Born at Therouanne (Pas-de-Calais), France, c. 825; died 903.
Grimbald became a monk about 840, was ordained priest in 870, and was
abbot of Saint-Bertin. He entertained King Alfred on his way to Rome in
885. As a well-known scholar, he went to Rheims in 886.
Upon the advice of Archbishop Eldred of Canterbury and through Fulk of
Rheims, Alfred invited Grimbald to England in 887. Grimbald accepted the
offer. He lived in Winchester in a small "monastery" and served as a
court-scholar, assisting Alfred with his translations of Latin works
into Old English, including Saint Gregory's Pastoral Care (Liber regulae
pastoralis). Eventually, Grimbald was appointed the first professor of
divinity at Oxford (some say that he actually founded the university).
Upon the death of Eldred in 889, Alfred tried to persuade Grimbald to
become archbishop of Canterbury, but he refused and became instead dean
of the secular canons of New Minster at Winchester, the town-church
where prominent citizens had burial rights. Alfred's son, King Edward,
reburied his father and mother (Queen Alswithe) in this new church,
which probably absorbed the small community that Grimbald had previously
governed. (Later, King Henry I removed New Minster to Hyde, now called
Saint Grimbald's monastery.)
Grimbald restored learning in England. He may have brought to England
the 9th-century manuscript of Prudentius, now at Corpus Christi College
in Cambridge, as well as the famous Utrecht Psalter.
During his last illness, the extremely feeble Saint Grimbald rose out of
bed and prostrated himself on the ground to receive the holy viaticum.
Thereafter, he asked to be left alone with God for three days. On the
fourth day the community was called into his chamber, and amidst their
prayers the saint calmly breathed forth his happy soul in his 83rd year.
His body was reposed in New Minster and honoured amongst its most
precious relics together with those of Saint Judocus. It was taken up by
Saint Alphege, and exposed in a silver shrine. Other translations
occurred in 938, c. 1050, and 1110, when the whole establishment was
moved to Hyde Grimbald's vita was written by Goscelin, monk of
Saint-Bertin's. While his cultus centred on Winchester, it was extended
by Malmesbury to other Benedictine abbeys and to York and Hereford
(
Benedictines,
Encyclopaedia,
Farmer,
Husenbeth).