Reginald of Canterbury
REGINALD OF CANTERBURY
Latin poet and Benedictine monk; b. "Fagia," probably the present Faye-la-Meuse, Poitou, France, c. 1040;d. soon after 1109. Where he was educated, though supposedly the abbey school of Noyers, is still a matter of conjecture, and it is only probable that he was professed at bec. He had certainly, however, become a monk of st. augustine's abbey, Canterbury, by 1092. Reginald wrote accomplished Latin verse and was familiar with the work of at least some of the classic poets. His name is associated with that of hildebert of lavardin, to whom he lent his poems. His principal work is a life of St. Malchus, a Syrian hermit, written in some 4,000 lines of Leonine hexameters.
Bibliography: t. wright, ed., The Anglo-Latin Satirical Poets and Epigrammatists of the 12th Century 2 v., Rerum Britannicarum medii aevi scriptores 59, 1872, 2:259–267. l. r. lind, The Vita sancti Malchi of Reginald of Canterbury (Urbana, IL, 1936). w. hunt, The Dictionary of National Biography from the Earliest Times to 1900 (London 1885–1900) 16:863–864. a. schmitt, Lexikon für Theologie und Kirche, ed. j. hofer and k. rahner (Freiburg 1957–65) 8:1090.
[p. blecker]