Saint Aldhelm
Évêque et abbé (+ 709)
Moine bénédictin puis
abbé de Malmesbury en Angleterre avant de devenir le premier évêque de
Sherborne, tout en gouvernant son monastère, et mourut à Doulting, au cours
d’une visite pastorale.
À Malmesbury en
Angleterre, l’an 709, la mise au tombeau de saint Aldhelm, évêque et abbé.
Célèbre par son érudition, il fut d’abord abbé de Malmesbury, puis devint le
premier évêque de Sherborne, tout en gouvernant son monastère, et mourut à
Doulting, au cours d’une visite pastorale.
Martyrologe romain
SOURCE : http://nominis.cef.fr/contenus/saint/7062/Saint-Aldhelm.html
Saint Aldhelm, évêque de
Sherborne-Sarum ( 709 A.D.)
Saint Aldhelm (Ealdhelm)
est né vers l'an 63. On le dit fils de Kenten, de la maison royale du
Wessex. Il reçut son éducation du moine-savant irlandais Maeldubha, qui donna
son nom à Malmesbury. Aldhelm fut l'un des disciples de l'higoumène Adrien de
Canterbury. Ses études comprirent le droit romain, l'astronomie, les
mathématiques, et les difficultés du calendrier. Il apprit le grec et l'hébreu.
La mauvaise santé l'obligea à quitter Canterbury, et le saint retourna à l'abbaye
de Malmesbury, où il fut moine sous Maeldubha pendant 14 ans. Lorsque Maeldubha
naquit au Ciel en 675, Aldhelm fut nommé higoumène de Malmesbury.
Aldhelm introduisit la
règle bénédictine, et obtint le droit de l'élection de l'higoumène par les
moines. La communauté augmenta, et Aldhelm put fonder deux autres monastères:
Frome, dans le Somerset et Bradford on Avon, dans le Wiltshire. La petite
église de Saint-Laurent à Bradford on Avon (photo ci-dessous) remonte à son
époque, et c'est probablement la sienne. À Malmesbury, il construisit une
nouvelle église, et obtint des concessions de terre pour le monastère.
Sa renommée en tant
qu'érudit se propagea à d'autres pays. Artwil, fils d'un roi irlandais, soumis
pour approbation ses écrits à Aldhelm, et Cellanus, moine irlandais de Péronne
en Gaule, était un de ses correspondants. Aldhelm fut le premier anglo-saxon,
pour autant que nous le sachions, à écrire en vers latins, et sa lettre à
Acircius (Aldfrith ou Eadfrith, roi de Northumbrie) est un traité de prosodie
latine à l'usage de ses compatriotes. Dans ce travail, il a inclus ses
productions les plus célèbres, 101 énigmes en hexamètres latins. Chacune d'elle
est complète, et l'une d'elle a 83 vers.
Sa renommée en tant
qu'érudit atteignit l'Italie, et à la demande du pape Serge Ier, l'higoumène
Aldhelm fit une visite à Rome. Il fut chargé par le Synode de l'Eglise du
Wessex de faire des remontrances aux Bretons de la Dumnonie (Devon et Cornwall)
sur la controverse de Pâques. Les chrétiens britanniques suivaient un système
unique de calcul de la date de Pâques et arboraient aussi une tonsure
distinctive, ces coutumes sont généralement associées à la pratique dite du
christianisme celtique. Aldhelm écrivit une longue lettre et plutôt
acrimonieuse au roi de Dumnonie Geraint (Geruntius) pour parvenir à
un accord final avec le Patriarcat (Rome).
En 705, ou peut-être plus
tôt, Hedda, évêque de Winchester mourut, et le diocèse fut divisé en deux
parties. Sherborne fut le nouveau siège, dont Aldhelm, à contrecœur, devint le
premier évêque vers 705. Il souhaitait démissionner de l'abbaye de Malmesbury,
qu'il avait gouvernée pendant 30 ans, mais il céda aux remontrances des moines
et continua à la diriger jusques à sa mort. Bien qu'il fût maintenant un vieil
homme, saint Aldhelm fut très actif en tant qu'évêque. Il construisit une
église cathédrale à Sherborne, décrite par Guillaume de Malmesbury. Saint
Aldhelm était connu pour chanter des hymnes et des passages de l'Évangile,
entrecoupés de contes divertissants, dans les lieux publics afin de pouvoir
attirer l'attention de la foule et ensuite prêcher pour elle. Pour cela, il est
connu comme l'Apôtre du Wessex.
Saint Aldhelm s'endormit
dans le Seigneur dans l'église de Doulting le 25 mai 709. Son saint et
vénérable corps fut emmené de Malmesbury, et des croix furent érigées par
son ami, saint Egwin, évêque de Worcester, aux différentes haltes. Le saint fut
enterré dans l'église Saint-Michel à l'abbaye de Malmesbury (photo ci-dessous).
Ses biographes rapportent des miracles durant sa vie et à son sanctuaire. Il
fut vénéré comme saint après sa mort, et sa fête le 25 mai se trouve dans le
Missel de Sarum.
Saint père Aldhelm, prie
Dieu pour nous!
Version française Claude
Lopez-Ginisty
d'après
http://www.allmercifulsavior.com/icons/Icons-Aldhelm.htm
cité par
OODE
SOURCE : https://orthodoxologie.blogspot.com/2011/11/saint-aldhelm-eveque-de-sherborne-sarum.html
Statue de Saint Aldhelm, Catholic Church of St Aldhelm, Malmesbury. L’inscription : 'St Aldhelm 639–709, Abbot of
Malmesbury and Bishop of Sherborne, Latin Poet and Ecclesiastical Writer.'
Targa
murale nella chiesa cattolica di St Aldhelm a Malmesbury
Saint Aldhelm of Sherborne
Also
known as
Adhelm
Aldelmus
Memorial
25 May
Profile
Son of Centa, he was a
Saxon and related to the King of
Wessex. Lived for a while as a hermit near
Wiltshire, England. Monk at Malmesbury
Abbey in Wiltshire. Spiritual student of Saint Maeldulph and Saint Adrian
of Canterbury. Teacher and
spiritual director.
Abbot at Malmesbury c.685.
Instituted Benedictine reforms,
and the house became a model for those around it. Founded monasteries at
Frome and Brandford-on-Avon, and built three churches in Malmesbury,
one of which survives today. During one of the church constructions, a roof
beam was cut too short; Aldhelm prayed over
it, and it lengthened. Around the year 700 Aldhelm
installed the first church organ in England.
He was a tireless preacher –
legend says that one sermon lasted so long that his staff took root and became
a tree again. Spiritual writer known
internationally in his day. One of the founders of Anglo-Latin poetry.
A musician,
he was skilled in the harp, fiddle and pipes, and known as a skilled and
popular singer.
He travelled to Rome to
meet with Pope Saint Sergius
I and helped settle disputes on matters of theology and
practice between the Celtic and Anglo-Saxon churches. Bishop of Sherborne from 705 until
his death.
Born
640 in England
Died
25 May 709 at Doulting,
Somerset, England of
natural causes
buried at Saint Michael
the Archangel church, Malmesbury, England
relics translated
to a silver shrine in 857
Canonized
Pre-Congregation
Patronage
librarians
–
in England
Doulting
Malmesbury
Sherborne,
Dorset
Representation
bishop in
a library
bishop holding
a harp
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MLA
Citation
“Saint Aldhelm of
Sherborne“. CatholicSaints.Info. 17 February 2024. Web. 16 January 2025.
<https://catholicsaints.info/saint-aldhelm-of-sherborne/>
SOURCE : https://catholicsaints.info/saint-aldhelm-of-sherborne/
Book of Saints – Aldhelm
Article
(ADHELM) (Saint) Bishop
(May 25) (8th
century) The son of Kenter, a relative of Ina, King of Wessex, and a pupil
at Canterbury of the Abbot Saint Adrian. He further pursued his studies under
Saint Maidulf, an Irish scholar and the Founder of Malmesbury (Maidulfsbury).
Saint Aldhelm himself became Abbot later on in his life of this same Abbey of
Malmesbury, and, while holding this charge, at the request of a Synod, wrote
his well-known letter to Gerontius, King of the Daranonian Britons on the vexed
question of the date of Easter. On the division of the Diocese of Wessex, Saint
Aldhelra was appointed Bishop of the Western half, with his See at Sherborne in
Dorsetshire. Four years later (A.D. 709) he died at Dulting in Somersetshire.
He was undoubtedly a highly accomplished prelate, and was the first among the
Anglo-Saxons invaders of Britain to cultivate both Latin and vernacular poetry.
MLA
Citation
Monks of Ramsgate.
“Aldhelm”. Book of Saints, 1921. CatholicSaints.Info. 20 May 2012.
Web. 17 January 2025.
<http://catholicsaints.info/book-of-saints-aldhelm/>
SOURCE : https://catholicsaints.info/book-of-saints-aldhelm/
St. Aldhelm
Feastday: May 25
Patron: of
Malmesbury; Sherborne; musicians; song writers
Death: 709
Bishop and abbot, also
called Adelemus, Athelmas, Adelnie, Eadelhelm, Aedelhem. Born about 639, and a
relative of King Ine of Wessex, he received his early education at
Malmesbury, in Wiltshire, England. There he was trained by an Irish teacher,
Maildubh, and by Adrian, a native of Roman Africa. Adrian arrived in England
with Bishop Theodore
and was made abbot of
St. Augustine's, Canterbury. After his training in Malmesbury, Aldhelrn was
named abbot of
Malmesbury, where he practiced great austerity. During his term in office
the abbey prospered,
and he also founded St. Lawrence monastery,
in the area of Bradfordon-on-Avon. Aldhelm went to Rome to
represent Malmesbury before
Pope Sergius. He also counseled the Wessex Synod. In 705, Aldhelm succeeded
Hedda as bishop of
Sherborne, Hedda's original diocese being
divided. He died only four years later. A silver shrine was erected at Malmesbury in
857 by King Ethelwulf. The shrine honored not only the saint's holiness but
his extraordinary and long-lasting impact on English scholarship. He was the
first Englishman to promote classical learning in the isles. Some evidence of
his own remarkable literary skills is extant.
SOURCE : https://www.catholic.org/saints/saint.php?saint_id=1223
ALDHELM, ST.
Abbot, bishop, first
notable Anglo-Saxon writer; b. c. 640; d. Doulting (Somerset), May
25, 709. Kinsman of ine, King of Wessex, he was educated by Maildubh, Irish
founder of Malmesbury, and in Kent by the African Abbot hadrian, companion of
St. theodore of canterbury. As abbot of Malmesbury (from c. 675) he
rebuilt the church and monastery and made foundations at Frome and
Bradford-on-Avon. When the Wessex Diocese was divided in 705, he ruled the
western half (roughly Wiltshire, Dorset, and Somerset) while remaining abbot of
Malmesbury. He built churches in his cathedral town of Sherborne and on his
Dorset estates at Corfe and Wareham, near which a headland still bears his
name. He was buried at Malmesbury, whose principal saint he remained for
the Middle
Ages, in spite of the short suspension of his cult by lanfranc.
