tonsure and the lesser orders, and from his cradle been fervent in practising every means of virtue, especially of modesty, purity, and humility. After he left the court he took the monastic habit, being advised thereto by Elphegus the Bald, bishop of Winchester, also his uncle, who not long after ordained him priest.
AT GLASTONBURY
When he was well grounded in the knowledge and practice of the duties of his profession, the bishop, on giving him proper instructions for his conduct, sent him to Glastonbury, with the view of serving that church.
PRAYER AND FASTING
Here he built for himself a small cell, five feet long, and two and a half broad, with an oratory adjoining to the wall of the great church which was dedicated under the invocation of the Mother of God. In this hermitage he spent his time in prayer and fasting. He had also his hours for manual labour, which is a part of penance, and necessary to shun idleness. His labour consisted in making crosses, vials, censers, and sacred vestments; he likewise painted and copied good books.
HE WAS INSTALLED AS ABBOT
King Athelstan dying after a glorious reign of sixteen years, the throne was filled by his brother Edmund, who succeeded to the crown in 900. His palace of Cheddar was but nine miles from Glastonbury, to which church he often resorted with singular devotion, and having been long acquainted with the sanctity of St Dunstan, he installed him the nineteenth abbot of that house from St Brithwald, who was the first Englishman who had governed it, two hundred and seventy years before. (1)
KING EDWARD'S SUCCESSORS
King Edmund had reigned only six years and a half, when he was treacherously murdered, and buried at Glastonbury. His sons Edwi and Edgar being too young to govern, his brother Edred was called to the crown, who did nothing but by the advice of St Dunstan. He ended his pious life in 955, and was succeeded by his nephew Edwi, a most debauched and profligate youth, who, on the very day on which he was anointed king, left his nobles at the royal banquet to go to see his harlot and impious flatterers.
ST DUNSTAN ADMONISHED HIM
St Dunstan followed him, and endeavoured by a severe check to put him in mind of the duty which he owed to God and men. In requital, the tyrant banished him, persecuted all the monks in his kingdom, and ruined all the abbeys which had escaped the devastation of the Danes, except Glastonbury and Abingdon. (1)
EXILE IN FLANDERS
St Dunstan spent one year in exile in Flanders, and, according to Osbern, at St Peter’s at Ghent, where his vestment is still shown; but, according to John of Glastonbury, at St Amand’s; the tradition and monuments of both places show, that he divided the year between them.
HE WAS RECALLED TO ENGLAND AND BECAME BISHOP OF WORCESTER
He filled all Flanders with the odour of his sanctity, and the example of his virtues; but the Mercians and northern provinces shaking off the yoke of the tyrant Edwi, placed the crown on Edgar, who immediately recalled St Dunstan, made him his principal counsellor, and in 957 preferred him to the bishopric of Worcester, to which he was consecrated by St Odo, archbishop of Canterbury.
The see of London becoming vacant shortly after, he was compelled at the same time also to govern that diocese, notwithstanding his opposition, the public disorders requiring so strenuous a reformer of discipline and manners.
King Edwi having reigned over all England one year, and over the southern part four years, ended a wicked life by an unhappy death in 959, when Edgar became sole monarch of the English nation, which he governed with the greatest courage, prudence, and glory.
ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY
In 961, St Dunstan was raised to the metropolitan see of Canterbury, though he used every device possible to decline that dignity. He was moreover appointed by Pope John XII., legate, of the holy see. Being vested with this authority, he set himself about re-establishing every where ecclesiastical discipline, which had been much impaired by the confusion of the Danish invasions, and the tyranny of king Edwi; in which he was powerfully protected by king Edgar, and assisted by his two disciples, St Ethelwold, bishop of Winchester, and St Oswald, bishop of Worcester and archbishop of York. These three prelates restored most of the great monasteries in England.
HE COMPILED THE CONCORD OF RULES
To establish in them a uniform and perfect regular discipline, St Dunstan compiled the Concord of Rules, extant in Reyner and Spelman, in which he incorporates several old monastic customs with the rule of St Benedict.
THE REFORMATION OF THE CLERGY
The reformation of the clergy was no less the object of his zeal. For their use he drew up excellent regulations, which may be seen in Spelman under this title: Canons published under King Edgar. Several among the secular clergy had, through the disorder of the times, fallen into so open a violation of the canons as to presume to marry. These St Dunstan expelled from the churches and monasteries into which they had intruded themselves, and brought in monks in their place, who had been in possession of divers of them before the Danish devastations.
