Abingdon Abbey
The sixth of April is also the feast day of Saint Ælfstán of Abingdon. A saintly monk closely associated with the English Benedictine reform and restoration led by the saintly fathers Dúnstán, Æþelwold and Ósweald, Ælfstán led the restoration of Abingdon Abbey under Æþelwold. He is marked among the English saints for his supreme humility and obedience.
Ælfstán was a monk under obedience to Abbot Æþelwold, and trained at Abingdon Abbey. This abbey had been given to Abbot Æþelwold by Éadræd King. It had once housed a small shrine dedicated to the memory of Saint Helena of Constantinople, but it had suffered repeated depredations from the Danes over the century previous, and was little more than a smouldering ruin when Æþelwold was brought from Glastonbury to rebuild it. Saint Æþelwold instituted at Abingdon the same rigorous rule that he had followed at Glastonbury, and the monastery began to flourish. He enjoined specifically upon his monks, the radical hospitality of Saint Benedict’s Rule in the treatment of guests, and the absolute mortification of the individual self-will in obedience to the abbatial father.
Ælfstán was a consistent helpmeet to Abbot Æþelwold in his reconstruction of Abingdon. Æþelwold assigned Ælfstán to the abbey kitchens, and it was his job as the cook to ensure that all the workmen, both lay and monastic, were well-fed whenever they went to work. Much the same as Saint Euphrosunos of Alexandria from whom he seems to have taken direct inspiration, Saint Ælfstán took to his job with uncomplaining humility, patience and obedience. He obeyed his superior’s every command without complaint, and he made sure that all the workers left the dining hall full and contented to the best degree he was able. He did the cooking, serving and cleaning in the kitchen, and was so self-effacing and dutiful in his work that he did not even ask for help even though he was entitled to it under the Rule.
Saint Æþelwold at length discovered the degree to which his servant Ælfstán was devoted to his duties, as indeed he must do. Seeking to put his monk to the test, he spoke to him sharply: ‘If you are such a soldier as you appear to be, you must reach your hand into that boiling cauldron and fetch me out a piece of meat.’ Without hesitation, Saint Ælfstán obeyed his abbot, and Æþelwold marvelled to see that the hand which proffered the meat to him was white and unblemished, free from any scald or burn. The abbot Æþelwold blessed the hand which obeyed him.
Saint Æþelwold was elevated to the Bishopric of Winchester in 963. At this point, Ælfstán may have served briefly as interim abbot, though he is not mentioned in any primary source documents. Æþelwold’s successor as abbot of Abingdon is listed as Ósgár. We next see Ælfstán appear as the Bishop of Ramsbury, succeeding Bishop Óswulf in the year 970. Ramsbury as an episcopal see was created some sixty years earlier by Archbishop Plegmund of Canterbury, as one of five sees descended from the Bishopric of Winchester. It was one of the poorest sees in the Saxon kingdoms, and its bishops did not even have a cathedral seat of their own. Instead they resided at Sonning, for which reason the Bishopric of Ramsbury was often referred to as ‘Ramsbury and Sonning’. Once again, the meek, uncomplaining and self-effacing character of the humble Saint Ælfstán was well-suited to the task of governing this poor see, and he did so dutifully for eleven years. When he too reposed in the Lord on the twelfth of February, 981, his relics were taken back to Abingdon and interred there on the sixth of April that same year. Holy bishop Ælfstán, humble monastic cook and gentle shepherd of men, pray unto Christ our God that our souls may be saved!
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