Born in Mercia, England; died at Canterbury, England, on August 2, 914.
Saint Plegmund was a hermit on an island near Chester, called
Plegmundham after him and later Plemstall, who was noted for his
holiness and scholarship. He was called to the court of Alfred the Great
to be his tutor. He helped Alfred write the Old English version of Pope
Saint Gregory the Great's
On Pastoral Care (
Liber regulae pastoralis)
and may have been responsible for the compilation of the Anglo-Saxon
chronicle.
At that monarch's request, in 890, he was consecrated archbishop of
Canterbury by Pope Formosus in Rome. He crowned Edward the Elder at
Kingston in 901, and consecrated the Newminster at Winchester in 908.
Plegmund travelled to Rome again in 908, probably to secure approval of
his bishopric by Pope Sergius III, because the consecrations of Formosus
were condemned in 897 and 905. He returned from Rome with some of the
relics of Saint Blaise.
Archbishop Plegmund divided the Wessex dioceses of Winchester and
Sherbourne into Winchester, Ramsbury, Sherbourne, Wells, and Crediton
(which was later called Exeter) and consecrated bishops for each of them
(plus two others) on the same day. His episcopacy was noted for
promoting learning and developing Canterbury's metropolitan
jurisdiction.
(
Benedictines,
Delaney,
Farmer).
Service to our Holy Father Plegmund Archbishop of Canterbury
http://www.orthodoxengland.org.uk/servpleg.htm