His principal works
include: De virginitate, a study of saints of the Bible and the early
Church in both prose and verse; De metris et enigmatibus ac pedum regulis,
a treatise on grammar; Letters, including one to the Britons on the date
of Easter and one to the clerics of St. Wilfrid on loyalty in persecution;
and Carmina ecclesiastica, a collection of religious poems. All of these
were widely read in England and on the Continent until the eleventh century.
Their turgid Latin influenced St. boniface and charter writers. King alfred
highly praised his Anglo-Saxon poems, sung to harp accompaniment to attract
hearers to church, but these have not survived. Highly esteemed by St. bede,
Aldhelm's learning and piety inspired many followers, including William
of Malmesbury.
Feast: May 23; May 28
(Dioceses of Clifton and Plymouth, and Southwark).
Bibliography: Aldhelmi
opera, ed. R. Ehwald, Monumenta Germaniae Historica: Auctores Antiquissimi 15. Aldhelm,
the poetic works, tr. M. Lapidge and J. L. Rosier (Cambridge 1985). Aldhelm,
the prose works, tr. M. Lapidge and M. Herren (Cambridge 1979). Bede, Historia
ecclesiastica, ed. C. Plummer (Oxford 1896, reprint 1956) 5:18. William of Malmesbury, Gesta Pontificum Anglorum, ed. N.Ee. Hamilton, Rerum
Britannicarum medii aevi scriptores 52 (1870) 330–443. G. F. Browne, St.
Aldhelm (London 1903). A. S. Cook, Sources of the Biography of
Aldhelm (Transactions of the Connecticut Academy of Arts and Sciences
28; New
Haven 1927). E. S. Duckett, Anglo-Saxon Saints and Scholars (New
York 1947, reprinted Hamden, Conn. 1967). A. Orchard, The Poetic
Art of Aldhelm (Cambridge, England 1994). N. P. Stork, Through a
Gloss Darkly: Aldhelm's Riddles in the British
Library MS Royal 12.C.xxiii (Toronto, Canada 1990). M. Gretsch, The intellectual foundations of the English Benedictine reform (Cambridge
1999).
[H. Farmer]
New Catholic Encyclopedia
SOURCE : https://www.encyclopedia.com/religion/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/aldhelm-st
Aldhelm of Sherborne, OSB
B (RM)
(also known as Adhelm,
Aldelmus)
Born in Wessex, England,
c. 640; died at Doulting in Somerset, May 25, 709. In the 7th century an Irish
monk named Maeldubh settled in the lonely forest country that in those days lay
in the northeast of Wiltshire. After living for a time as a hermit, he gathered
the children of the neighborhood for instruction. In the course of time his
hermitage became a school and so continued after his death, acquiring fame as a
community of scholars known as Malmesbury.
To this center of
learning came a young and clever boy called Aldhelm, a kinsman of Ina (Ine),
King of Wessex. He was to be the first English scholar of distinction. After
studying under Maeldubh, he learned what he could from Saint Adrian and Saint
Theodore at Canterbury, where he probably became a Benedictine monk (though he
may have done so earlier at Malmesbury).
He returned to Malmesbury
and under Aldhelm the school became a monastery, of which he was appointed
abbot about 675. He knew Greek, Latin, and Hebrew, and attracted scholars from
other lands. He was also a poet, and was so full of music that it was said that
he could play every musical instrument in use. In course of time he established
other smaller religious communities in the neighborhood and, thereby, advanced
education in all of Wessex.
He was an advisor to Ina
and held in high regard by King Alfred, who wrote down this story about him.
Aldhelm was distressed because the townspeople were indifferent to the Mass,
either by absenting themselves or by gossiping and remaining inattentive when
they attended. He therefore stood on the town bridge and acted the part of a
minstrel by singing popular ballads and reciting his verses interspersed with
hymns, passages from the gospels, a bits of clowning in hopes of winning 'men's
ears, and then their souls.' The result was that he soon collected a crowd of
hearers and was able to impart simple religious teaching to them; 'whereas if
he had proceeded with severity and excommunications, he would have made no
impression whatever upon them.'
Later, at the request of
Pope Sergius I, he accompanied Coedwalla, the West Saxon king, to Rome. Later
still, he took an active part in disputes between the Celtic and the
Anglo-Saxon Church. He addressed a famous letter to Gerent, king of Dumnonia
(Devon and Cornwall), explaining the date on which Easter ought to be kept by
the Celtic clergy there. At one famous synod (Whitby?) Aldhelm attempted
reconciliation with what remained of the old British Church in Cornwall, which
was then a kingdom with its own king.
In 705, Aldhelm became
the first bishop of Sherbourne, his appointment dating from the time of the
division of the old diocese of Wessex into Sherborne and Winchester. His brief
episcopate was marked by energy and enterprise. He had travelled a long way
from the days when he joined the school in the forest and sang as a minstrel on
Malmesbury Bridge. But always he is remembered as the Saxon poet-preacher, who
first translated the Psalms into the Anglo-Saxon tongue, and who sang the words
of Scripture into the hearts of the common people. In King Alfred's words:
'Aldhelm won men to heed sacred things by taking his stand as a gleeman and
singing English songs on a bridge."
His English writings,
hymns and songs, with their music, have all perished; of his Latin works, the
longest are a poem in praise of holy maidens and a treatise on virginity
written for the nuns of Barking in Essex. In his lighter moments he composed
Latin verse and metrical riddles. As a scholar, Saint Aldhelm has been
described as 'ingenious,' and it has been well said that the Latin language
went to his head. He liked to play with words and his writing was so involved
and obscure as often to be unintelligible; but his reading was extensive--so
extensive that he has been described as the first English librarian.
In his own day Aldhelm
had a wide influence in southern England. He was buried at Malmesbury Abbey.
The cape in Dorset usually called Saint Alban's Head is properly Saint
Aldhelm's Head (Attwater, Benedictines, Delaney, Duckett, Gill).
In art, Saint Aldhelm is
portrayed as a bishop in a library. He is venerated at Malmesbury (Roeder).
SOURCE : http://www.saintpatrickdc.org/ss/0525.shtml
St. Aldhelm
Abbot of Malmesbury and Bishop of Sherborne, Latin poet
and ecclesiastical writer
(c. 639-709). Aldhelm, also written Ealdhelm, Ældhelm, Adelelmus,
Althelmus, and Adelme, was a kinsman of Ine, King of Wessex, and
apparently received his early education at Malmesbury,
in Wiltshire, under an Irish Christian teacher
named Maildubh. It is curious that Malmesbury, in early documents, is
styled both Maildulfsburgh and Ealdhelmsbyrig, so that it is disputed whether
the present name is commemorative of Maildubh or Ealdhelm, or,
by "contamination," possibly of both (Plummer's "Bede," II,
310). Aldhelm himself attributes his progress in letters to the
famous Adrian, a native of Roman Africa, but formerly a monk of Monte
Cassino, who came to England in
the train of Archbishop
Theodore and was made Abbot of St.
Augustine's, Canterbury. Seeing, however, that Theodore came
to England only
in 671, Aldhelm must then have been thirty or forty years of age.
The Saxon scholar's turgid style and his partiality
for Greek and extravagant terms have been traced with some
probability to Adrian's influence (Hahn, "Bonifaz und Lul,"
p. 14). On returning to settle in Malmesbury our Saint, probably
already a monk,
seems to have succeeded his former teacher Maildubh, both in the direction
of the Malmesbury School, and also as Abbot of
the Monastery; but the exact dates given
by some of the Saint's biographers cannot be trusted, since they
depend upon charters of very doubtful authenticity.
As abbot his
life was most austere, and it is particularly recorded of him that he was wont
to recite the entire Psalter standing
up to his neck in ice-cold water. Under his rule the Abbey of
Malmesbury prospered greatly, other monasteries were
founded from it, and a chapel (ecclesiola), dedicated to St.
Lawrence, built by Aldhelm in the village of Bradford-on-Avon, is
standing to this day. (A. Freeman, "Academy," 1886, XXX, 154.) During
the pontificate of Pope
Sergius (687-701), the Saint visited Rome,
and is said to have brought back from
the Pope a privilege of exemption for his monastery.
Unfortunately, however, the document which in the twelfth century passed for
the Bull of Pope
Sergius is undoubtedly spurious. At the request of a synod, held
in Wessex, Aldhelm wrote a letter to the Britons of Devon
and Cornwall upon the Paschal
question, by which many of them are said to have been brought back
to unity. In the year 705 Hedda, Bishop of
the West Saxons, died, and, his diocese being
divided, the western portion was assigned to Aldhelm, who reluctantly became
the first Bishop of Sherborne.
His episcopate was short in duration. Some of
the stone-work of a church he built at Sherborne still
remains. He died at Doulting (Somerset), in 709. His body was conveyed
to Malmesbury, a distance of fifty miles, and crosses were
erected along the way at each halting place where his remains rested for the
night. Many miracles were
attributed to the Saint both before and after his death.
His feast was on May the 25th, and in 857 King Ethelwulf erected a
magnificent silver shrine at Malmesbury in
his honour.
"Aldhelm was the
first Englishman who cultivated classical learning with any success,
and the first of whom any literary remains are preserved"
(Stubbs). Both from Ireland and
from the Continent men wrote to ask him questions on points of
learning. His chief prose work is a treatise, "De laude virginitatis"
("In praise of virginity"), preserved to us in a large number
of manuscripts,
some as early as the eighth century. This treatise, in imitation
of Sedulius, Aldhelm afterwards versified. The metrical version is also
still extant, and Ehwald has recently shown that it forms one piece
with another poem, "De octo principalibus vitiis" (On the eight
deadly sins").
The prose treatise on virginity was dedicated to the Abbess and nuns of
Barking, a community which seems to have included more than one of
the Saint's own relatives. Besides the tractate on
the Paschal controversy already mentioned, several other letters of
Aldhelm are preserved. One of these, addressed to Acircius, i.e. Ealdfrith, King
of Northumbria, is a work of importance on the laws of
prosody. To illustrate the rules laid down, the writer incorporates in his
treatise a large collection of metrical Latin riddles. A few shorter
extant poems are interesting, like all Aldhelm's writings, for the
light which they throw upon religious thought
in England at
the close of the seventh century. We are struck by the writer's earnest devotion
to the Mother of God, by the veneration paid to the saints,
and notably to St. Peter, "the key-bearer," by the
importance attached to the holy sacrifice
of the Mass, and to prayer
for the dead, and by the esteem in which he held
the monastic profession. Aldhelm's vocabulary is very
extravagant, and his style artificial and involved. His latinity might perhaps
appear to more advantage if it were critically edited. An authoritative
edition of his works is much needed. To this day, on account of the
misinterpretation of two lines which really refer to Our
Blessed Lady, his poem on virginity is still printed as if it
were dedicated to a certain Abbess Maxima.
