As
a youth, Alphege became a monk in the monastery of Deerhurst in
Gloucestershire, England, afterwards an anchorite and later an abbot in a
monastery in Bath. At thirty, at the insistence of St. Dunstan and to
his great consternation, he was elected Bishop of Winchester. As bishop,
he maintained the same austerity of life as when a monk. During his
episcopate he was so generous toward the poor that there were no beggars
left in the diocese of Winchester.
Alphege served twenty-two
years as bishop of this see and was then translated to the see of
Canterbury at the death of Archbishop Aelfric.
During this
period, England suffered from the ravages of the Danes who joined forces
with the rebel Earl Edric, marched on Kent and laid siege to
Canterbury. When the city was betrayed, there was a terrible massacre,
men and women, old and young, dying by the sword.
The Archbishop
hastened to the defense of his people, and pressing through the crowd
begged the Danes to cease the carnage. He was immediately seized,
roughly handled, and imprisoned.
A mysterious and deadly plague
broke out among the Danes, and, despite the fact that the holy prelate
had healed many of their own with his prayers and by giving them blessed
bread, the Danes demanded an exorbitant ransom for his release. As the
Archbishop protested that the country was too poor to pay such a price,
he was brutally assassinated.
St. Alphege was the first
Archbishop of Canterbury to die a violent death. In 1023, the martyr's
body was translated with great ceremony to Canterbury accompanied by the
Danish King Canute. Although he did not die directly in defense of the
Faith, St. Alphege is considered a martyr of justice.
Monday, April 19, 2021
St. Alphege of Canterbury
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