Alphege of Winchester, St.
ALPHEGE OF WINCHESTER, ST.
Called Aelfheah, "the Bald"; d. March 12, 951. A priest and monk, perhaps at Glastonbury although the date and circumstances of his monastic profession are unknown, he was chaplain and secretary to his kinsman King Athelstan. Alphege, who succeeded Byrnstan as bishop of Winchester (934), is important primarily for his influence on the English monastic revival, encouraging and eventually investing his relative dunstan as monk. He ordained Dunstan and ethelwold, the latter commended to Alphege by Athelstan, on the same day, prophesying their future episcopates (c. 939). Dunstan may have been offered Alphege's see on the latter's death, but Aelfsige succeeded to it. The chief sources are: The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle; the Vita Dunstani auctore B; Aelfric, Vita sancti Aethelwoldi; Adelard, Vita sancti Dunstani; william of malmesbury; and simeon of durham.
Feast: March 12.
Bibliography: w. birch, ed., Cartularium Saxonicum, 4 v. (1885–99). e. s. duckett, Saint Dunstan of Canterbury (New York 1955). a. butler, The Lives of the Saints, ed. h. thurston and d. attwater (New York 1956) 1:577.
[w. a. chaney]