Saint Dunstan of Canterbury

As his virtue grew with his age, he was conferred the first orders, and he exercised their functions with care and purity of heart; he had a great contempt for all the vain amusements of the world, and much devotion to prayer, meditation, and reading the Holy Scripture; it is not surprising that, having God continually before his eyes and thinking only of pleasing Him, he was so pleasing to Him and won, as he did, the affection and heart of all pious persons.

For fear of being corrupted in the world if he remained longer with his relatives, he went to find Atholme, Archbishop of Canterbury, his paternal uncle, because of the great reputation of his virtue. This good prelate, finding himself obliged to go to court, took him with him to keep him company and presented him to King Athelstan, who received him so well and was so satisfied with him that he kept him by his side. But envious people managed to make him lose the prince's favor. He retired to Elphege, Bishop of Winchester, his relative, whose holy instructions led him to become a religious; this excellent prelate, seeing that he was always advancing more and more in virtue, conferred upon him the holy orders, which he had not yet received, and made him a priest.

Charged with serving the church of Glastonbury, he bu église de Glastonbury Final place of translation of the saint's relics. ilt himself a cell so narrow that it resembled a sepulcher: it was only five feet long, two and a half wide, and the height necessary to stand upright; there was no window other than that which was made in the door. There, the Saint occupied himself with praying, singing psalms, and working with his hands as much as the smallness of the place allowed, without having any other thought than to please God.

The reputation of such a holy life led several people of various conditions of both sexes to consult him regarding their salvation; and he gave to each, according to their need, salutary advice to make themselves pleasing to God.

His father and mother having died, he distributed to the poor or used to build churches and for other works of piety the great wealth they left him: and, considering this life as an exile, he sighed incessantly toward the heavenly homeland, and worked only to advance more and more in virtue.

King Athelstan having died, Edmund, his son, succeeded him (900). And as he knew the prudence and holiness of Dunstan, he sent for him to come to him to help him with his wise counsel to govern his kingdom. The Saint, who had learned from the Apostle the obedience due to kings, went to find him and submitted to his orders, without, however, doing anything that could debase the dignity of the priesthood. This prince, assisted by the Saint, settled with justice all the affairs of his State, ended the disputes that could disturb the rest of his subjects, and maintained peace among them. Never did anyone complain of the judgments rendered by the advice of this excellent minister, and he was esteemed and revered by everyone. But, as the highest virtue excites the most envy, there were finally people wicked enough to slander him to the king, and this prince was weak enough to believe their words: thus he removed him from his court. Three days later, the king was hunting in a forest, where there is a mountain on the summit of which there is an opening in the form of an abyss: the stag having arrived at that place and finding itself hard pressed, threw itself into it: the dogs, transported with ardor, threw themselves after it, and the king's horse, which was following them and had broken its bridle, was about to do the same. In this great peril, the king, remembering the injustice he had done to Dunstan, groaned in his heart and promised God to repair it in every imaginable way, if it pleased Him to preserve him. His prayer was heard; his horse stopped short at the same moment; and as soon as the king had returned to his palace, he told the principal men of his court what had happened to him, had Dunstan brought back with all sorts of honors, and asked his pardon with great humility for the wrong he had done him: a few days later, he gave him the Church of Glastonbury. The Saint had the monastery magnificently rebuilt.

King Edmund having been massacred after a reign of six and a half years, Edred, his brother, who was a prince of great piety, succeeded him, and he showed no less affection to our Saint than his predecessor had done: he relied on him for a large part of the conduct of his kingdom. This prince pressed him extremely to receive the bishopric of Winchester, and even employed Queen Edgive, his mother, to persuade him; but neither one nor the other could obtain his consent.