Aldhelm also composed poetry in his native tongue, but of this no specimen
survives. The best edition of Aldhelm's works, though very
unsatisfactory, is that of Dr. Giles (Oxford, 1844). It has been
reprinted in Migne (P.L.,
LXXXIX, 83 sqq.). Some of his letters have been edited among those of St.
Boniface in the "Monumenta Germaniae"
(Epist. Aevi Merovingici, I).
Sources
ABBOT FARICIUS in an
eleventh-century biography [Acta SS., May (VI)]; WILLIAM OF MALMESBURY, Gesta
Pontificum, V; WILDMAN, Life of St. Ealdhelm (London, 1905);
BROWNE, St. Aldhelm (London, 1903); LINGARD, Anglo-Saxon Church;
MONTALEMBERT, The Monks of the West (tr.), V; HUNT in Dict. of
Nat. Biog.; STUBBS in Dict. of Christ. Biog.; BIRON in Dict. de
théol. cath.; BONHOFF, Aldhelm von Malmesbury (Dresden, 1894);
SANDYS, A History of Classical Scholarship (Cambridge, 1903), 430;
MANITIUS, Geschichte der christlich-lateinischen Poesie (Stuttgart,
1891), 489-496; Sitzungsberichte Akad. Wien. Phil. Hist. cl. CXII,
536-634; EBERT, Geschichte der Litteratur des M. A. (2d ed., Leipzig,
1889), I, 623-634; TRAUBE, Karolingischen Dichtungen (Berlin,
1888); Sitzungsberichte des Bayer. Akad. phil. philolog. cl. (Munich,
1900), 477; EHWALD, Aldhelm's Gedicht de Virginitate (Gotha, 1904);
bibliography in CHEVALIER'S Répertoire, etc., Bio-Bibliogr. (2d ed.,
Paris, 1905), 45, 46.
Thurston, Herbert.
"St. Aldhelm." The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 1. New York: Robert
Appleton Company, 1907. 25 May 2017
<http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/01280b.htm>.
Transcription. This
article was transcribed for New Advent by Laura Ouellette.
Ecclesiastical
approbation. Nihil Obstat. March 1, 1907. Remy Lafort, S.T.D.,
Censor. Imprimatur. +John Cardinal Farley, Archbishop of New York.
Copyright © 2023 by Kevin Knight.
Dedicated to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.
SOURCE : http://www.knight.org/cathen/01280b.htm
Saint Aldhelm
The Aldhelm Window
Aldhelm was born in
Wessex in 639. When he was a young boy, he was sent to Canterbury to be
educated under Adrian, Abbot of St Augustine’s, and had soon impressed his
teachers with his skill in the study of Latin and Greek literature.
Aldhelm returned to
Wessex some years later and joined the community of monks in Malmesbury,
Wiltshire.
He embraced the monastic life and, in 680, became the monks’ teacher. His
excellent reputation spread far and wide, and scholars from France and Scotland
came to learn from him. By this time, Aldhelm is said to have spoken and
written fluent Latin and Greek, and was able to read the Old Testament in
Hebrew. He wrote poetry, composed music and sang – King Alfred the Great placed
him in the first rank of poets in the country and his ballads were popular even
as late as the 12th Century. Aldhelm excelled at playing many different
instruments, including the harp, fiddle and pipes.
In 683, Aldhelm was
appointed Abbot of Malmesbury. Under his leadership, the Abbey continued to be
a seat of learning and was given many gifts from kings and nobles. Aldhelm
enlarged the monastery at Malmesbury and built the Church of St Peter and St
Paul. He founded monasteries in Frome and Bradford-on-Avon, where he also built
St Laurence’s Church which still stands today.
During his time as Abbot,
Aldhelm noticed that instead of attending to the monks at Mass, the local
people preferred to spend their time gossiping and could not be persuaded to
listen to the preacher. So one day, he stationed himself on a bridge, like a
minstrel, and began to sing his ballads. The beauty of his verse attracted a
huge crowd and, when he had caught their attention, he began to preach the
Gospel
The historian William of
Malmesbury observed that if Aldhelm “had proceeded with severity … he would
have made no impression whatever upon them.” But by seeking out people where
they were and speaking directly to them, Aldhelm had succeeded in “impressing
on their minds a truer feeling of religious devotion.”
In 705, the Bishopric of
Wessex was split into two dioceses and Aldhelm was made Bishop of Sherborne. In
his time as bishop, he rebuilt the church at Sherborne and helped to establish
a nunnery at Wareham. He also built churches at Langton Matravers and the Royal
Palace at Corfe.
On 25th May 709, just
four years after his consecration, Aldhelm died at Doulting in Somerset. His
funeral procession travelled 50 miles from Doulting to Malmesbury and stone
crosses were planted at 7-mile intervals, to mark each place where his body
rested for the night. Today we celebrate 25th May, the date of Aldhelm’s death,
as a feast day to remember the first Bishop of Sherborne – a true evangelist
and an inspiring Saint.
St. Aldhelm is an example
to us of how to obey the directive of Christ.
“Go and make disciples of
all nations, baptising them in the name of Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit,
and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you.”
Matthew 28 verses 19-20.
There are 5 themes in the
window which illustrate this:
Five juggling balls
King Alfred was impressed
with how Aldhelm went outside the church walls to make Christ known to his
people. He tells the story of how when he was an Abbott, Aldhelm left his
congregation while they were busy in worship and went out the bridge, in the role
of a minstrel. He used various skills to draw a crowd so he could tell them the
gospel. Christians today use ‘street theatre’ in order to reach people who will
not venture inside. It is not a new idea! The present church here in Upper
Edmonton has links with amateur dramatic societies. Laughter and fun are also
part of the Christian life and Aldhelm wrote riddles about ordinary things of
life too. some of those which he wrote in Latin are still in print. He used his
many skills to gather an audience.
Aldhelm the Bishop
At the age of 65 Aldhelm
was made the first Bishop of Sherborne in A.D 705. He had a passion to convert
his people to Christ. Congregations were formed and churches were built in
various places throughout the Anglo Saxon kingdom of wessex. These include
places such as Langton Matravers, Frome, Bradford on Avon, sherborne, Wareham,
Malmesbury, and the Royal court of Corfe Castle. He was one of the most
successful missionary bishops in the South of England for several centuries.
Manuscript
In his hand is a
manuscript. Aldhelm went to canterbury to study Latin, Greek and Hebrew. He
returned to Malmesbury where he gathered around him people who were themselves
keen to learn. Some of his writings in Latin are still in print today. For
several centuries after his death he was known as the first and indeed one of
the finest anglo Latin scholars and poets. Although he was keen to teach, it
did not stop Aldhelm from being able to teach the gospel in his native tongue.
Harp
Aldhelm was a gifted
musician. He played various instruments of the day not just the harp, and
composed his own songs that helped people relate to him as an ordinary person
rather than an intellectual. Some four centuries later a biographer of Aldhelm
was able to report that some of his songs were still being sung by the Anglo
Saxon peasantry. Unfortunately, they were never written down, and also we do
not know whether he wrote music for worship. Many Christians down the centuries
have heard God’s call to write or sing or play music that is not for worship.
Through music Aldhelm touched the lives of the ordinary people.
Malmesbury Abbey
Aldhelm lived most of his
life in Malmesbury, and formed the tiny church there into a Christian
community. After a visit to Rome, he returned with the Pope’s blessing that he
should form his community around the rule of Benedict. He became Abbott in 675
at the age of 35, and remained so up to his death in AD 709. The Benedictines
were not only strong on daily prayer and worship, but also simple living and
strict morals. There was an abbey on the same site until Henry VIII th’s time.
The present ‘Malmesbury Abbey’ is now the Parish Church and is built around the
ruins of the old abbey. There is a Chapel there dedicated to St. Aldhelm. The
Abbey may have been his home and his base, but he went outside of the walls to
evangelise, and chose to baptise the converts in the river rather than inside
the Church.
SOURCE : http://www.saintaldhelms.co.uk/?page_id=48
May 25
St. Adhelm, or Aldhelm,
Bishop
HE 1 was
born among the West-Saxons, and a near relation of king Ina, but had his
education under St. Adrian at Canterbury. Maidulf, a pious Irish monk, founded
a small poor monastery, called from him Maidulfsbury, corruptly Malmesbury. In
this place Aldhelm took the monastic habit, and Maidulf seeing his great virtue
and capacity, resigned to him the abbacy in 675. The saint exceedingly raised
its reputation and increased its building and revenues. The church he dedicated
in honour of St. Peter, and added to it two others, the one in honour of the
Mother of God, the other of St. Michael. This abbey was rendered by him the
most glorious pile of building at that time in the whole island, as Malmesbury
testifies, who fills almost the whole second part of the life of this saint
with extracts or copies of the donations, charters, and privileges of many
kings and princes granted to this house, with an ample indult of Pope Sergius,
which the saint made a journey to Rome to obtain. He was an enemy to gluttony,
avarice, vain-glory, and all idle amusements, and watched assiduously in divine
reading and holy prayer. He was the first among our English ancestors who
cultivated the Latin and English or Saxon poesy, as he says of himself. His
principal work is a treatise On the praises of Virginity. 2 He
inserts at length the high commendations which St. Austin, St. Jerom, and other
fathers bestow on that state, and gives abridged examples of many holy virgins.
Among other mortifications it was the custom of this saint to recite the
psalter in the night, plunged up to the shoulders in water in a neighbouring
pond. When Hedda, bishop of the West-Saxons, or of Winchester, died, that
diocess was divided into two, that of Winchester and that of Sherburn. St.
Aldhelm who had been abbot thirty years, was taken out of his cell by force,
and consecrated the first bishop of Sherburn, which see was afterwards removed
to Salisbury. His behaviour in this laborious charge was that of a true
successor of the apostles. He died in the visitation of his diocess at Dullinge
in Somersetshire, on the 25th of May, in the year 709, the fifth of his
episcopal dignity. William of Malmesbury relates several miracles wrought by
him, both while he was living and after his death. His psalter, vestment, and several
other memorials were kept in his monastery till the dissolution. This abbey,
the glory of Wiltshire, then fell, and in it was defaced the sepulchral
monument of our great king Athelstan. See William of Malmesbury, in Wharton’s
Anglia Sacra, t. 2, p. 1, and L. de Pontif. published by Gale. This latter work
contains the history of this abbey. See also Mabillon, Sæc. 3, Ben. part. 1, et
Append, in Sæc. 4, part. 1, and Papebroke ad 25 Maij.
