In 793 the Christians of Northumbria suffered a catastrophe. Vikings! A raiding party attacked and destroyed the monastery of Lindisfarne. That was just the beginning of a series of disasters. Over the next hundred years Viking raiders struck throughout northern Europe. In England, the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of the north and east collapsed. The Vikings were pagans and had no respect for monasteries and churches; many beside Lindisfarne were destroyed. By 870 the south-west stood alone against the pagan onslaught. Finally Alfred the Great, king of Wessex, fought back and came to an agreement with the Danish leader Guthrum. England was to be divided into two, ruled by the Anglo-Saxons in the south and west and by Vikings in the north and east, which became known as the ‘Danelaw’. Guthrum himself was baptized and became a Christian.
Alfred was not only a great war leader; he was also a scholar and a truly Christian king. He ordered the translation of many books into Anglo-Saxon, even doing some of the work himself, and he helped to build up the Church within his kingdom. However, in the early ninth century monks often led a way of life very different to the life St.Benedict planned when he wrote his Rule. A monastery was often more like a small village than a community dedicated to the worship of God. Many monks were married and lived in the monastery with their families, who often ended up treating the property of the monastery as if it belonged to them, not to God. Throughout western Europe monks had fallen away from living according to the Rule, but in France things were beginning to change. The monastery of Cluny had a series of strong, faithful abbots who were determined that their monks should observe the Rule strictly and perform the Opus Dei properly. Opus Dei means the Work of God, and in a monastery this work was to pray regularly, reciting psalms and other prayers together in Church throughout the day and night. From Cluny, these ideals spread like wild fire. Dozens, and then hundreds of monasteries became centers of prayer and religious life. By the middle of the tenth century these new monastic ideas had reached England.
The man who reformed Anglo-Saxon religious life was St.Dunstan. He was born near Glastonbury, probably around 909, and as a child he was strongly attracted to the abbey there. He is even said to have sleepwalked from his home to the abbey church, where his parents found him in the morning, fast asleep. Dunstan’s family was probably related to the royal family, and as a young man he had a place at court of Alfred’s grandson, King Athelstan. Dunstan was known for his religious zeal, and was ordained as a priest. Unfortunately he was not very tactful, and liked to tell others how they should be living their lives. This irritated some of the other courtiers so much that they threw him into a duck pond, and Athelstan’s successor, king Edmund, grew so angry with him that Dunstan was banished from court. Soon afterwards, King Edmund was out hunting when the stag he was chasing plunged at high speed over a cliff. Edmund’s dogs fell after it and the horse the king was riding seemed bound to follow. In his panic, Edmund prayed, promising God that if he survived he would recall Dunstan. The king’s horse stopped at the edge of the precipice and Edmund kept his promise, bringing Dunstan back to court and then appointing him the abbot of Glastonbury.
Dunstan was a great scholar and Glastonbury, one of the oldest and greatest of English monasteries had a famous library. Dunstan was able to study many famous religious works there – sometimes we are able to tell exactly what he studied because he added his own notes to the pages. Although he died over a thousand years ago we can still see Dunstan’s own handwriting. He was a man of many talents, including drawing, metalwork, playing the harp ….and embroidery! Unfortunately, his difficulties were not over. In the 950s he again quarreled with the king, this time Edmund’s son, Eadwig, and was banished from the kingdom. He spent several years in exile at the monastery of Ghent, in what is now Belgium. Here he was able to learn about the new, reformed monastic life first hand. After King Eadwig died, the next king, Edgar, recalled Dunstan to England. He brought the new ideas he had learned at Ghent to Glastonbury, and from there they spread to other monasteries. Edgar was so pleased with Dunstan that he had him made bishop of London and then of Worcester. In 960, the archbishop of Canterbury died and Dunstan was appointed to succeed him. As archbishop, Dunstan was able to extend his work of reforming the English Church. Other saintly abbots and bishops helped him, such as St.Aethelwold (abbot of Abingdon and later bishop of Winchester) and St.Oswald (bishop of Worcester and archbishop of York). Inspired by Dunstan, Aethelwold wrote a document called the Regularis Concordia, a Rule of life for English monks. It followed the Rule of St.Benedict, but with a few changes to make it more suitable for England. For example the monks were allowed to have one room heated by a fire in winter: not necessary in St.Benedict’s Italy, but important in the cold, damp English weather. Dunstan died in 988 and was immediately acclaimed as a saint.
PRAYER: Collect for Dunstan, archbishop of Canterbury
O God of truth and beauty, you richly endowed your bishop Dunstan with skill in music and the working of metals, and with gifts of administration and reforming zeal: Teach us, we pray, to see in you the source of all our talents, and move us to offer them for the adornment of worship and the advancement of true religion, through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
FEAST DAY: May 19th
TIMELINE: Born c.909; died 988
© Kathryn Faulkner 2005. All rights reserved.