King Edred having died, Edwy, son of King Edmund, succeeded him. He Edwy King of England who exiled Dunstan due to his moral admonitions. was young, without understanding of affairs. Instead of using in the government of his State the counsel of the wise men who had acquired, through their long service, great experience, he chose as his counselors and ministers young men as incapable as himself, who, when he let himself be carried away, against all reason, by his passions, flattered and praised him instead of rebuking him. Thus it is easy to judge into how many faults he fell, and what aversion all the people conceived against him. He took the property of everyone, sent into exile those who resisted his will, and made the whole kingdom groan under the various vexations with which he oppressed it. He added to so many evils a horrible inhumanity; he deprived of all goods and all honors Queen Edgive, his mother, whom one could rightly call the ornament and support of England, the consolation of the churches, the protectress of the afflicted, and the nurse of the poor. Saint Dunstan had his heart pierced with pain to see the king running in this way to his ruin and that of his State; he did not fail to rebuke him for it. But this prince, instead of profiting from his advice, mocked him and, as if he had lost his mind, gave him only extravagant answers. Thus the Saint left the court and retired to his monastery of Glastonbury.

Later, at the prayer of all the great men, he spoke to the king with a holy liberty regarding a married woman with whom he was living in a scandalous manner. She conceived such hatred against Dunstan that she gave the prince no rest until he had sent him into exile. He went to Flanders; the count received him perfectly well, and he stopped in the city of Ghent, where his virtue made him so respected and loved by everyone that one can say he found his country outside of his cou ntry Gand City where Livinus stayed and of which he is the patron saint. .

However, Edwy made himself unbearable through his poor conduct; the principal lords, especially those of Mercia and Northumberland, dethroned him and placed his brother Edgar in his stead. As this new king possessed no less prudence than piety and courage, he spared nothing that depended on him to remedy the disorders caused by the poor administration of Edwy. He removed offices from those who used them only to oppress the people, and reinstated the good men who had been unjustly stripped of them. Thus, peace was restored to the churches under his dominion; he was not content with recalling Saint Dunstan with great honor, but did nothing without his counsel. In 937, he compelled him to accept the bishopric of Worcester. He was consecrated at Canterbury by the archbishop; the latter, during the ceremony, instead of naming Dunstan Bishop of Worcester, named him Archbishop of Canterbury, as if he were ordaining him for his own church. Those present, believing it to be a slip of the tongue, pointed it out to him; he replied: "It is God, my children, who makes me speak thus. Dunstan, during my lifetime, will be Bishop of Worcester; but after my death, he will govern all of England."

Some time later, the bishopric of London having become vacant, Dunstan was forced to govern that bishopric along with his own. Odo, Archbishop of Canterbury, died in 961. Our Saint was named his successor; but he refused. Thus, Beorhthelm, Bishop of Winchester, was established in that archbishopric. He died soon after, and Birthelm, Bishop of Dorset, was put in his place. He was a very gentle and very humble man, but too weak to repress vices and maintain ecclesiastical discipline; which obliged him to return to his former bishopric. Then everyone said that Dunstan alone possessed all the qualities necessary to fill this primary see of England and uphold its dignity. Thus, despite all his resistance, he was, by the general consent of the whole Church and all the people, established on the archiepiscopal throne with no less pomp than joy.

The Saint then went on a journey to Rome to trône archiépiscopal Capital of the Kingdom of Kent and center of the Augustinian mission. visit the tombs of the holy Apostles. The Pope received him very well; but when he had spoken with him privately and recognized the extraordinary graces with which God favored him, he showed him even greater honor, granted him the Pallium, which he had come to request, and established him as his legate throughout all of England. No sooner had he returned than, being armed with the help of God, he fought like a giant, with invincible courage, against all the vices and disorders that the malice of demons, joined to that of men, had introduced into the Church.

An extremely powerful count had married a person who was his relative within a prohibited degree. The holy archbishop reproved him severely and ordered him three separate times to renounce this incestuous marriage. But seeing that he took no account of his remonstrances, he forbade him entry to the church. This lord, instead of humbling himself, had recourse to the king, imploring his protection against the excessive severity of the archbishop. The king ordered Dunstan to leave the count in peace and to lift the censure. Our Saint, astonished that so pious a prince had allowed himself to be seduced in this way, represented to the count that he had added to his first crime by this approach to the king, and urged him to repent; the count responded with threats. Then Dunstan pronounced excommunication against him. The count, outraged with anger, sent to Rome, and, by his largesse, having won over some Romans, he obtained letters from the Pope which enjoined Dunstan to reconcile him with the Church. "I will reconcile him," said the archbishop upon seeing these letters, "when I see him repent; but as long as he remains in his sin, let him not hope to be exempt from the censures of the Church; nothing will prevent me from observing the canons."