Note 1. Aldhelm,
signifies Old helmet. [back]
Note 2. Henry
Wharton has given us a far more correct edition than any former, at London, in
1663, together with certain treatises of St. Bede, and the Dialogue of Egbert,
archbishop of York. On his Saxon pious verses in which he excelled to a
miracle, as Ealfrid testifies, and his other works, see Cave and Fabricius,
Bibl. Med. Latinit. l. 1, p. 142; Tanner, de Script. Britan, &c. The first
book which St. Aldhelm wrote was a confutation of the erroneous computation of
the North Britons in the celebration of Easter, De Erroribus Britannorum, sive
De Circulo Paschali, which Malmesbury says was lost in his time; whence
Fabricius tells us it is not now extant. Yet Mabillon and others doubt not but
it is the forty-fourth epistle among those of St. Boniface, which treats on
this subject, and is addressed to Geruntius, king of Damnonia among the
West-Saxons; for the author styles himself Althelm, abbot. [back]
Rev. Alban
Butler (1711–73). Volume V: May. The Lives of the Saints. 1866.
SOURCE : http://www.bartleby.com/210/5/253.html
ALDHELM (c. 640-709),
bishop of Sherborne, English scholar, was born before the middle of the 7th
century. He is said to have been the son of Kenten, who was of the royal house
of Wessex, but who was certainly not, as Aldhelm's early biographer Faritius
asserts, the brother of King Ine. He received his first education in the school
of an Irish scholar and monk, Maildulf, Mældubh or Meldun (d. c. 675),
who had settled in the British stronghold of Bladon or Bladow on the site of
the town called Mailduberi, Maldubesburg, Meldunesburg, &c., and finally
Malmesbury,[1] after
him. In 668 Pope Vitalian sent Theodore of Tarsus to be archbishop of
Canterbury, and about the same time came the African scholar Hadrian, who
became abbot of St Augustine's at Canterbury. Aldhelm was one of his disciples,
for he addresses him as the "venerable preceptor of my rude
childhood." He must, nevertheless, have been thirty years of age when he
began to study with Hadrian. His studies included Roman law, astronomy,
astrology, the art of reckoning and the difficulties of the calendar. He
learned, according to the doubtful statements of the early lives, both Greek
and Hebrew. He certainly introduces many Latinized Greek words into his works.
Ill-health compelled him to leave Canterbury, and he returned to Malmesbury,
where he was a monk under Maildulf for fourteen years, dating probably from
661, and including the period of his studies with Hadrian. When Maildulf died,
Aldhelm was appointed in 675, according to a charter of doubtful authenticity
cited by William of Malmesbury, by Leutherius, bishop of Dorchester from 671 to
676, to succeed to the direction of the monastery, of which he became the first
abbot. He introduced the Benedictine rule, and secured the right of the
election of the abbot to the monks themselves. The community at Malmesbury
increased, and Aldhelm was able to found two other monasteries to be centres of
learning at Frome and at Bradford on Avon. The little church of St Lawrence at
Bradford dates back to his time and may safely be regarded as his. At
Malmesbury he built a new church to replace Maildulf's modest building, and
obtained considerable grants of land for the monastery. His fame as a scholar
rapidly spread into other countries. Artwil, the son of an Irish king,
submitted his writings for Aldhelm's approval, and Cellanus, an Irish monk from
Peronne, was one of his correspondents. Aldhelm was the first Englishman, so
far as we know, to write in Latin verse, and his letter to Acircius (Aldfrith
or Eadfrith, king of Northumbria) is a treatise on Latin prosody for the use of
his countrymen. In this work he included his most famous productions, 101
riddles in Latin hexameters. Each of them is a complete picture, and one of
them runs to 83 lines. That his merits as a scholar were early recognized in
his own country is shown by the encomium of Bede (Eccl. Hist. v. 18), who
speaks of him as a wonder of erudition. His fame reached Italy, and at the
request of Pope Sergius I. (687-701) he paid a visit to Rome, of which,
however, there is no notice in his extant writings. On his return, bringing
with him privileges for his monastery and a magnificent altar, he received a
popular ovation. He was deputed by a synod of the church in Wessex to
remonstrate with the Britons of Domnonia (Devon and Cornwall) on their
differences from the Roman practice in the shape of the tonsure and the date of
Easter. This he did in a long and rather acrimonious letter to their king
Geraint (Geruntius), and their ultimate agreement with Rome is referred by
William of Malmesbury to his efforts. In 705, or perhaps earlier, Hæddi, bishop
of Winchester, died, and the diocese was divided into two parts. Sherborne was
the new see, of which Aldhelm reluctantly became the first bishop. He wished to
resign the abbey of Malmesbury which he had governed for thirty years, but
yielding to the remonstrances of the monks he continued to direct it until his
death. He was now an old man, but he showed great activity in his new
functions. The cathedral church which he built at Sherborne, though replaced
later by a Norman church, is desribed by William of Malmesbury. He was on his
rounds in his diocese when he died in the church of Doulting on the 25th of May
709. The body was taken to Malmesbury, and crosses were set up by the pious
care of his friend, Bishop Ecgwine of Worcester, at the various halting-places.
He was buried in the church of St Michael. His biographers relate miracles due
to his sanctity worked during his lifetime and at his shrine.
Aldhelm wrote poetry in
Anglo-Saxon also, and set his own compositions to music, but none of his songs,
which were still popular at the time of Alfred, have come down to us. Finding
his people slow to come to church, he is said to have stood at the end of a
bridge singing songs in the vernacular, thus collecting a crowd to listen to
exhortations on sacred subjects. Aldhelm wrote in elaborate and grandiloquent
Latin, which soon came to be regarded as barbarous. Much admired as he was by
his contemporaries, his fame as a scholar therefore soon declined, but his
reputation as a pioneer in Latin scholarship in England as a teacher remains.
Aldhelm's works were
collected in J. A. Giles's Patres ecc. Angl. (Oxford, 1844), and
reprinted by J. P. Migne in his Patrologiae Cursus, vol. 89 (1850). The
letter to Geraint, king of Domnonia, was supposed to have been destroyed by the
Britons (W. of Malmesbury, Gesta Pontificum, p. 361), but was discovered
with others of Aldhelm's in the correspondence of St Boniface, archbishop of
Mainz. A long letter to Eahfrid, a scholar just returned from Ireland (first
printed in Usserii Veterum Epistt. Hiber. Sylloge, 1632), is of interest
as casting light on the relations between English and Irish scholars. Next to
the riddles, Aldhelm's best-known work is De Laude Virginitatis sive de
Virgintate Sanctorum, a Latin treatise addressed about 705 to the nuns of
Barking,[2] in
which he commemorates a great number of saints. This was afterwards turned by
Aldhelm into Latin verse (printed by Delrio, Mainz, 1601). The chief source of
his Epistola ad Acircium sive liber de septenario, et de metris,
aenigmatibus ac pedum regulis (ed. A. Mai, Class. Auct. vol. v.)
is Priscian. For the riddles included in it, his model was the collection known
as Symposii aenigmata. The acrostic introduction gives the sentence,
"Aldhelmus cecinit millenis versibus odas," whether read from the
initial or final letters of the lines. His Latin poems include one on the
dedication of a basilica built by Bugge (or Eadburga), a royal lady of the
house of Wessex.
Authorities.—Faritius (d.
1117), an Italian monk of Malmesbury, afterwards abbot of Abingdon, wrote
a Vita S. Aldhelmi (MS. Cotton, Faustina, B. 4), printed by Giles and
Migne, also in Original Lives of Anglo-Saxons (Caxton Soc., 1854);
but the best authority is William of Malmesbury, who in the fifth book, devoted
to St Aldhelm, of the Gesta Pontificum proposes to fill up the
outline of Fauritius, using the church records, the traditions of Aldhelm's
miracles preserved by the monks of Malmesbury, and the lost "Handboc"
or commonplace book of King Alfred. His narrative is divided into four parts:
the birth and attainments of Aldhelm, the religious houses he had established
and endowed, the miracles recorded of him, and the history of the abbey down to
the writer's own time (see De Gestis Pontificum, ed. N. E. S. A. Hamilton,
1870, for the Rolls Series, pp. 330-443). The life by John Capgrave in
his Legenda Nova (1516) L. Bönhoff, Aldhelm von Malmesbury (Dresden,
1894); T. D. Hardy, Descripitive Catalogue (1862), vol. i. pp.
389-396; T. Wright, Biog. Brit. Lit. (A.-S. Period, 1842); G. F.
Browne, bishop of Bristol, St Aldhelm; his Life and Times (1903); and
W. B. Wildman, Life of S. Ealdhelm, first Bishop of Sherborne (1905),
containing many interesting local details. For some poems attributed to
Aldhelm, and printed in Dümmler's edition of the letters of St Boniface and Lul
in Monumenta Germaniae Historica (epistt. tom. iii.), see H. Bradley
in Eng. Hist. Review, xv. p. 291 (1900), where they are attributed to
Aldhelm's disciple Æthilwald. The very varied sources and the chronology of
Aldhelm's work are discussed in "Zu Aldhelm und Baeda," by Max
Manitius, in Sitzungsberichte der kaiserlichen Akad. der Wissenschaften (Vienna,
1886).
An excellent account of
his ecclesiastical importance is given by W. Bright in Chapters on Early
English Church History (Oxford, 1878). For his position as a writer of
Latin verse consult A. Ebert, Allgemein Geschichte d. Literatur des
Mittelalters im Abendlande, vol. i. new edition (1889); M. Manitius, Geschichte
der christlich-lateinischen Poesie &c. (Stuttgart, 1891), pp. 487-496;
also H. Hahn, Bonifaz und Lul ihre angelsächsischen Korrespondenten, chap.
i. (Leipzig, 1883). The two last-named works contain many further
bibliographical references.
Jump
up ↑ For the disputed etymology of Malmesbury, which some connect
with Aldhelm's name, see Bishop Browne, St Aldhelm: his Life and Times, p.
73.
Jump
up ↑ Cuthburga, sister of King Ine of Wessex, and therefore
related to Aldhelm, left her husband Aldfrith, king of Northumbria, to enter
the nunnery at Barking. She afterwards founded the nunnery of Wimborne, of
which she became abbess.
1911 Encyclopædia Britannica, Volume 1
SOURCE : https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/1911_Encyclop%C3%A6dia_Britannica/Aldhelm
A
statue of St. Aldhelm on the West Front of Salisbury Cathedral, UK.
St. Aldhelm
(AD 639-709)
Abbot of Malmesbury
Bishop of Sherborne
Born: AD 639 in Wessex
Died: 25th May AD 709 at Doulting, Somerset
Aldhelm was born in
Wessex, in AD 639. He was apparently a 'nephew' of King Ine, probably, in fact,
a cousin of some kind. His father's name was Centa, and it has been suggested
that this was a pet name for Ine's sometime predecessor, King Centwin, who died
in AD 685. This would make him a brother of St.
