ALDHELM (Aldhelmus or Althelmus; Old English Ealdhelm [= ancient helmet]), Saint. — Of royal Saxon lineage, born in Wessex around 640, perhaps in 639, and died on 25 May 709. His first tutor was the Irish monk MAIDULF (Irish Maeldub), founder of the monastery that took its name from him, Malmesbury (in Bede: Maidulfu urbs). Around the year 668, already a religious, he went to the school of Canterbury, where his teachers were the archbishop THEODORE of Tarsus and the abbot ADRIAN (on whom cf. Bede, Hist. Eccl., IV, 1-2), who greatly influenced his formation: A. calls Adrian the master of his “rude infancy” (Ep. ad Hadr.). At the death of Maidulf (675), Bishop Leutherius appointed him abbot of the monastery, which under his thirty years of leadership reached great splendor. During the pontificate of Sergius I (687-701), he undertook a journey to Rome and returned to his homeland with the notable “privilegium” of exemption for his monastery, placed directly under the jurisdiction of the Holy See. When the vast diocese of Winchester, then the only one for the West Saxons, was divided in two, he was elected, in 705, bishop of the new diocese of Sherborne, though he remained, by the monks’ wish, superior of the monastery. He died during a pastoral visit in the village of Dulting (Somersetshire) and was buried at Malmesbury.
His life was one of action, study, and prayer. He said: “When I read, it is God who speaks to me; when I pray, it is I who speak to God” (cf. Gulg. of Malm., V, 3 init.: PL 179, 1633). In the disciplinary controversies with the Britons (Celts), he championed the Roman cause and was an apostle of peace. In 1080, Pavia (v.), then archbishop of Canterbury and primate of England, prescribed his cult throughout the island (feast on 25 May).
He left various writings: 1. De (Septenario et de) Metris et Enigmatibus ac pedum regulis, in 141 chapters, important for the many texts cited (Virgil stands out) and the preface to the Enigmas with the acrostic “Aldhelmus cecinit milensis versibus odas,” useful for the exact spelling of his name. 2. De Virginitate, in prose and verse, imitating Sedulius, as Bede notes, judging it an “eximious” work: the prose treatise, dedicated to Hildelida, abbess of Barking (on whom cf. Bede, Hist. Eccl., IV, 10), celebrates in 70 chapters the privileges of virginity, illustrating them with examples from all ages (St. Gregory the Great is called “our teacher”: “Prosp. 42 and 55); it concludes with a greeting to the religious, “flowers of the Church, pearls of Christ, gems of paradise”; the Carmen consists of 2904 hexameters, of which the first 38 form the preface, acrostically framed in the opening verse “Metrica tirones nunc promant carmina castos.” 3. Carmina ecclesiastica, in which he celebrates the patrons of various churches, especially the Virgin and the Twelve Apostles.
Several Chartae Aldhelmianae or diplomas remain, including the famous “privilegium” of Pope Sergius. A precious historical source is the brief Epistolary (10 of his letters and 3 addressed to him), which informs us about the “ratio studiorum” of the famous school of Canterbury, where Roman law and Gregorian chant were also taught (Ep. 1); about the schools of Ireland (Epp. 3 and 5), about his relations with the Celtic monastery of Péronne (France); the letter to the disciple Ethelwald is a program of Christian asceticism (prayer, mortification, study); he wrote that to King Geraint of Wales in 680, on Roman unity (concerning tonsure and Easter), at the request of the bishops gathered in council.
A. cites Holy Scripture both according to the Vulgate and according to the Italian version. He reveals a certain national sentiment. His importance lies in the fact that he had a dual education, Celtic and Roman, and was the first abbot of Malmesbury, the first bishop of Sherborne, the first Anglo-Saxon to successfully cultivate Latin poetry (cf. Gulg. of Malm., V, 1: PL 179, 1621) and the first of his people (recently converted to Christianity) whose writings have come down to us with certainty. His style is rather rough, with sometimes bizarre tastes, but his verses are very expressive. Some have judged him a primitive, a “barbarian scholar”; the Middle Ages, however, held him in great honor: Bede calls him “a man endowed with every gift... polished in speech... wonderful in learning”; St. Boniface and LULL, apostles of Germany, greatly loved his writings; Alfred the Great collected his popular songs in the vernacular, now lost, proclaiming him “prince of Anglo-Saxon poetry” (cf. Gulg. of Malm., V, 1: PL 179, 1621). His works, of which numerous manuscripts are scattered throughout Europe, had commentators. A. therefore holds a distinguished place in the history of culture.
Sources: First, the writings of the saint; then Bede, contemporary, Hist. eccl., V, 18: PL 95, 260 sq. (= C. Plummer, II, Oxford 1896, pp. 308-313); Faricius of Arezzo, monk at Malmesbury, then abbot of Abingdon (d. 1117), Vita s. Aldhelm: PL 80, 63-84; William of Malmesbury (d. 1143), De Gestis Pontificum Anglorum, entire bk. 1: PL 179, 1610-80.
Studies: J. Mabillon, Acta SS. O. S. Bened., III, 1, Paris 1672, pp. 222-27; G. F. Browne, S. Aldhelm, his Life and Times, London 1903; W. B. Wildman, Life of s. Ealdhelm, London 1905; T. Cogliani, “De Septenario” di Aldhelm, Cagliari 1907; M. Manitius, Gesch. der lat. liter. des Mittelalt., I, Munich 1911, pp. 134-42; A. Manser, Le témoignage d'Aldhelm de Sherborne sur une particularité du Canon Grégorien de la Messe Romaine, in Rev. Bened., 28 (1911), pp. 90-95; D. Mazzoni, Aldhelmiana..., in Riv. stor. Benedettina, 10 (1915), pp. 93-114, 245-50, 402-47; G. Prampolini, Storia Universale della Letteratura, II, Turin 1934, pp. 221-23; finally the index of vols. III (p. 506) and IV.