Wigstan

Wigstan (died c.840 AD), also known as Saint Wystan, was the son of Wigmund of Mercia and Ælfflæd, daughter of King Ceolwulf I of Mercia.

History

Wigstan, was the son of Wigmund, probably sub-King of the Hwicce, and Ælfflæd, daughter of the elderly King Ceolwulf. He may have been the brother of King Ceolwulf II of Mercia and Lady Eadburh of the Gaini (mother-in-law of King Alfred the Great), though this is far from certain. Wigstan grew up during the reign of his paternal grandfather, King Wiglaf, but his father predeceased him - apparently via a bad case of dysentery - and the young lad eventually succeeded Wiglaf to the Mercian throne in AD 840. King Wigstan, however, preferred religious life to court life and therefore asked his widowed mother to act as regent. Meanwhile, one Beorhtwulf - probably a relative of the late King Beornred and supposedly the brother of Wiglaf - wished to marry his son, Beorhtfrith, to this Royal lady. Wigstan would have none of it for the two were closely related, and Beorhtwulf therefore decided, instead, to press his own claim to the Mercian Crown. On 1st June AD 840, Beorhtfrith went to visit the young King in peace at Wistow (Leics) - or Wistanstow (Salop) - but, when the two greeted each other, he struck Wigstan on the head with the shaft of his dagger and his servant ran him through with his sword. Beorhtwulf thus took the throne through violence, as so often in those days.

The site of Wigstan's martyrdom has been variously claimed to be Wistanstow (Shropshire), Wistow (Leics) or Wistow (Cambs). Wigstan's body was supposedly discovered under a shaft of light from heaven. Wigstan's remains were reburied at St. Wystan's Church, Repton in 849, where his grandfather King Wiglaf was also buried, and a cult developed soon after. Repton became a centre of pilgrimage as a result. About 1019, Cnut the Great had Wigstan's relics translated to Evesham.^[1]

A Vita Sancti Wistani was written by Dominic of Evesham, a medieval prior of Evesham Abbey around 1130.^[2] The name was used occasionally in the Middle Ages and again more recently, e.g. for Wystan Hugh Auden.^[3]

There has also been a few towns and hamlets named after him.

Hagiography

The saints relics were relocated to the Abbey at Evesham.^[4] His vita (meaning "life" a history recording reputed acts of sanctity) has been attributed to the Benedictine chronicler Dominic of Evesham, an early 12th-century Prior at Evesham. The edifice of the abbey (including the tomb of the four saints and many monastic buildings) were demolished during the Dissolution of the Monasteries, Noted Edwardian artist Margaret E.A. Rope was commissioned for the windows in the parish church in Shropshire dedicated to the miraculous pillar of light leading to discovery of the earthly remains of the slain martyr.

• Saint Wistan early twentieth-century stained-glass window
• Saint Wistan statuary (unattributed)
• Saint Wystan statuary above porch at Repton (gifted 1911, absent sword replaced in 2003).

See also

• Anglo-Saxon crypt tomb at Repton, Derbyshire
• Oldest unaltered place of Christian worship in England video clip of St Wystan's
• British poet W. H. Auden was named in honor of Saint Wystan, video clip of him reading his work, bearing his full name. A familial connection both to Repton school and the church in Shropshire is noted by Auden's biographer Humprey Carpenter.^[5]
• Mick Sharp's book "The Way and the Light: An Illustrated Guide to the Saints and Holy Places of Britain" makes the case for Wistow as the likely location of St Wistan's martyrdom attested to in the legend of the miraculous appearance of human hair on the anniversary of his death June 1.

Notes

Sources

• Jennings, J. C. (April 1962). "The Writings of Prior Dominic of Evesham". The English Historical Review 77 (303): 298–304. doi:10.1093/ehr/LXXVII.CCCIII.298. 
• Walker, Ian, Mercia and the Making of England.
• Yorke, Barbara, Kings and Kingdoms of Early Anglo-Saxon England. London: Seaby, 1990. ISBN 1-85264-027-8
• Zaluckij, Sarah, Mercia: the Anglo-Saxon Kingdom of Central England. Logaston: Logaston Press, 2001. ISBN 1-873827-62-8

v t e Monarchs of Mercia Kingdom of Mercia 527–918 Icel Cnebba Cynewald Creoda Pybba Cearl Penda Eowa Peada Oswiu of Northumbria Wulfhere Æthelred I Coenred Ceolred Ceolwald Æthelbald Beornred Offa1 Ecgfrith Coenwulf1 Cynehelm Ceolwulf I1 Beornwulf2 Ludeca Wiglaf Ecgberht of Wessex Wigmund Wigstan Ælfflæd Beorhtwulf Burgred Ceolwulf II Æthelred II3 Æthelflæd3 Ælfwynn3 Later monarchs Æthelstan4 Eadgar4 1Also King of Kent and East Anglia 2Also King of East Anglia 3Recognising West Saxon overlordship 4King of Mercia during the temporary separation of Mercia and Wessex