Edburga of Minster-in-Thanet. When but a boy, Aldhelm was sent to
school under Adrian, Abbot of St. Augustine's, Canterbury and soon excited the
wonder, even of his teachers, by his progress in the study of Latin and Greek.
When somewhat more advanced in years, however, he returned to his native land
of Wessex.
After his return to
Wessex, Aldhelm joined the community of scholars which had become established
at Malmesbury, in Wiltshire, under St.
Maeldulph; in imitation of whom, he embraced the monastic life. His stay
was not, however, of Iong duration. He made a second visit to Kent and
continued to attend the school of St.
Adrian, until sickness compelled him to revisit the country of the West
Saxons. He again sought the greenwood shades of Malmesbury and, after a lapse
of three years, he wrote a letter to his old master Adrian, describing the
studies in which he was occupied and pointing out the difficulties which he
still encountered.
This was in AD 680. From
being the companion of the monks in their studies, Aldhelm soon became their
teacher and his reputation for learning spread so rapidly that the small
society gathered around him at Malmesbury was increased by scholars from France
and Scotland. He is said to have been able to write and speak Greek, to have
been fluent in Latin and able to read the Old Testament in Hebrew. At this
period, the monks and scholars appear to have formed only a voluntary
association, held together by similarity of pursuits and the fame of their teacher.
They do not appear to have been subjected to rules. How Iong they continued to
live in this manner is uncertain. However, around AD 683, either at their own
solicitation or by the will of the West Saxon monarch and the bishop, they were
formed into a regular monastery under the rule of St. Benedict. Aldhelm was
appointed their abbot.
Under Aldhelm, the abbey
of Malmesbury continued, long, to be a seat of piety as well as learning and
was enriched with many gifts by the West Saxon kings and nobles. Its abbot
founded smaller houses in the neighbourhood, at Frome and Bradford-on-Avon.
His church at the latter survives almost completely intact. At Malmesbury,
Aldhelm found a small, but ancient, church, then in ruins, which he rebuilt, or
repaired, and dedicated it to SS. Peter and Paul, the favourite saints of the
Anglo-Saxons around that time. His biographers have preserved the verses which
Aldhelm composed to celebrate its consecration.
Aldhelm was not a
voluminous writer. The works, which alone have given celebrity to his name, are
his two treatises on Virginity and his Aenigmata. He may, however, be
considered the father of Anglo-Latin poetry; though he also composed in
Anglo-Saxon. King
Alfred the Great placed him in the first rank of the vernacular
poets of his country and we learn, from William of Malmesbury, that, even as
late as the 12th century, some ballads he had composed continued to be popular.
To be a poet, it was then necessary to be a musician also and Aldhelm's
biographers assure us that he excelled on all the different instruments then in
use: the harp, fiddle and pipes included. Long after he became Abbot of
Malmesbury, Aldhelm appears to have devoted much of his leisure time to music
and poetry. King Alfred entered into his notebook, an anecdote which is
peculiarly characteristic of the age and which probably belongs to the period
that preceded the foundation of the Abbey. Aldhelm observed, with pain, that
the peasantry, instead of assisting as the monks sung mass, ran about from
house to house gossiping and could hardly be persuaded to attend to the
exhortations of the preacher. Aldhelm watched the occasion and stationed
himself, in the character of a minstrel, on the bridge over which the people
had to pass. Soon he had collected a crowd of hearers, by the beauty of his verse,
and, when he found that grabbed their attention, he gradually introduced, among
the popular ballads he was reciting to them, words of a more serious nature. At
length, he succeeded in impressing upon their minds a truer feeling of
religious devotion; "Whereas if," as William of Malmesbury observes,
"he had proceeded with severity and excommunication, he would have made no
impression whatever upon them."
Few details of the latter
part of Aldhelm's life have been preserved. We know that his reputation continued
to be extensive. After he had been made Abbot of Malmesbury, he received an
invitation from Pope Sergius I to visit Rome, and he is supposed to have
accompanied Caedwalla, King of the West Saxons, who was baptized by that Pope,
and died in the Eternal City in AD 689. He did not, however, remain abroad for
long.
In AD 692, Aldhelm
appears, from his letter on the subject quoted by his biographers, to have
taken part, to a certain degree, in St. Wilfred's great controversy against the
Celtic usages of the Northumbrian Church. Soon after this, he is found employed
in the same dispute about the celebration of Easter, with the Britons of
Cornwall. A synod was called by King Ine, about AD 700, to attempt a
reconciliation between the remains of the ancient British Church in the extreme
west with the Anglo-Saxon Church, and Aldhelm was appointed to write a letter
on the subject to King
Gerren of Dumnonia (by then reduced to Cornwall), which is still
preserved. Five years later, upon the death of St.
Haedda, the Bishopric of Wessex was divided into two dioceses, of which
one, that of Sherborne, was given to St. Aldhelm, who appears to have been
allowed to retain, at the same time, the Abbacy of Malmesbury. He soon rebuilt
the church at Sherborne in fitting cathedral style, as well as helping to
establish the nunnery of St. Mary at Wareham. He built churches at Langton
Matravers and the Royal palace at Corfe; and the present Norman chapel on the
windswept promontory of St. Aldhelm's Head, no doubt, replaces a Saxon
original.
Not long afterwards, on
the 25th May AD 709, Aldhelm died at Doulting in Somerset. His body was carried
to Malmesbury, where it was buried in the presence of Egwin, Bishop of
Worcester. Stone crosses were placed as markers every seven miles along the
route between the two towns and it was not long before his body was placed in a
magnificent shrine and reverred as a saint.
Edited from
Baring-Gould's "Lives of the Saints" (1877).
SOURCE : https://web.archive.org/web/20180512003932/http://www.britannia.com/bios/saints/aldhelm.html
Dictionary
of National Biography – Aldhelm
Article
Aldhelm (640?–709),
bishop of Sherborne, was the son of Kenten, who is said by Faricius to have
been the brother of King Ine. William of Malmesbury, however, corrects Faricius
for this statement, saying that Kenten was not the brother, but a near kinsman,
of the king. By Kenten the name Centwine is evidently meant, and it is possible
that Aldhelm may have been, as Mr. Freeman suggests (see below), the son of
Centwine, king of the West Saxons (died 685). In childhood Aldhelm was placed
under the care of Maildulf, a learned Scot, who early in the century settled in
the place which, as Malmesbury, still preserves his name, and from him Aldhelm
first learned those studies for which he became famous. A higher education than
could be had at Malmesbury was in store for him. When, in 668, Theodore was
sent over to England by Pope Vitalian to be archbishop, the English were fast
falling back into the rudeness of heathenism. With Theodore came Hadrian, an
African, of a convent near Monte Cassino, and the coming of Theodore and
Hadrian caused a sudden intellectual change in England. As soon as the new
teachers were established at Canterbury, a vast number of scholars flocked to
them; for they taught secular as well as sacred learning. Amongst these
scholars was Aldhelm. On his return from Canterbury he gained his living by
teaching, but, not content with what he had already learned, he seems to have
visited Canterbury a second time for the sake of Hadrian’s instruction, and to
have stayed there until forced to leave by ill-health. When Maildulf was very
old, he probably retired from the government of the society he had founded, and
Leutherius, bishop of the West Saxons (670–676), committed it to Aldhelm. As
abbot, Aldhelm was widely known as one of the most learned men of his time.
Scholars of France and Scotland sought his advice. When learning was at its
lowest ebb in the rest of Western Europe, it flourished in England; and a story
told of Aldhelm incidentally shows that books commanded a better price here
than on the Continent, and were largely imported. Bede knew pupils of Theodore
and Hadrian, to whom Latin and Greek were as their mother-tongue; and this new
spirit of learning extended to nunneries, for Aldhelm addressed his treatise,
‘De Laude Virginitatis,’ to the abbess of Barking and her nuns. Aldhelm was
foremost in this intellectual movement. His Latin treatises are written in an
intricate style, and are full of latinised Greek words. His letters and his
Latin verses are more simply expressed. He was skilful in all kinds of music,
in singing, and in improvisation. Finding the people unwilling to listen to
preaching, he stood on a bridge where many came and went, and sang songs, and
when a crowd had gathered round him, thinking him a professional minstrel, he
would gradually bring sacred subjects into his song. William of Malmesbury tells
us, on the authority of the lost ‘Manual of Alfred,’ that that king loved the
English poems of Aldhelm. None of these English compositions are preserved.
Faricius says that, besides having a thorough knowledge of Latin and Greek, he
could read the Scriptures in Hebrew. He studied theology, Roman jurisprudence,
the art of poetry and astronomy. Arithmetic, at that time chiefly used for
ecclesiastical calculations, he found very hard. His observations on natural
phenomena show how readily faith was placed in the fables of antiquity.
Aldhelm was no less great
as a builder than as a scholar. He built a church dedicated to SS. Peter and
Paul to be the head church of his monastery. Some Latin verses record his
feeling on its completion. These Dr. Giles, following Faricius, has wrongly
attributed to his visit to Rome. He also built two other churches at
Malmesbury. One of these, Saint Mary’s, succeeded Saint Peter’s as the chief
church in the tenth century. In spite of the rage for pulling down and
rebuilding which prevailed after the Conquest, Saint Mary’s remained perfect to
the time of William of Malmesbury. As he wrote, it was giving place to another.
He speaks of it as surpassing in beauty and in size all the churches which had
been raised in old time in England. No expense was spared on it. The walls were
of stone, the roof was of timber; and a legend is told about one of its beams
which illustrates the active interest which the abbot took in the work. Aldhelm
also built a church at Bruton, and another on his own estate near Wareham, of
which the walls still stood in William’s time. The church he raised for his see
at Sherborne excited the admiration of William, though he saw the buildings of
Bishop Roger. Aldhelm also built and ruled over monasteries at Frome and
Bradford. One specimen of his building still remains. His little church of
Saint Lawrence at Bradford (‘ecclesiola,’ Gest. Pont. 346), which William saw,
was built on the field of the victory of Cenwealh, his uncle, if indeed King
Centwine was his father. After centuries of neglect it has been rescued from
desecration, and is a witness of the elaborate workmanship of that form of
primitive Romanesque architecture, which Aldhelm adopted. In all his works
Aldhelm found a helper in his kinsman, Ine. His influence over Ine was great,
and it was by his advice that the king rebuilt the church of Glastonbury.
Aldhelm visited Rome during the pontificate of Sergius (687–701). An idle
legend is told by William of Malmesbury, of a miracle by which Aldhelm, who was
held in honour by the pope, proved his chastity when accused by the people
(Anastas. Vita Sergii, in Muratori, tom. iii.). He received at Rome the grant
of privileges for his monasteries for which he came. On his return he was met
by Ine and Æthelred of Mercia, with a large number of people in triumphal
procession.
