ALDELMO (Aldhelmus or Althelmus; Anglo-Saxon Ealdhelm (= old helmet), saint. — Of a Saxon royal family, b. in Wessex around 640, perhaps in 639, d. 25 May 709. His first tutor was the Irish monk Maildulfo (Irish Maedulfo), founder of the monastery that took from him the name of Malmesbury (in Bede: Maildulfi urbs). About 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 teacher of his “rough infancy” (Rp. ad. Hadr.). At Maildulfo’s death (675), Bishop Leutherius wished him to become abbot of the monastery, which during his thirty years of governance he brought to great splendor. Under the pontificate of Sergius I (687-701), he undertook a journey to Rome and returned to his homeland with the distinguished “privilegium” exempting his monastery, which was placed under the direct dependence of the Holy See. When the vast diocese of Winchester, then the only one among the West Saxons, was divided in two, he was elected in 705 bishop of the new diocese of Sherborne, while remaining, at the monks’ request, superior of the monastery. He died during a pastoral visitation in the village of Dulting (Somersetshire), and was buried at Malmesbury.
His life was action, study, and prayer. He used to say: “When I read, it is God who speaks to me; when I pray, it is I who speak to God” (cf. William of Malmesbury, 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.), who died 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 appended to it (Virgil predominates among them) and for the preface to the Enigmas with the acrostic “Aldhelmus cecinit millenis versibus odas,” useful for establishing the exact spelling of the name. 2. De Virginitate, in prose and verse, in imitation of Sedulius, as Bede notes, judging it an “excellent” work: the prose treatise, dedicated to Hildelda, abbess of Barking (for whom cf. Bede, Hist. eccl., IV, 10), celebrates in 70 chapters the privileges of virginity, illustrating them with examples from every age (St. Gregory the Great is there called “pedagogus noster”: chaps. 42 and 55); it concludes with a greeting to the religious women, “flores Ecclesiae, Christi margaritae, paradisi gemmae”; the Carmen consists of 2,904 hexameters, of which the first 38 form the preface, acrostically delimited in the opening line, “Metrica tirones nune promant carmina castos.” 3. Carmina ecclesiastica, in which he celebrates the patrons of various churches, especially the Virgin and the twelve Apostles.
Some Chartae Aldhelmianae, or diplomas, remain, including the famous “privilegium” of Pope Sergius. A brief Epistolary (10 letters by him and 3 addressed to him) is a precious historical source, informing us about the “ratio studiorum” of the celebrated school of Canterbury, where Roman law and singing (Gregorian; Ep. 1) were also taught; about the schools of Ireland (Epp. 3 and 5); and about his relations with the Celtic monastery of Péronne (France). The letter to his disciple Ethelwald is a program of Christian asceticism (prayer, mortification, study); he wrote the letter to the British king Geraint, in 680, concerning Roman unity (with regard to the tonsure and Easter) at the request of the bishops assembled in council.
A. cites Holy Scripture according to both the Vulgate and the Itala. He reveals a certain national sentiment. His importance lies in the fact that he received a dual education, Celtic and Roman; that he was the first abbot of Malmesbury, the first bishop of Sherborne, the first Anglo-Saxon to cultivate Latin poetry successfully (cf. William of Malmesbury, 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 occasionally bizarre tastes, but his verses are highly expressive. Some have judged him a primitive, a “literate barbarian”; the Middle Ages, however, held him in great honor: Bede calls him “vir undecumque doctissimus... sermone nitidus... eruditionem mirandus”; St. Boniface and Lullus, apostles of Germany, greatly valued his writings; Alfred the Great collected his popular songs in the vernacular, now lost, proclaiming him “prince of Anglo-Saxon poetry” (cf. William of Malmesbury, V, 1: PL 179, 1621). His works, whose numerous codices are dispersed throughout Europe, had their own commentators. A. therefore occupies a distinguished place in the history of culture.
Sources: First and foremost, the saint’s writings; then Bede, his contemporary, Hist. eccl., V, 18: PL 92, 260 ff. (= C. Plummer, II, Oxford 1896, pp. 308-313); Faricica of Arezzo, a monk at Malmesbury and later abbot of Abingdon (d. 1117), Vita e Aldhelmi: PL 89, 63-84; William of Malmesbury (d. 1143), De Gestis Pontificum Anglorum, all of Book I, V: PL 179, 1619-80.
Studies: J. Mabillon, Acta SS. O. V. 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 e di Aldhelm, Cagliari 1907; M. Manitius, Gesch. der lat. liter. des Mittelalters, I, Munich 1911, pp. 134-42; A. Manset, Le témoignage d'Aldhelme de Sherborne sur une particularité du Canon Grégorien de la Messe Romaine, in Rev. Bénéd., 28 (1911), pp. 90-95; D. Mazzoni, Aldhelmiana... in Riv. stor. Benedettina, 16 (1915), pp. 93-114, 245-50, 402-47; G. Prampolini, Storia Universale della Letteratura, II, Turin 1934, pp. 221-23; finally the index of volumes III (p. 506) and IV
(p. 399) of the Bull. d'Hist. Bénéd., supplement to vols. 44 (1932) and 55 (1941) of the Revue Bénédictine. Ieino Cecchetti