Geoffrey of Dunstable
GEOFFREY OF DUNSTABLE
Abbot; b. Maine, France; d. St. Albans, 1146. Geoffrey studied at the University of Paris and then directed a school at Dunstable, England. For a stage production of the miracle play Ludus de S. Catherina, in 1119, he borrowed several copes from st. albans, and to compensate for their loss in a fire Geoffrey joined the community, where he became prior and then abbot. His extensive building program included a guest hall, an infirmary, a lepers' hospital, and a shrine to which he translated the remains of St. alban in 1129. Geoffrey's efforts saved his abbey from demolition during the Civil Wars of King stephen.
Bibliography: t. walsingham, comp., Gesta abbatum monasterii Sancti Albani, 3 v., ed. h. t. riley, Rerum Britannicarum medii aevi scriptores (Rolls series; London 1867) 1:72–105. w. hunt, The Dictionary of National Biography from the Earliest Times to 1900, 7:1011–12. Ghellinck Essor 2:269.
[m. l. mistretta]