Dunstan, Saint

DUNSTANO, saint. — Born ca. 925 (according to Toke [*The Bosworth Psalter*, ed. Gasquet-Bishop, London 1908, pp. 131–43], in 910), died on 19 May 988. He was educated in the monastery of Glastonbury and at the court of Etelstano (924–40), to whom he was related. He was dismissed from it because his love of study made him suspected of magic. He took refuge with his relative St. Elfego, bishop of Winchester; and then returned as a monk to the monastery of Glastonbury, of which Edmondo (940–46), who had succeeded Etelstano, made him abbot (ca. 945). There he educated a host of bishops and abbots. Counselor to Edredo (946–55) in ecclesiastical and also political affairs, he fell into disfavor with Edwig (955–58), whom he had reproached for his bad conduct, and was forced into exile in Flanders at Mont Blandin, near Ghent. After two years he was recalled by Edgardo the Peaceful (958–75), who made him bishop of Worcester (957), then of London (959), and finally primate of Canterbury (960). He went to Rome and obtained the pallium from Giovanni XII.
He devoted himself with great energy and success to reforming the morals of the people, restoring the ecclesiastical spirit among monks and clergy, building churches and monasteries, and rebuilding those destroyed by the Danes. For 28 years he was the soul of the English Church. The Tractatus de lapidé philosophorum (Cassel 1649) and the Regularis concordia Angliae (ed. Dugdale, in Monasticon Anglicanum, I, London 1817, pp. XXVII–XLV), once attributed to him, are not his works.