ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN AUGUST
Saints celebrated on the 2nd of August
PLEGMUND, ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY
Plegmund, Archbishop of Canterbury, was a Mercian, and spent his early life near Chester as a hermit on an island called after him Plegmundham (the present Plemstall). His reputation for piety and learning caused the youthful King Alfred to summon him to court, where he helped the king in his literacy work. In 890 he was chosen Archbishop of Canterbury and went to Rome to receive the pallium from Pope Formosus. The King styled him "Plegmund, my Archbishop," in the preface of a translation of Pope Gregory's Regula Pastoralis, a copy of which was sent to every Bishop throughout the kingdom. The copy presented by the King to Plegmund is still preserved in the British Library.
When the acts and ordinations of Formosus were condemned in 897 and the condemnation was confirmed in 905, the position of Plegmund became questionable, and in 908 he paid a second visit to Rome, probably to obtain confirmation by Sergius III of his acts as archbishop, and to arrange a subdivision of the West Saxon episcopate. Since the See of Canterbury and Kent itself were largely despoiled by prolonged raiding, much of his administration was concerned with raising clerical standards, restoring monastic houses and raising the quality of Latin transcription in authoring religious documents to the way they had originally been before the Viking ravages. Plegmund consecrated the New Minster which King Edward the Elder had founded at Winchester. It is said that he consecrated seven bishops in one day, five for Wessex and two others. He died in extreme old age on August 2, 914. He and was buried in his cathedral at Canterbury.
Sources:
https://www.earlybritishkingdoms.com/adversaries/bios/plegmund.html
Edwin Burton, Catholic Encyclopedia, 1913
https://www.silburycoins.co.uk/product/archbishops-of-canterbury-plegmund-silver-penny-890-914ad-wilric
⬅️ Saintly Archbishops of Canterbury
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