The count, having learned of this response and knowing the inflexible firmness of the archbishop, came to himself, feared the dire consequences of excommunication, separated from this woman, with whom he could not legitimately dwell, and resolved to do penance for his sin. Thus, when the holy prelate held a national council, he came in great humility, with a simple woolen habit, bare feet, and rods in his hand, to throw himself at his feet, melting into tears. All those present were extraordinarily touched, and the holy prelate more than any other; his paternal bowels were moved, and he had to constrain himself to hold back his tears and to show on his face the rigor of discipline. All the bishops begged him to remit the fault to this penitent, which he granted them with all his heart; he immediately lifted the excommunication and restored him to the communion of the faithful, to the great joy of everyone.

As much as this admirable primate was full of compassion and tenderness, he was equally zealous for justice, and he showed this particularly against counterfeiters, for whom he had a very great aversion, because of the prejudice that the public receives from them; for, on a Pentecost day, he wished, notwithstanding the holiness of the feast, that some of them be punished. God showed by a miracle that this action was pleasing to Him: a white dove was seen to enter the church and rest on Dunstan's head, wings spread, during the entire time he celebrated the holy sacrifice, and, when the mass was finished, it went to settle on the tomb of the blessed Odo; which further increased Saint Dunstan's veneration for this excellent archbishop.

Who could worthily represent the profound humility of the great Saint Dunstan, his love for contemplation, his fervor in prayer, his application to the reading of Holy Scripture, the gift of tears that he had received from God, and the incredible care he took of all the churches of England and the islands that depend on it, all of whose cases came to him by appeal, as to their primate and their patriarch?

King Edgar, who had had from his wife, named Candida, Princ e Edward, wh Le roi Edgar King of England and father of Saint Edith. o was later a Saint, fell into a great crime: having gone to a monastery of women, located at Wilton, he was smitten by the beauty of a noble person, who lived with the nuns without having yet taken the habit. He wanted to speak with her in private; she, who feared what happened, took a nun's veil and placed it on her head as a safeguard. The king, nevertheless, did violence to her: it was a great scandal. The Saint had no sooner learned of it, than with his heart pierced by pain, he went to find him. The king, according to his custom, came to meet him and took his hand, but the archbishop withdrew it with a severe face. This prince was very surprised; he did not know that he had knowledge of what he had committed in secret. He asked him why he did not take his hand; the Saint replied to him: "What! After having renounced all modesty, after having committed adultery, trampled underfoot the commandment of God and ravished a virgin of her virginity, without showing respect for the sacred veil with which she had covered herself, do you ask why I do not want to touch your impure hands with these hands that offer to the eternal Father the Son of the most holy Virgin? Begin by purifying yours of their stains through penance, and, when you are reconciled with God, you may kiss the hand of him who has the honor of being the Pontiff of Jesus Christ." This speech of the holy prelate so terrified the king that he threw himself at his feet, and, with words interrupted by sighs, confessed that he had sinned. The Saint, extremely touched by such profound humility, raised him up, embraced him; told him with great sweetness what he must do to save his soul, imposed on him a penance of seven years, which consisted of not wearing the crown during all that time; to fast twice a week and to give abundant alms; he further enjoined him to found a monastery where virgins could consecrate themselves to Jesus Christ. Edgar founded the monastery of Shaftesbury, and then he received absolution. This prince accomplished this penance with such fidelity and fervor that he added to it even more new works of piety, following the advice of this admirable archbishop, to appease the anger of God, and he also forgot nothing to oblige his subjects to live as Christians.

