Holy Hierarch Ælfhéah, Bishop of Winchester

Winchester Cathedral

The twelfth of March is also the Orthodox feast-day of the elder Saint Ælfhéah. There are two saints of this name listed among the præ-Schismatic saints of England. The younger Saint Ælfhéah was an Archbishop of Canterbury, who was martyred in the early eleventh century by heathen Danes when he refused to allow ransom money to be paid on his behalf. The elder Saint Ælfhéah – also called Ælfhéah ‘the Bald’ – whose feast-day is today, was a celebrated kinsman of the younger: a wise and learned bishop of Winchester who tutored Saints Dúnstán and Æþelwold. Due to this association, Saint Ælfhéah may with some justice be considered an important forefather of the English Benedictine reforms of the tenth century.

Little is actually known about the early life of Saint Ælfhéah [or Alphege]. When he first appears in the record, it is as the protégé of Saint Byrnstán, his predecessor in office as bishop, whom he succeeded in 934. He apparently had some difficulty at first getting the parishioners in Winchester to listen to him. However, on one day when the Lenten Fast began, a certain man mocked him and his homily when he exhorted his flock to keep the fast. He left the church gloating that he would indulge that night in meat and carnal pleasures with his wife. As he left, Saint Ælfhéah lamented after him: ‘You fool! You don’t know what tomorrow will bring.’ The next morning this same proud man was found dead in bed. It may be presumed that his flock were a bit more attentive to him after this.

It is as a teacher and as a sponsor of Benedictine monks that Saint Ælfhéah is most famous. He is known as the teacher and spiritual father of Saint Dúnstán first and foremost – the one who exhorted him to become a monk. Dúnstán was sceptical of his elder kinsman’s insistence on the celibate vocation, until he fell gravely ill with a disease of the skin that seemed liable to take his life. After that he bent himself upon the monastic way of life. Saint Ælfhéah ordained Dúnstán and his friend Æþelwold as priests on the same day in 938, and sent the two of them to study together at Glastonbury. Dúnstán became Abbot there, and Æþelwold, his dean of the monks.

Saint Ælfhéah is very much to be commended in his foresight in encouraging their friendship. Dúnstán and Æþelwold were of two very different temperaments: Dúnstán was gentle and patient and moderate; Æþelwold was eager, zealous and more than a little impatient. They also fell on opposite sides of political issues of the day – including Éadwig King’s coronation scandal which resulted in Dúnstán’s exile to Ghent. But the two of them remained fast friends, and supported and corrected each other. Saint Dúnstán admonished Saint Æþelwold to moderate his fasting habits and to exhibit forbearance with struggling monks. And yet both men went on to preside over a mighty revival of Benedictine holiness in England, which included a return to the early pro-poor activism and hospitality of the first English Benedictines. Saint Ælfhéah reposed in the Lord on the twelfth of March, 951. Holy hierarch Ælfhéah, pray unto Christ our God for us sinners!