In 705 a synod of West
baxon bishops was held to consider how the church might be widened so as to
include the Welsh, many of whom were within the boundaries of Ine’s kingdom,
and Aldhelm was deputed to be the mouthpiece of the synod. He accordingly wrote
a letter to Gerent, prince of Domnonia or Dyfnaint (Devon and Cornwall), in
which he treats of the chief points of difference between the churches, the
date of Easter, and the shape of the tonsure. This letter is remarkable; for it
treats the Welsh as men who are to be convinced by reason, and shows a very
strong desire for union with them. Bede records that this letter led many to
conform to the catholic usage as regards Easter.
During the same year,
Ine, in a synod of bishops, divided his kingdom into two bishoprics. The forest
of Selwood was made the point of division, and to the west of the wood was
formed a new diocese, over which Aldhelm was, against his will, made bishop.
William of Malmesbury is mistaken when he describes the extent of Aldhelm’s
diocese; for the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, followed by Henry of Huntingdon, for
want of a tribal name, calls it ‘be Westanwuda.’ It therefore took in part of
Wiltshire, Somerset, and Dorset, and, as it appears that Saint Boniface was
born at Crediton, and entered monastic life at Exeter, the southern part of
Devonshire must by this time have formed part of the West Saxon kingdom, and
would be included in the new diocese. The success of the letter to Gerent no
doubt marked Aldhelm out as the right man to rule over a diocese in which the
Welsh must have been numerous. He fixed his see at Sherborne. When he became
bishop, he wished to put abbots over his monasteries. The monks, however,
begged that he would continue to rule over them as long as he lived, and he
agreed to do so. He administered the affairs of his diocese diligently, making
constant preaching expeditions, which he performed on foot. These expeditions
are said to be commemorated in the name of the village of Bishopstrow (tree),
the scene of a legend which William of Malmesbury tells of his ashen staff. As
he was thus journeying he fell sick at Doulting, near Wells, and died (709) in
the wooden church of that village. He was buried at Malmesbury. He was held as
a saint, and William of Malmesbury represents Æthelstan, in a moment of extreme
danger, as calling on God and Saint Aldhelm. His day is 25 May.
The extant works of
Aldhelm are: 1. ‘De Laude Virginitatis,’ in prose, containing a number of instances
of triumphant chastity, dedicated to Hildelitha, abbess of Barking. This work
is commended by Bede. It became very popular, and was printed by James Faber at
Deventer as early as 1512; by Canisius, in ‘Antiquæ Lectiones,’ v. 1608; in
‘Bibliotheca Patrum,’ var. edit.; and by Wharton, in ‘Bædæ Opera,’ 1693. 2. ‘De
Laudibus Virginum,’ a poem on the same subject—’ad Maximam
Abbatissam’—published by Delrio at Maintz, 1601. 3. ‘Epistola ad Acircium, or
Liber de Septenario,’ a treatise on verse-making for Acircius, or Aldfrid, King
of Northumbria, published by Mai in Class. Auct. v. In this treatise are
included the Ænigmata, also published separately by Delrio. These are riddles
in Latin hexameters. They contain some curious illustrations of the everyday
life of the time. 4. ‘Epistola ad Geruntium de Synodo,’ the letter to Gerent
referred to above, in ‘Ep. S. Bonifatii,’ 1629 and var. edit. 5. A poem, ‘De
Aris S. Mariæ,’ published by Mai in Class. Auct. 6. ‘De Octo principibus
Vitiis,’ a poem, by Delrio. 7. A little treatise, ‘De Pentateucho;’ and some
short letters and poems. The collected works of Aldhelm have been published by
Migne in the ‘Patrologia,’ vol. lxxxix., and by Dr. Giles, in ‘Patres Eccles.
Angl.’, 1844, Oxford. Lives of Aldhelm are said to have been written by
Ecgwine, bishop of Worcester (693–719), who buried him; by Osmund, bishop of
Sarum (1078–99); and by Eadmer, the historian; but these are not extant. We
have a life by Faricius, a learned Italian physician, a monk of Malmesbury, and
abbot of Abingdon (died 1117), and another by William of Malmesbury in the
‘Gesta Pontificum.’ Capgrave has also compiled a life of Aldhelm in his
‘Legenda Nova.’
MLA
Citation
William Hunt.
“Aldhelm”. Dictionary of National Biography, 1885. CatholicSaints.Info.
7 April 2019. Web. 17 January 2025.
<https://catholicsaints.info/dictionary-of-national-biography-aldhelm/>
SOURCE : https://catholicsaints.info/dictionary-of-national-biography-aldhelm/
Golden Legend –
Life of Saint Aldhelm
Here followeth the life
of Saint Aldhelm.
Saint Aldhelm the
confessor was born in England. His father highs Kenton; he was brother unto
Ina, king of this land, and when king Ina was dead, Kenton was made king after
him, and then this holy child Aldhelm was set to school in the house of
Malmesbury, where afterward he was made abbot. And then he did there great cost
in building and did do make there a full royal abbey. And when the pope heard
of his great holiness, he sent for him to come to Rome, and when he was there
the pope welcomed him and was much glad of his good living, and there he abode
long time with the pope, and gat full great privileges and liberties to the
house of Malmesbury, in such wise that no bishop in England should visit ne
have to do there, ne the king to let them of their free election, but chose
their abbot among the convent themselves. And when he had gotten all this of
the pope he was full glad and joyful, and lived there holily a long time. And
on a day he said mass in the church of Saint John Lateran, and when mass was
done, there was no man that would take his chasuble from him at the end of the
mass, and then he saw the sunbeam shine through the glass window, and hung his
chasuble thereon, whereof all the people marvelled greatly of that miracle, and
the same chasuble is yet at Malmesbury, the colour thereof is purple. And
within short time after, he came again into England, and brought with him many
privileges under the pope’s seal, which after, king Ina confirmed all that the
pope had granted to the house of Malmesbury. This was about the year of our
Lord seven hundred and six. And that time there fell a great variance among the
bishops of this land for the holding of Easter day, but Saint Aldhelm made a
book that all men should know for ever when Easter day should fall, the which
book is yet at Malmesbury. And that abbey he did do make in the worship of our
blessed Lady. And Brightwold that was archbishop of Canterbury heard of
Aldhelm’s holy living, and he sent for him to be his chancellor, and they lived
together full holily long time, and each was full glad and joyful of the other.
And on a day as they
stood at the seaside by Dover Castle, they saw a ship laden with merchandise
not far from them, and Saint Aldhelm called to them to wit if they had any
ornaments longing to holy church within their ship to sell. But the merchants
had disdain of him, and thought he was not of power to buy such things as they
had to sell, and departed from the holy man. But anon fell on them so great a tempest
that they were in peril for to perish, and then one of them said: We suffer
this trouble because we had disdain of the words of yonder holy man, and
therefore let us all meekly desire him to pray for us to our Lord Jesu Christ.
They did so, and anon the tempest ceased, and then they came to this holy man
and brought to him a full fair Bible, the which is yet at Malmesbury unto this
day. And four years before his death he was made bishop of Dorset by the
archbishop of Canterbury and by other bishops, but within short time after he
died, and lieth buried at Malmesbury thereas he was abbot. And after that Saint
Egewin came to offer at his tomb, fettered with chains of iron fast locked, and
from thence he went so to Rome to the pope, alway wearing those fetters which
was to him great pain, God reward him his meed. And Saint Aldhelm, ere he died,
cursed all them that did any wrong in breaking of the privileges of the said
abbey of Malmesbury, and them that help the house to maintain God’s service
shall have God’s blessing and his. And when he had lain long in the earth he
was translated, and laid in a full rich shrine, whereas our Lord showeth daily
for his holy servant many fair miracles. Then let us pray Saint Aldhelm to pray
for us unto our Lord God, that we may in this wretched vale of this world so
bewail our sins and amend our living that we may come to everlasting life in
heaven. Amen.
SOURCE : https://catholicsaints.info/golden-legend-life-of-saint-aldhelm/
Statue of St Aldhelm in Sherborne Abbey by Marzia Colonna, erected in
2004
Sant' Aldelmo (Adelmo) Abate
e vescovo
25
maggio
Etimologia: Aldelmo =
Adelmo, nobile protettore, dall'antico tedesco
Emblema: Bastone
pastorale
Martirologio Romano: In
Inghilterra, sant’Aldelmo, vescovo, che, celebre per la dottrina e gli scritti,
già abate di Malmesbury, fu poi ordinato primo vescovo di Sherborne tra i
Sassoni occidentali.
ALDELMO (Adelmo), abate
di MALMESBURY, vescovo di SHERBORNE, santo.
Aldelmo è nome
anglosassone: Ealdhelm (= vetus galea, “antico elmo”, in senso di ottima
“protezione”), latinizzato in Aldhelmus o Althelmus e Adelelmus. Ma l'esatta
grafia ci è data da Aldelmo stesso nella prefazione ai suoi Enigmi con
l'acrostico “Aldhelmus”. Di questa etimologia tratta espressamente Guglielmo di
Malmesbury all'inizio della vita di Aldelmo; se ne occupa pure, criticamente,
Rudolf Ehwald. Lo stesso Guglielmo di Malmesbury considera anche la forma
derivata Adelmus (donde il francese Adelme e l'italiano Adelmo), avvertendo che
questo modo di scrivere il nome del santo deriva dai distici, che s. Dunstano
fece scolpire nella restaurata chiesa del monastero, eliminando la prima
"l" per “licenza poetica”, ut versus staret (PL, CLXXIX, col. 1660: vi
sono riportati due distici con il nome di Aldelmo). Tuttavia questa forma del
nome così abbreviato (Adelmus) ha dato luogo ad una diversa etimologia, cioè,
come scrive Carlo Hegger, “a verbis Germanicis adal, quod idem valet ac
nobilis, et helm, cuius vis est galea, praesidium, tutamen” .
Aldelmo proveniva da
nobilissima famiglia sassone: si è soliti dire da famiglia “reale”. Suo padre,
infatti, di nome Kenten, era stretto parente (non “ fratello ” come si è
affermato) del re Ina, come chiarisce Guglielmo di Malmesbury: “Beati Aldhelmi
patrem non fuisse regis Inae germanum, sed arctissima necessitudine
consanguineum”. Probabilmente quindi Aldelmo, notevolmente più anziano, ed il
re Ina (cui è dovuto il primo codice di leggi sassoni) erano cugini.