THE SYNOD AT WINCHESTER
At Winchester, when St Ethelwold had ejected the secular canons for incontinency, and placed monks in his cathedral, the former appealed from his proceedings. A synod therefore was held at Winchester, in 968. In this venerable assembly was heard a voice as coming from a crucifix in the place, which said distinctly, “God forbid it should be so. You have judged well: to change your decree is not good.” Upon which the synod confirmed what St Ethelwold had done, and king Edward the martyr made this decree a law of the state.
DISCIPLINE AMONG THE LAITY
St Dunstan was no less vigorous in maintaining discipline among the laity, in which no motives of human respect were ever able to daunt him, or to damp his zeal.
PENANCE FOR SEVEN YEARS
King Edgar had the misfortune to fall into a scandalous crime, by deflouring a virgin who had been educated in the monastery of Wilton, and who, to elude his pursuits, had put on a religious veil, but had not made any profession or vows. St Dunstan being informed of this scandal, went in haste to the court, and like another Nathan reproved the king in a zealous, but respectful manner.
The prince, struck with remorse, begged with many tears that a suitable penance might be enjoined him, and became a faithful imitator of the perfect royal penitent David. The archbishop enjoined him a penance for seven years; during which term he was never to wear his crown, was ordered to fast twice a week, and to give large alms.
THE NUNNERY AT SHAFTESBURY
Another part of his penance was to found a nunnery, in which many holy virgins might consecrate themselves chaste spouses to Christ, in satisfaction for his crime in having violated a virgin. These conditions the king faithfully performed, and founded a rich monastery of nuns at Shaftesbury.
The term of his penance being elapsed in 973, St Dunstan, in a public assembly of the lords and prelates, set the crown again upon his head.
This great king ruled sixteen years, and dying in the thirty-second year of his age, left the kingdom to his eldest son, Edward the martyr. The death of that pious young prince was a grievous affliction to St Dunstan, who, when he crowned his younger brother, in 979, foretold the weakness and the dreadful calamities of his reign.
The Welsh bishops had always been governed by the archbishop of St David’s till about the year 983, when we find Gacon consecrated bishop of Landaff by St Dunstan; from which time the see of St David’s lost its metropolitical jurisdiction.
HE FREQUENTLY VISITED THE CHURCHES
St Dunstan frequently visited the churches over the whole kingdom, everywhere preaching and instructing the faithful with great zeal. Such were the dignity and the eloquence with which he delivered the word of God, that few were so hardened as to withstand the power of his exhortations.
He employed his revenues in relieving the poor, he reconciled differences, refuted errors, and laboured incessantly in extirpating vices and abuses.
TIME FOR HOLY PRAYER
But neither the care of his church, nor the attendance he was obliged often to give to the state, made him ever forget to find time for holy prayer and retirement; and after the occupations of the day, he watched late at night in the private communications of his soul with God.
Glastonbury was his dearest solitude, and thither he would often retire from the world to devote himself entirely to heavenly contemplation.
At Canterbury it was always his custom to visit in the night, even in the coldest weather, the church of St Augustine without the walls, and that of the Blessed Virgin adjoining to it.
HE PREPARED HIMSELF FOR HIS LAST HOUR
Finding himself taken ill in that city, he prepared himself for his last hour by redoubling his fervour in all his practices of penance and devotion. On the feast of the ascension of our Lord, he preached thrice on that triumphant mystery, exhorting all to follow our Redeemer and Head in spirit and desire. Whilst he spoke, his countenance, like that of Moses coming down from the mount, seemed to shine and dart forth rays of light. In the close of his last discourse, he begged the prayers of his audience, and told his flock that God called him from them. At which words all that heard him were filled with inexpressible grief.
HIS HAPPY DEATH
In the afternoon he went again to the church, and appointed a place for his burial; then he took to his bed, and on the Saturday following, May 19, having received the viaticum, he calmly expired; closing his corporal eyes to the world, and at the same instant opening those of his soul to behold God with his angels in glory. His death happened on May 19, 988, the sixty-fourth year of his age, and the twenty-seventh of his archiepiscopal dignity.
HIS RELICS
He was buried in his own cathedral in the place he had appointed. John of Glastonbury relates that his bones were translated to Glastonbury in 1012, two years after the martyrdom of St Elphege; but this at most could only be true of some portion thereof; for in 1508, archbishop Warham found his relics remaining under his monument, which was then on the south side of the high altar.