The Saint then crowned this king, who died some time later, and left the entire kingdom to Edw ard, hi Edouard Son of Edgar, supported by Dunstan and assassinated by his stepmother. s son, to whom it belonged by hereditary right. The virtue of this young prince, whose just severity was feared, caused some nobles to oppose his establishment, using as a pretext that the queen, his mother, had not been crowned, and that when he was born, the king his father had not yet been consecrated. But Saint Dunstan, who knew Edward's merit and knew that the kingdom belonged to him legitimately, threw himself, cross in hand, into the midst of these rebels, confounded all their arguments, placed Edward on the throne, and showed him throughout his life and on all occasions, both by his advice and his assistance, the affection of a father. This young king, for his part, lived so religiously, established such holy laws, and made himself so pleasing to God, that even those who were most opposed to him at the time of his accession to the crown were ashamed to have wanted to thwart him. But, some years later, his stepmother had him put to death by a detestable betrayal, to make Ethelred, her son, reign in his place, whose infamy made him simi Ethelred King whose reign's misfortunes were prophesied by Dunstan. lar to her, and who inherited nothing of the virtue of Edgar, his father. Saint Dunstan spoke to this prince with thunderous words, predicted to him that, as he had ascended the throne through the shedding of his brother's blood, he would spend his life in a bloody manner; that a flood of Barbarians would break the scepter in the hands of his successors, ravage their country, and subject it for several years under their cruel domination; that this last misfortune would not happen during his lifetime, but that it would happen most certainly. This was a prophecy, the truth of which was well experienced later, when Sweyn, king of the Danes, made himself master of England.

If Saint Dunstan was terrible toward guilty kings, he was no less so toward the clerics and canons who lived in disorder. He used prayers, remonstrances, threats, and punishments against them. Finally, seeing that in some cathedrals they were incorrigible, and that their children, who hoped to inherit the prebends, were witnesses to their incests and debaucheries, he shamefully drove them from their churches and put religious communities in their place: which made the monastic Order flourish admirably in England. They complained to the king, who wished for an assembly of the prelates and the great men of the kingdom to be hel d at Winch Winchester Royal city and site of the ordeal of Queen Emma. ester to examine this matter. But the Saint, who, moreover, had done nothing but by the authority of the Pope, defended the justice of his action so vigorously that the whole assembly agreed (968). However, he was begged to forgive his clerics once more, as they promised to correct themselves; but while he was thinking about how he would respond, a voice came from the crucifix, saying: "Do not do it, you have judged well, and you would do wrong to change your judgment." Then the Saint said to the king and all the illustrious persons who composed the assembly: "What more do you want, my brothers? God has given his own verdict: the matter is finished." They replied: "That is true"; and the matter remained as Saint Dunstan had settled it.

Later, the children of the clerics driven from the churches by Saint Dunstan, having come to find him, impudently claimed their alleged patrimonies; the Saint said to them: "I do not wish to argue with you, I leave it to God to judge the cause of His Church." Immediately the house collapsed, the floor of the room gave way beneath their feet; these seditious men fell, several were crushed by the beams, while the place where Dunstan was, with his own, remained solid and intact.

Many miracles performed by Saint Dunstan are recounted. He stopped in mid-air a beam that was necessarily going to fall, the cables that supported it having broken. He caused a fountain to spring forth by striking the earth with his staff, and this fountain has since borne the name of Saint-Dunstan. He straightened and turned toward the East a small church that was not sufficiently oriented, by pushing it only with his shoulder; finally, his holiness and his wonders acquired for him such great esteem, and so much veneration throughout England, that the king, the prelates, and the lords looked upon him only as their father.

He still possessed the gift of tears to such a degree that whenever he approached the altar, or performed any episcopal function, torrents of them could be seen flowing from his eyes. It was a tangible mark of his devotion and the divine love with which his heart was inflamed. Our Lord often consoled him with angelic concerts, and with visions, either of His holy humanity, or of the Blessed Virgin, His Mother, or of the blessed apostles Saint Peter, Saint Paul, and Saint Andrew. The most remarkable was the one that prepared him to go and enjoy the blessed eternity of which he had rendered himself worthy by so many glorious actions. On the day of the Ascension of Our Lord in the year 988, having remained alone in prayer in his cathedral church of Canterbury, after Matins, he saw enter, with great majesty, a troop of personages dressed in white, who all had golden crowns on their heads; this spectacle filled him with admiration and joy; they approached him, greeted him on behalf of the Son of God, and asked him if he was ready to follow them: "I would wish it extremely," he replied, "in order to have a share in the glory that my Lord has received on this day; but that is impossible, because I have committed myself to preach today to my people the path they must take to follow their sovereign shepherd."