Aldelmo nacque nel Wessex
(non si conosce con precisione la località) verso il 640, forse nel 639, e morì
settantenne, il 25 maggio 709. Ebbe come primo istitutore il monaco irlandese
Maildulfo “natione Scotus, eruditione philosophus, professione monacus”,
fondatore del monastero che da lui prende il nome di Malmesbury (in Beda:
Maildulfi urbs; in Guglielmo di Malmesbury: Meldunum, Meldunense coenobium).
Intorno al 670, già religioso, e probabilmente già sacerdote, si recò alla
scuola di Canterbury per perfezionarsi negli studi. Qui ebbe maestri
l'arcivescovo s. Teodoro di Tarso, greco di origine, e soprattutto l'abate s.
Adriano, africano di nascita, che vi erano giunti da poco, e che assai
influirono sulla sua formazione spirituale e culturale, tanto che Aldelmo
chiama Adriano “venerando maestro della sua rude infanzia”.
Tornato a Malmesbury, vi
esercitò con ardore l'insegnamento. Alla morte di Maildulfo (verso il 675), il
vescovo di Winchester, Leuterio, lo volle abate del monastero e gli donò il terreno
necessario per lo sviluppo del cenobio. Aldelmo ingrandì la chiesa primitiva
consacrata al S.mo Salvatore e ai santi Apostoli Pietro e Paolo, e ne edificò
altre due, una in onore della S.ma Vergine e l'altra in onore di s. Michele
Arcangelo. Sotto il pontificato di Sergio I (687-701) intraprese un viaggio a
Roma, tornando in patria con l'insigne privilegium di esenzione del suo
monastero, posto alla diretta dipendenza della Santa Sede .
Aldelmo diede impulso
agli studi e all'arte e in un trentennio di governo portò il suo monastero a
grande splendore. Si prodigò per l'evangelizzazione del paese anche con canti
popolari in volgare. Nelle controversie disciplinari con i Brettoni (Celti) fu
vindice della causa romana e apostolo di pace.
Divisa in due la vasta
diocesi di Winchester, unica allora per i Sassoni occidentali (Wessex), Aldelmo
fu eletto, nel 705, vescovo della nuova diocesi di Sherborne, pur rimanendo,
per volontà dei monaci, superiore del monastero. Il suo episcopato fu breve,
perché egli morì il 25 maggio 709, durante una visita pastorale, nel villaggio
di Dulting (Somersetshire). Fu riportato trionfalmente a Malmesbury ed ivi
sepolto nella chiesa di S. Michele, “ubi sibi vir sanctissimus olim sepulturam
providerat”. A lungo furono conservate le “lapideae cruces” che furono erette
“ad septem milliaria” per segnare le tappe del suo glorioso passaggio.
Autore: Igino
Cecchetti
SOURCE : http://www.santiebeati.it/Detailed/90567.html
ALDELMO, santo
di Donato MAZZONI
Enciclopedia Italiana
(1929)
ALDELMO, santo (lat.
Aldhelmus; anglosass. Ealdhelm)
Nacque nel Wessex (forse
figlio di re Centwine) verso il 640. Studiò a Canterbury con Teodoro di Tarso e
Adriano (abbate di Nardò, poi dei Ss. Pietro e Paolo a Canterbury), dai quali
acquistò la vasta cultura intellettuale che si manifesta nei suoi scritti.
Succedette a Maidulfo nella direzione della scuola di Malmesbury, e circa il
675 anche come abbate. Sotto il pontificato di Sergio I (687-701) fu a Roma;
nel 705 fu nominato vescovo di Sherborne. Morì nel 709; fu venerato come santo
(25 maggio).
A. lasciò scritti in
vernacolo, ora perduti, e fu il primo tra gli Anglosassoni a scrivere in lingua
latina, esercitando notevole influsso in Britannia e più ancora nel continente.
Egli stesso era in corrispondenza con Cellano, abbate del monastero irlandese
di Péronne, nella Francia settentrionale (cfr. Traube, Perrona Scottorum,
in Sitzungsber. der bayer. Akad. der Wiss., phil. hist.
Kl., 1900, p.469 segg.). S. Bonifazio, l'apostolo della Germania, nella sua
formazione intellettuale dipende molto da Aldelmo, come mostra la sua
collezione di Aenigmata, nella quale l'influsso di A. si manifesta in modo
cospicuo. Per mezzo di Bonifazio e del suo discepolo Lullo, Aldelmo fu
introdotto nelle scuole della Francia carolingia.
Tra le sue opere (ed.
Ehwald, in Monumenta Germaniae Historica, Auct. Antiquiss., X),
notiamo un trattato in prosa, De Virginitate, in sessanta capitoli,
scritto fra il 690 e il 700; varie lettere, tra cui una al re gallese Geraint,
che inculca l'osservanza degli usi ecclesiastici romani, ed una a Eahfrid,
dallo stile lambiccato, con vocaboli greci, in cui elogia Teodoro di Tarso; un
altro suo scritto tratta del mistico numero sette e dei diversi metri latini,
frammischiando alla prosa un centinaio d'indovinelli in esametri. L'opera,
composta tra il 690 ed il 694, è interessante per le numerose citazioni di
antichi grammatici. Tra le opere poetiche la principale (oltre a varie poesie
d'occasione, specialmente dediche di altari) è il De virginitate, scritto
fra il 700 e il 706, di quasi 3000 esametri, in stile meno ornato e insieme
meno barbaro che le opere in prosa.
Bibl.: M. Manitius,
in Sitzungsber. der Wiener Akad., Ph. Hist. Kl., CXII (1886), p. 536
segg.; id., Geschichte der lateinischen Literatur des Mittelalters, I,
Monaco 1911, p. 134 segg.; Browne, St. A., his Life and Times, Londra
1903; Wildman, St. Eal., Londra 1905; D. Mazzoni, in Rivista storica
benedettina, 1915, p. 430 segg.
© Istituto della
Enciclopedia Italiana fondata da Giovanni Treccani - Riproduzione riservata
SOURCE : https://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/santo-aldelmo_(Enciclopedia-Italiana)/
St Andrew, Bethune Road - Stained glass window
Den hellige Aldhelm av
Sherborne (~639-709)
Minnedag:
25. mai
Skytshelgen for
Malmesbury og Sherborne; for musikere og sangskrivere
Den hellige Aldhelm
(Adhelm, Aldelm, Adelme, Ealdhelm, Eadelhelm, Aedelhem; lat: Aldelmus,
Athelmus) ble født rundt 639 i Wessex i Sør-England. Han tilhørte kongefamilien
i Wessex og ble født mens vestsakserne ble styrt av kong Cynegils (611-42), som
var den første kristne kongen, døpt i 635 av den hellige biskop Birinus av
Dorchester. Aldhelm var trolig fetter eller tremenning av den hellige
kong Ine
(Ina) av Wessex (688-726), i alle fall ikke bror, som Aldhelms tidlige
biograf Faritius hevder. Farens navn var Centa (Kenten), og det er gjettet på
at dette var et kjælenavn for kong Centwine av Wessex (676-85), og det ville i
tilfelle gjøre ham til bror av den hellige Edburga av Thanet,
men dette er svært usikkert.
Aldhelm nevnes kort av
den hellige Beda
den Ærverdige, som var hans samtidige, men det meste av det vi vet om
Aldhelm kommer fra biografien som ble skrevet av munken og historikeren William
av Malmesbury (ca 1080-1143).
På 600-tallet var det en
hellig irsk lærer og munk ved navn Maildulf (Mailduib,
Maedulph, Maeldubh, Meldun) som slo seg ned i det britiske støttepunktet Bladon
(eller Bladow) i de ensomme skogene som den gangen lå i det nordøstre
Wiltshire. Han ser ut til å ha slått seg ned i en åsside nær det saksiske
kongepalasset Ingelburne. Etter å ha bodd en tid som eremitt, samlet han barna
i området for å undervise dem. Rundt 642 ble hans eneboerhytte en skole, og den
fortsatte etter hans død rundt 675 og ble berømt som en kommunitet av lærde.
Byen som vokste opp ble kjent som Mailduberi, Maldubesburg, Meldunesburg og
lignende og til slutt Malmesbury etter Maildulf. I tidlige dokumenter kalles
stedet både Maildulfsburgh og Ealdhelmsbyrig, slik at det er omstridt om det er
oppkalt etter Maildulf eller Aldhelm – muligens begge.
Dit kom den unge og
dyktige Aldhelm som femtenåring rundt 654. Da hadde skolen bare eksistert i
rundt tyve år, men den hadde allerede opparbeidet seg et ry for lærdom og et
ganske omfattende bibliotek. Etter å ha studert under Maildulf, fullførte
Aldhelm sin utdannelse i Canterbury i den skolen som var etablert av den
hellige abbed Hadrian av
Canterbury, som hadde fulgt den hellige erkebiskop Theodor av
Canterbury til England. Aldhelm var en av Hadrians disipler, for han
omtaler ham som «den ærverdige veileder fra min ubehøvlede barndom». Barndom er
vel noe drøyt, for Hadrian og Theodor kom ikke til Canterbury før i 669, og da
var Aldhelm allerede tretti år gammel!
En versjon sier at
Aldhelm ble munk i Canterbury, en annen at han ble munk i 661 og dro til
Canterbury ti år senere. Han ble uansett værende i Canterbury i to år, og han
ville ha besøkt skolen igjen om ikke sykdom hadde hindret ham. Hans studier
inkluderte romerrett, astronomi, astrologi og kalenderberegning. Ifølge de
tvilsomme opplysningene i hans tidlige biografier lærte han både gresk og
hebraisk. I alle fall brukte han mange latiniserte greske ord i sine bøker.
Da han vendte tilbake til
Malmesbury, ble han utnevnt til rektor for skolen der. Under hans ledelse
utviklet skolen seg til et kloster, og han ble den første abbeden der rundt 675
etter Maildulfs død. Ifølge et charter av tvilsom autentisitet, sitert av
William av Malmesbury, ble han utnevnt til abbed av biskop Leutherius av
Dorchester (671-76). Maildulfs kirke var laget av tre, og Aldhelm erstattet den
med en stor steinkirke som han viet til de hellige Peter og Paulus. I
anledning dedikasjonen av denne kirken skrev han et dikt på 21 linjer.
Aldhelms ry spredte seg
slik at klosteret tiltrakk seg lærde fra andre land. Artwil, sønn av en irsk
konge, sendte Aldhelm sine verker for hans godkjennelse, og han korresponderte
med Cellanus, en irsk munk fra Péronne. Han kombinerte dyktighet som både
administrator og forfatter, og muligens innførte han den hellige Benedikts regel
og gjorde klosteret til et benediktinerkloster (Ordo Sancti Benedicti –
OSB). Han sikret i alle fall at valget av abbed skulle foretas av munkene selv.
