Æthelwold of Winchester

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For the second Bishop of Winchester of this name and all other homonyms see Æthelwold
Æthelwold
Denomination Catholic
Senior posting
See Diocese of Winchester
Title Bishop of Winchester
Period in office 963–984
Predecessor Beorhthelm of Winchester
Successor Aelfheah II
Personal
Date of birth 909
Place of birth Winchester
Date of death August 1, 984
Place of death Beddington, Surrey
Æthelwold
Born 909
Died August 1, 984
Feast August 1
Saints Portal

Saint Æthelwold of Winchester (also spelled Aethelwald, Ethelwold, etc) (909-984) was a 10th century Bishop of Winchester and leader of the monastic reform movement in Anglo-Saxon England.

Contents

[edit] Life

Æthelwold was born in Winchester of good parentage in about 909. After a youth spent at the court of King Athelstan, Æthelwold placed himself under Alphege the Bald, Bishop of Winchester, who gave him the tonsure and ordained him priest along with Saint Dunstan. Æthelwold became a monk at Glastonbury Abbey, where he was dean during Dunstan's abbacy, until about 955 when he was appointed Abbot of Abingdon.[1][2]

On 29 November 963, he was consecrated Bishop of Winchester[3] by Saint Dunstan, and with Oswald of Worcester, he worked zealously in combating the general corruption occasioned by the Danish inroads into the country. At Winchester, both in the Old and the New Minster, he replaced the secular clergy with monks and refounded the ancient nunnery known as Nunnaminster. His labours extended to Chertsey, Milton, Ely, Peterborough, Thorney and elsewhere; expelling the unworthy, rebuilding and restoring.[4] The epithets "father of monks" and "benevolent bishop" summarize Æthelwold's character as reformer and friend of Christ's poor.[5] Though he suffered much from ill-health, his life as scholar, teacher, prelate and Royal counsellor was ever austere, said to be "terrible as a lion" to the rebellious, yet "gentler than a dove" to the meek. He is said to have written a treatise on the circle and to have translated the "Regularis Concordia".[4] He died on 1 August 984[3] at Beddington in Surrey.[4]

[edit] Veneration

He was buried in the Old Minster at Winchester, his body being translated by Alphege, his successor, and then again into the new Cathedral. By the 12th century, Abingdon Abbey had acquired an arm and a leg.[1]

His liturgical feast is kept on 1 August.[5]

[edit] See also

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ Anglo-Saxons.net Charter S567 accessed on September 5, 2007
  2. ^ Kelly "Charters of Abingdon, part 1" Anglo-Saxon Charters
  3. ^ a b Powicke Handbook of British Chronology p. 257
  4. ^ a b c Walsh A New Dictionary of Saints p. 184
  5. ^ a b Catholic Online Saints and Angels: St. Ethelwold accessed on September 5, 2007

[edit] References

[edit] External links

Religious titles
Preceded by
Beorhthelm of Winchester		 Bishop of Winchester
963–984		 Succeeded by
Aelfheah II
Persondata
NAME Æthelwold
ALTERNATIVE NAMES
SHORT DESCRIPTION Bishop of Winchester; Abbot of Abingdon
DATE OF BIRTH 909
PLACE OF BIRTH Winchester
DATE OF DEATH August 1, 984
PLACE OF DEATH Beddington, Surrey
Languages