Suggest an Edit — Confessor Wolstan

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Biography

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Saint Wulfstan, also known as Wolstan or Wulstan, was a Benedictine monk and bishop of Worcester in the eleventh century, and the last of the pre-Conquest English bishops to remain in office until his death. He was born in Warwickshire, according to tradition at Long Itchington, to parents named Aethelstan and Wulfgifu in the principal medieval account of his life. He received his education at the abbeys of Evesham and Peterborough. After ordination he served for a time among the secular clergy before entering the Benedictine community of Worcester Cathedral priory, where he became prior. Medieval writers describe him as austere in fasting and vigils and as devoted to pastoral care.

In 1062 he was chosen bishop of Worcester after Ealdred, the previous bishop, was translated to York. Sources close to his own circle present him as accepting the episcopate only with reluctance. He was consecrated the same year and held the see through the Norman Conquest of 1066 and the reigns that followed. He submitted to William I and was permitted to retain his bishopric when many other English prelates were removed. He worked with Norman churchmen and royal officials while defending the lands and liberties of Worcester. A later legend, absent from the earliest life, claimed that he secured his position by fixing his staff in the tomb of Edward the Confessor so that no one else could withdraw it; modern historians regard that story as a subsequent hagiographical invention.

Wulfstan promoted the rebuilding of Worcester Cathedral in stone on a Romanesque plan. He was remembered for preaching, for humility, and for service to the poor, including washing their feet. He is credited in medieval narrative with helping to suppress the trade that sold English slaves from the port of Bristol to Ireland, a practice he attacked in his sermons. He continued in office into advanced old age and died at Worcester in January 1095. He was buried in Worcester Cathedral, where a shrine later developed.

Coleman, a monk of Worcester and Wulfstan's chaplain, composed a life in Old English that is now lost. William of Malmesbury translated and recast that work in Latin in the early twelfth century as the Vita Wulfstani, which remains the chief narrative source. A cult grew at the tomb. Pope Innocent III canonized Wulfstan in 1203. His feast is kept on 19 January, and he is especially associated with the city and former diocese of Worcester.

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