Sikkert er det at han foretok enda to grunnleggelser, klosteret St. Johannes
Døperen i Frome i Somerset og klosteret St. Laurentius i Bradford-on-Avon i
Wiltshire, i sistnevnte er det bevart en angelsaksisk kirke som inneholder
deler fra hans tid. Som abbed var han svært streng, blant annet pleide han å
resitere hele Salmenes bok stående til halsen i iskaldt vann. Kong Ine forsto
verdien av sin oppriktige og kloke abbed, og utnevnte ham til sin rådgiver.
Aldhelm besøkte Roma
minst en gang etter ønske fra den hellige pave Sergius I (687-701),
som ba ham følge den hellige kong Caedwalla av Wessex (685-88)
dit. I Wareham mener man at den gamle kirken St. Martin ble bygd av Aldhelm
mens han ventet på å krysse over til kontinentet på pilegrimsferd til Roma, og
det er et lite kapell viet til ham på odden som bærer hans navn vest for
Swanage. Hans besøk i Roma var en stor suksess, og han vendte tilbake med et
charter fra paven som ga privilegier til hans to klostre i Malmesbury and Frome
og fritok dem fra episkopal jurisdiksjon. Kongene Ine av Wessex og Ethelred av
Mercia signerte dette dokumentet og garanterte fred for hans grunnleggelser.
Han brakte også med seg et marmoralter fra Roma.
I 692 synes Aldhelm ut
fra hans brev om temaet som siteres av hans biografer, å ha deltatt i en viss
grad i Wilfrid
av Yorks store kamp mot de keltiske skikkene i Kirken i Northumbria. Like
etter finner vi ham involvert i den samme disputten om tidspunktet for
feiringen av påsken med britene i Cornwall. Kong Ine kalte sammen en synode
rundt år 700 for å prøve å forsone restene av den gamle britiske Kirken helt i
vest med den angelsaksiske Kirken, og Aldhelm fikk i oppdrag å skrive et brev
om emnet til den britiske kong Geraint (Gerent) av Dumnonia (Devon og
Cornwall), da redusert til Cornwall. I dette brevet, som er bevart, maner han
den britiske Kirken til å tilpasse seg de romerske skikkene.
Da den hellige
biskop Hedda
av Winchester døde i 705, ble bispedømmet Wessex delt i to. Daniel ble
biskop av Winchester, mens kong Ine utnevnte den motvillige Aldhelm til den
første biskop av den vestlige halvdelen med sete i Sherborne i Dorset. Dette
nye bispedømmet omfattet grevskapene Dorset, Somerset og deler av Devon,
inkludert Cornwall. Aldhelm ville trekke seg som abbed for klosteret i
Malmesbury, som han hadde styrt i tretti år, men etter protester fra munkene ga
han etter og fikk tillatelse til å fortsette som abbed til sin død. Han bygde en
katedral i Sherborne som senere ble erstattet av en normannisk kirke, men
beskrives av William av Malmesbury. Han bygde også kirker i Wareham, Langton
Matravers og Corfe. Selv om han var biskop i bare fire år, satte han sitt preg
på sitt store bispedømme. En vakker messehagel som ble oppbevart i Malmesbury,
ble trodd å være hans. Den odden i Dorset som vanligvis blir kalt St. Alban's
Head, er i virkeligheten St. Aldhelm's Head, antakelig en del av hans
eiendommer i Dorset.
Aldhelm var den første
angelsaksiske forfatteren av betydning, og han er den første angelsakseren vi
vet om som skrev latinske vers. Han skrev både på gammelengelsk og latin, men
bare hans latinske vers og prosa er bevart. Hans gammelengelske vers, som ble
sunget til harpeakkompagnement for å trekke mennesker til kirken, ble prist av
den hellige kong Alfred den Store,
men er ikke bevart, så han kan i dag bare bedømmes ut fra sine verk på latin.
Deres snirklete latinske stil ble prist, men ikke etterlignet, av den
hellige Beda
den Ærverdige, og de hadde innflytelse på den hellige Bonifatius og
forfatterne av senere dokumenter. De ble lest både i England og på kontinentet
opp til 1000-tallet. Aldhelm spilte også alle tidens instrumenter, inkludert
harpe, fiolin og fløyte. Han ser ut til å ha brukt mye av fritiden til musikk
og poesi.
Blant Aldhelms bevarte
skrifter er hans avhandling om tallet syv, som han sendte til sin venn og
medstudent, kong Aldfrid (Aldfrith, Acircius) av Northumbria (685-704) (Epistola
ad Acircium sive liber de septenario, et de metris, aenigmatibus ac pedum
regulis). Han skrev også en bok med 101 gåter og en avhandling om poetiske
versemål. Sin bedømte avhandling «Til jomfruelighetens pris» (De Laude
Virginitatis), sammendrag av livshistoriene til bibelske og tidlige kristne
helgener, adresserte han til den hellige Hildelid og
hennes nonner i Barking i Essex, blant dem den hellige Cuthburga, som
skulle bli den første abbedisse av Wimborne. Hun hadde vært gift med kong
Aldfrid, men etter noen år ble de separert av religiøse årsaker, og han tillot
henne å bli benediktinernonne (Ordo Sancti Benedicti – OSB) i Barking
sammen med sin søster Quenburga.
Senere skrev han en kortere, poetisk versjon, De octo principalibus vitiis.
De to verkene er det som noen ganger kalles opus geminatum eller
«tvillingarbeid». Hans mindre latinske dikt inkluderer et til dedikasjonen av
en basilika bygd av den hellige Edburga av Minster, en kongelig kvinne fra
huset Wessex.
Flere av hans brev er
også bevart. Et av disse priste skolen i Canterbury som bedre enn dem i Irland,
et annet formante Wilfrid av Yorks presteskap om lojalitet i motgang. Hans dikt
inneholder interessante kapitler om byggingen og utsmykkingen av kirker i
Wessex. Aldhelm kompletterer våre kunnskaper om det angelsaksiske kirkelige liv
i Wessex som forskjellig fra Bedas Northumbria. Vi kan kjenne igjen flere
felles faktorer, og Aldhelm gir verdifullt materiale om Bonifatius' utdannelse.
Han leste flittig og er kalt den første engelske bibliotekaren.
Kong Alfred skrev ned en
anekdote som er spesielt karakteristisk for tiden og trolig hører til tiden fra
før grunnleggelsen av klosteret. Aldhelm la med smerte merke til at bøndene i
stedet for å delta ved munkenes sungne messe, sprang fra hus til hus med
sladder og kunne knapt overtales til å være til stede og lytte til predikantens
formaninger. Aldhelm benyttet anledningen og stilte seg som en trubadur på
broen som folket måtte passere, og der sang han populære ballader. Snart hadde
han samlet en mengde tilhørere som ble tiltrukket av hans vakre vers. Da han
fant at han hadde fått deres oppmerksomhet, introduserte han gradvis blant
balladene også ord av mer seriøs natur. Etter hvert lyktes han i å innprente
dem en sannere følelse av religiøs hengivenhet enn, som historikeren William av
Malmesbury forteller, «om han hadde gått frem med strenghet og
ekskommunikasjon, da ville han ikke gjort noe som helst inntrykk på dem».
Aldhelm døde den 25. mai
709 under et besøk i Doulting i Somerset, sytti år gammel. Hans venn, den
hellige biskop Egwin av Worcester,
hadde en visjon av hans død og skyndte seg for å begrave Aldhelm i Malmesbury.
Det ble satt opp steinkors i intervaller på syv miles (ti kilometer) langs den
åtte mil lange veien som hans legeme ble ført mellom Doulting og Malmesbury –
hvert kors markerte stoppestedet hvor legemet hvilte natten over. Disse korsene
ble kjent som Bishopstones og eksisterte fortsatt da William skrev.
Aldhelm ble etterfulgt som biskop av Fordhere.
Aldhelms kult er gammel,
og en vakker 900-talls gravstein ved hans alter avbildet episoder fra hans liv,
og en angelsaksisk tegning er bevart av ham der han viser sine skatter for den
hellige abbedisse Hildelid av Barking.
I 857 ble hans legeme overført til et praktfullt sølvskrin i Malmesbury gitt av
Ethelwulf av Wessex (839-58), far til kong Alfred den Store. Alfreds sønnesønn
Athelstan er gravlagt ved siden av sin favoritthelgen, som han ba til før
slaget ved Brunanburh.
Faritius, en italiensk
munk i Malmesbury og senere abbed av Abingdon, skrev Vita Sancti Aldhelmi,
men den beste autoriteten er William av Malmesbury, som i den femte boken
av Gesta Pontificum, viet til St Aldhelm, prøver å utfylle Faritius ved å
bruke kirkeregistrene, tradisjonen om Aldhelms mirakler som var bevart av
munkene i Malmesbury og Alfred den Stores tapte Handboc. Biografien av
John Capgrave i hans Legenda Nova (1516) er hovedsakelig en forkortet
versjon av William av Malmesburys beretning.
Den salige
erkebiskop Lanfranc
av Canterbury (1070-89) stilte spørsmålstegn ved Aldhelms kult og
avskaffet den. I det hele tatt var Lanfranc notorisk usympatetisk innstilt til
enhver manifestasjon av den pre-normanniske Kirken i England. Men den hellige
biskop Osmund
av Salisbury tillot at den ble gjenopptatt ved translasjonen av
Aldhelms relikvier den 3. oktober 1078. Sentret for kulten var Malmesbury og
ikke Sherborne. Aldhelms minnedag er dødsdagen 25. mai, mens translasjonsfester
feires 3. oktober og 5. mai, den sistnevnte for å minnes en translasjon i 986.
31. mars nevnes også som en translasjonsfest. Relikvier befinner seg i
Malmesbury, Salisbury, Abingdon og Peterborough. Han fremstilles som biskop i
messeklær med stav og mitra eller som abbed med kalk. Han kan også fremstilles
som en biskop i et bibliotek eller som en munk som spiller harpe.
Kilder:
Attwater/John, Attwater/Cumming, Farmer, Jones, Butler (V), Benedictines,
Delaney, Bunson, Schauber/Schindler, Gorys, KIR, CE, CSO, Patron Saints SQPN,
Infocatho, Bautz, Heiligenlexikon, britannia.com, earlybritishkingdoms.com,
celt-saints, en.wikipedia.org, 1911encyclopedia.org, malmesbury.co.uk -
Kompilasjon og oversettelse: p. Per Einar Odden -
Opprettet: 1998-06-05 20:34 - - Sist oppdatert: 2007-07-24 21:00
SOURCE : https://www.katolsk.no/biografier/historisk/aldheshe
Manser, « Le
témoignage d'Aldhelm de Sherborne sur une particularité du canon grégorien de
la messe romaine », Revue bénédictine, 1911, Vol. 28, Issue 1-4, pages 90-95 - https://www.brepolsonline.net/doi/abs/10.1484/J.RB.4.02265?journalCode=rb