— "Very well then," these blessed spirits replied, "but be ready on Saturday, to come and sing eternally with us: Holy, Holy, Holy." He agreed, and the hour of the sacrifice having arrived, he celebrated High Mass pontifically, with a numerous attendance. After the Gospel, he preached in such an extraordinary manner that it was clear that the Holy Spirit animated him and spoke through his mouth. When he had finished the holy sacrifice, he appeared as if intoxicated with the Spirit of God, spoke a second time to his people, and preached in such a powerful way on the truth of the body of Jesus Christ in the Eucharist, on the general resurrection, and on eternal life, that one would have taken him for an angel rather than a man. He then gave his blessing to his dear children; and, thinking of the sorrow that his death would cause them, of which he had not yet dared to speak to them for fear of distressing them, he was touched with such great tenderness for them, and his heart was moved in such a way, that he spoke a third time to his astonished listeners; and when he opened his mouth, his face was seen to shine with such a brilliant light that none of that great assembly could withstand its radiance. This wonder filled them with joy. But when he began to speak to them of his death, and to tell them that it was near, this joy was converted into an inconceivable sadness; it was so extraordinary that the Saint himself, although filled with consolations, was moved by it and could not hold back his tears; but he soon wiped them away, in order to stop the flow of theirs, and, having consoled them with very powerful considerations, he commended them to Jesus Christ.

When the people had withdrawn and the Saint had taken his evening meal, he warned his clerics and religious of the day he was to leave them to go to God, and marked for them the place where he wished to be buried. He was then seized with a slight fever; and, on the following Saturday, having had the holy Viaticum of the body of Jesus Christ brought to him, he waited peacefully for the hour that the angels had predicted to him. Meanwhile, one saw with admiration his bed rise of its own accord three different times up to the ceiling, and return as many times to its place. As for him, seeing his children melting into tears in his room, he consoled them admirably and said to them in a tone full of tenderness: "My dear children, sheep of the flock of the Son of God, you see yourselves where I am called and where I am going. You know the path I have taken; you know the works to which I have applied myself while I have lived, and whose accomplishment and consummation now raise me to heaven. It remains for me to beg and conjure you to walk in the same path, so that you may arrive at the same end. And I pray this God of mercy, who puts me on the path of His glory, to also lead your hearts and bodies in peace, according to His will." And everyone having answered Amen, he died in the midst of a choir of angels who assisted him and who led him into the place of eternal happiness. This was on May 19, 988, as we have already noted, in the seventy-second year of his age, and the thirty-third of his episcopate.

Saint Dunstan was not only a theologian. Like many monks of the Middle Ages, he was a goldsmith, painter, founder, architect, and musician. Thus, his legend claims that one day, while he was occupied with some goldsmith's work in his cell, the lyre that was hanging silent on the wall began to resonate suddenly under the hand of the angels and to repeat the Magnificat antiphon of the second vespers of the common of martyrs. "The souls of the Saints who have followed Jesus Christ rejoice in heaven, etc." This has given occasion to place angels in the paintings of which Saint Dunstan is the subject. The demon also appears there. Here is the reason. The enemy of all good, jealous of the glory that could come to God from the manual labors to which Saint Dunstan devoted himself, began to prowl around his anvil to distract him, one day when he was forging a piece of goldsmith's work. The workman of the good God seized the tempter by the nose with his fire-reddened tongs, and, it is added, mistreated him severely on his anvil. One understands from then on why Saint Dunstan is the patron of goldsmiths and blacksmiths in Great Britain.

The feast of Saint Dunstan was long a day of rest in England, on May 19. Since the schism separated this country from the Roman Church, the honor has been done to this great Saint of keeping his name in the calendar of the Reformed Church.

Before the Revolution, one could still see one of his chasubles at Saint-Pierre in Ghent, which he had honored with his presence for a year. Tradition also holds that he stayed for some time at Saint-Amand, in Flanders.

His Life was written by a religious of Canterbury, called Osbert, who lived at that time and who claims to have been an eye Osbert Monk and contemporary biographer of Saint Dunstan. witness to most of the things he recounts: hence the reason why Cardinal Baronius did not hesitate to insert it into his Annals in the tenth volume; it is also found in the third volume of Surius, with a summary of the miracles that have been performed since at his tomb. D'Audilly gave an abridged translation of it among his Chosen Lives, and we have only added to it what we believed could still serve for the instruction and edification of the readers.