Born in Wessex, England, c. 640; died at Doulting in Somerset, May 25,
709. In the 7th century an Irish monk named
Maeldubh (f.d. May 17)
settled in the lonely forest country that in those days lay in the
northeast of Wiltshire. After living for a time as a hermit, he
gathered the children of the neighbourhood for instruction. In the
course of time his hermitage became a school and so continued after his
death, acquiring fame as a community of scholars known as Malmesbury.
To this centre of learning came a young and clever boy called Aldhelm, a
kinsman of Ina (Ine), King of Wessex. He was to be the first English
scholar of distinction. After studying under Maeldubh, he learned what
he could from
Saint Adrian (f.d. January 9)
and
Saint Theodore (f.d. September 19)
at Canterbury, where he probably became a monk (though he
may have done so earlier at Malmesbury).
He returned to Malmesbury and under Aldhelm the school became a
monastery, of which he was appointed abbot about 675. He knew Greek,
Latin, and Hebrew, and attracted scholars from other lands. He was also
a poet, and was so full of music that it was said that he could play
every musical instrument in use. In course of time he established other
smaller religious communities in the neighbourhood and, thereby,
advanced education in all of Wessex.
He was an advisor to Ina and held in high regard by King Alfred, who
wrote down this story about him. Aldhelm was distressed because the
townspeople were indifferent to the church services, either by absenting
themselves or by gossiping and remaining inattentive when they attended.
He therefore stood on the town bridge and acted the part of a minstrel
by singing popular ballads and reciting his verses interspersed with
hymns, passages from the gospels, a bits of clowning in hopes of winning
'men's ears, and then their souls.' The result was that he soon
collected a crowd of hearers and was able to impart simple religious
teaching to them; 'whereas if he had proceeded with severity and
excommunications, he would have made no
impression whatever upon them.'
Later, at the request of Pope Sergius I, he accompanied Coedwalla, the
West Saxon king, to Rome. Later still, he took an active part in
disputes between the Celtic and the Anglo-Saxon Church. He addressed a
famous letter to Gerent, king of Dumnonia (Devon and Cornwall),
explaining the date on which Easter ought to be kept by the Celtic
clergy there. At one famous synod (Whitby?) Aldhelm attempted
reconciliation with what remained of the old British Church in Cornwall,
which was then a kingdom with its own king.
In 705, Aldhelm became the first bishop of Sherbourne, his appointment
dating from the time of the division of the old diocese of Wessex into
Sherborne and Winchester. His brief episcopate was marked by energy and
enterprise. He had travelled a long way from the days when he joined
the school in the forest and sang as a minstrel on Malmesbury Bridge.
But always he is remembered as the Saxon poet-preacher, who first
translated the Psalms into the Anglo-Saxon tongue, and who sang the
words of Scripture into the hearts of the common people. In King
Alfred's words:
'Aldhelm won men to heed sacred things by taking his
stand as a gleeman and singing English songs on a bridge.'
His English writings, hymns and songs, with their music, have all
perished; of his Latin works, the longest are a poem in praise of holy
maidens and a treatise on virginity written for the nuns of Barking in
Essex. In his lighter moments he composed Latin verse and metrical
riddles. As a scholar, Saint Aldhelm has been described as 'ingenious,'
and it has been well said that the Latin language went to his head. He
liked to play with words and his writing was so involved and obscure as
often to be unintelligible; but his reading was extensive--so extensive
that he has been described as the first English librarian.
In his own day Aldhelm had a wide influence in southern England. He was
buried at Malmesbury Abbey. The cape in Dorset usually called Saint
Alban's Head is properly Saint Aldhelm's Head
(
Attwater,
Benedictines,
Delaney,
Duckett,
Gill).
In art, Saint Aldhelm is portrayed as a bishop in a library. He is
venerated at Malmesbury
(
Roeder).