[Saint Dunstan is the patron saint of blacksmiths and goldsmiths.]
NOTES:
Note 1. The West-Saxon kings exceedingly enriched the abbey of Glastonbury, as may be seen by their charters extant in John of Glastonbury, etc. But it had been famous in the times of the Britons, and its church was the oldest in Britain, founded by those who first planted the faith of Christ in this island; which happened about the end of the reign of Tiberius, says Gildas, though few at first embraced it, as he adds.
Metaphrastes quotes a passage from Eusebius, importing that St Peter preached in Britain. Fortunatus, Sophronius, etc. affirm the same of St Paul.
It is at least certain from Tertullian, Origen, Eusebius, Theodoret, etc. that the light of the gospel had diffused its rays into Britain soon after the dispersion of the apostles.
THE ISLE OF APPLES
William of Malmesbury, (l. de Antiquitatibus Glastoniæ, published by the learned Thomas Gale,) relates from very ancient records, that the old church of Glastonbury was built by those who had sown the first seeds of faith in Britain. This island amidst marshes was first called Avallona, or isle of apples, from the British word Aval, apples, because it abounded with apple-trees, which were very scarce in those parts.
When twelve brothers came from North-Britain to seek settlements in that country, the youngest, named Glasteing, settled in this island, which from him took the name of Glastonbury.
William of Malmesbury, (l. de Antiq. Glaston.) says, that St Patrick, in 433, finding in this island twelve anchorets, gathered them together in a monastery which he built near the old church, and was himself the first abbot. Some think this St Patrick the same who was the apostle of Ireland; but all the Glastonbury writers agree, that this St Patrick died and lay buried at Glastonbury.
Most of the British saints of note, who lived before the coming of the Saxons, are said to have been buried here, or at least to have for some time retired to this place of devotion. In Powel’s History of Wales, p. 13, 14, it is related that Cadwallader, the last king of the Britons, fled from the swords of the Saxons into Wales, and soon after went to Rome never to return.
Alan his cousin, a British king, reigned in Armorica, where a great number of Britons, who had followed Maximus by his grant, had settled themselves with their leader, named Conan, lord of Meriadoc. This prince, hearing of the retreat of Cadwallader, sailed to Wales, and having raised an army, sent his son Ivor at the head of it against the West-Saxons, whom he defeated.
The conquest of Cornwall, Devon, and Somersetshire, was the fruit of his victory, and by a treaty and intermarriage he obtained quiet possession of the same, and was first king of that British state. This historian tells us that Ivor founded the monastery of Glastonbury, called by the Britons Inys-Avalon; for though he found there a church which was as ancient as Christianity in Britain, he first converted it into an abbey about the year 700. If monks had been placed there before, the wars had probably dispersed them, or much reduced their number.
THE DISCOVERY OF KING ARTHUR'S GRAVE
The annals of the abbey of Morgan in Glamorganshire, published by Gale, relate that in 1191, in digging a grave for a monk, were found here the bones of King Arthur, of an enormous size, with this inscription: “Here lies the illustrious King Arthur, buried in the isle of Avallona.” Those of his wife Queen Guenhavere, with the hair entire, lay above his coffin in the same grave. Powel places this discovery in 1179, and mentions that their bodies were laid in a hollow elder-tree, buried fifteen feet in the earth. Over the bones was laid a stone with a cross of lead, and on the lower side the above-mentioned inscription. On the king’s skull were the marks of ten wounds, one of them very large. The queen’s hair seemed to the sight fair and yellow, but when touched crumbled presently to dust.
This discovery is also related by John of Glastonbury, in his history of that abbey, published by Mr Hearne. This last author enumerates the principal relics which were possessed by this abbey, as those of SS. Aidan, Ceolfrid, Boisil, Bede, Benedict, Biscop, Oswald, etc. (brought thither from the North by King Edmund the elder in his victorious wars); also of St Valerius, B. M., St Anastasius, and SS. Abdon and Sennen, given by King Edgar, St David, etc., likewise a considerable portion of the true cross of Christ, given by King Alfred, who had received it from Pope Martin. Some account of the rich treasury formerly belonging to this most venerable church, in which were innumerable monuments of the piety of all the most glorious among the West-Saxon kings, may be seen in the history of the said John, and in the Monasticons.
From Fr Butler's Lives of the Saints - 📷 Bath Abbey's 19th century stained glass window depicting King Edgar being crowned by St Dunstan, Archbishop of Canterbury
➡️ More information about St Dunstan
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