Æthelgar (died 990) was
Archbishop of Canterbury
The archbishop of Canterbury is the senior bishop and a principal leader of the Church of England, the Primus inter pares, ceremonial head of the worldwide Anglican Communion and the bishop of the diocese of Canterbury. The first archbishop ...
, and previously
Bishop of Selsey
The Bishop of Chichester is the Ordinary (officer), ordinary of the Church of England Diocese of Chichester in the Province of Canterbury. The diocese covers the counties of East Sussex, East and West Sussex. The Episcopal see, see is based in t ...
.
Biography
Æthelgar was a monk at
Glastonbury Abbey
Glastonbury Abbey was a monastery in Glastonbury, Somerset, England. Its ruins, a grade I listed building and scheduled ancient monument, are open as a visitor attraction.
The abbey was founded in the 8th century and enlarged in the 10th. It wa ...
before he was the ''discipulus'' of
Aethelwold the
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 ...
.
[Darlington "Ecclesiastical Reform" ''English Historical Review'' p. 389] He then continued as a monk at
Abingdon Abbey
Abingdon Abbey (formally Abbey of Saint Mary) was a Order of St. Benedict, Benedictine monastery in Abingdon-on-Thames in the modern county of Oxfordshire in the United Kingdom. Situated near to the River Thames, it was founded in 675 AD and was ...
, until 964 when he was appointed Abbot of the newly reformed monastery of
New Minster, Winchester
The New Minster in Winchester was a royal Benedictine abbey founded in in Winchester in the England, English county of Hampshire.
Alfred the Great had intended to build the monastery, but only got around to buying the land. His son, Edward the ...
,
[Kelly ''Charters of Selsey'' p. xcii][Knowles, et al. ''Heads of Religious Houses'' pp. 80–81, 258] by Bishop Aethelwold.
[ He was consecrated Bishop of Selsey on 2 May 980.][Fryde, et al. ''Handbook of British Chronology'' p. 221] He succeeded Dunstan as Archbishop of Canterbury, but "lived for a short time after that – no more than a year and three months".[Swanton (trans.) ''Anglo-Saxon Chronicle'' p. 125] He was transferred to Canterbury in 988.[ Æthelgar died on 13 February 990.][Fryde, et al. ''Handbook of British Chronology'' p. 214]
While archbishop, Æthelgar received two letters from monasteries in Flanders, seeking support and prayers from Æthelgar. One was from the Falrad, the abbot of Saint Vaast Abbey, which requested that relations between the abbey and Canterbury remain good, as they had in Dunstan's time, and implies that Falrad had given verbal instructions to the messenger carrying the letter to seek further support on other issues. The second letter was from Odbert, the abbot of Saint Bertin Abbey, and congratulates Æthelgar on becoming archbishop and solicits financial aid for his monastery.[Vanderputten "Canterbury and Flanders" ''Anglo-Saxon England 35'' pp. 225–235]
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Aethelgar
10th-century births
990 deaths
10th-century English archbishops
10th-century English bishops
Abbots of Winchester
Archbishops of Canterbury
Bishops of Selsey
People from Abingdon-on-Thames
West Saxon saints
Year of birth unknown
10th-century Christian abbots