Ælfheah the Bald is the commonly used name for Ælfheah (died 12 March 951), the first
English Bishop of Winchester
The Bishop of Winchester is the diocesan bishop of the Diocese of Winchester in the Church of England. The bishop's seat (''cathedra'') is at Winchester Cathedral in Hampshire.
The Bishop of Winchester has always held ''ex officio'' the offic ...
of that name. He is sometimes known as Alphege, an older translation of his Old English name.
Life
Ælfheah began his career as a
monk
A monk (; from , ''monachos'', "single, solitary" via Latin ) is a man who is a member of a religious order and lives in a monastery. A monk usually lives his life in prayer and contemplation. The concept is ancient and can be seen in many reli ...
and was made Bishop of Winchester in 934 or 935.
[Fryde, et al. ''Handbook of British Chronology'' p. 223] He was a relative of
Dunstan
Dunstan ( – 19 May 988), was an English bishop and Benedictine monk. He was successively Abbot of Glastonbury Abbey, Bishop of Worcester, Bishop of London and Archbishop of Canterbury, later canonised. His work restored monastic life in En ...
, and took the young man into his service,
and later ordained him priest.
Ælfheah was an early mover towards the monastic reforms of the next generation and was the tutor of
Aethelwold. He died on 12 March 951
[ and was buried in ]Old Minster
The Old Minster was the Anglo-Saxon cathedral for the English diocese of Wessex and then Winchester from 660 to 1093. It stood on a site immediately north of and partially beneath its successor, Winchester Cathedral.
Some sources say that the m ...
in Winchester
Winchester (, ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city in Hampshire, England. The city lies at the heart of the wider City of Winchester, a local government Districts of England, district, at the western end of the South Downs N ...
. He was subsequently revered as a saint
In Christianity, Christian belief, a saint is a person who is recognized as having an exceptional degree of sanctification in Christianity, holiness, imitation of God, likeness, or closeness to God in Christianity, God. However, the use of the ...
.[Walsh ''A New Dictionary of Saints'' p. 28] Following the Norman conquest, Archbishop Lanfranc
Lanfranc, OSB (1005 1010 – 24 May 1089) was an Italian-born English churchman, monk and scholar. Born in Italy, he moved to Normandy to become a Benedictine monk at Bec. He served successively as prior of Bec Abbey and abbot of St Ste ...
downgraded a number of Anglo-Saxon saints, including Ælfheah, to bring the liturgical calendar more in line with that of Bec. However, under Anselm's influence, he was subsequently reinstated.Younge, George Ruder. "The Review of English Studies Prize Essay ‘Those were good days’: Representations of the Anglo-Saxon Past in the Old English Homily on Saint Neot", ''The Review of English Studies'', Volume 63, Issue 260, June 2012, Pages 349–369
/ref>
Citations
References
*
* Walsh, Michael ''A New Dictionary of Saints: East and West'' London: Burns & Oates 2007
External links
*
Catholic Online Saints and Angels: Alphege
{{DEFAULTSORT:Alphege The Bald
10th-century Christian saints
West Saxon saints
Bishops of Winchester
951 deaths
Year of birth unknown
10th-century English bishops