Wulstan, Bishop of Worcester, Saint

VOLSTANO, VESCOVO DI WORCESTER, SANTO

Feast day: 19 January

WULSTAN, Bishop of Worcester, Saint. - Benedictine monk, b. at Long Itchington, in Warwickshire (England) ca. 1008, d. at Worcester on 19 Jan. 1905.

He studied at the monastic schools of Evesham and Peterborough; he was ordained ca. 1083. Renouncing the ecclesiastical dignities offered him by Brithege, bishop of Worcester, he entered the Benedictine Order at the monastery of that same city, where he held various offices, until he became prior of the Cathedral. On 8 September 1062, the see having become vacant through the transfer of Bishop Aldred to the Church of York, he was consecrated, by election of Edward III the Confessor, bishop of Worcester, the last of the English bishops appointed under an Anglo-Saxon king. After the Norman conquest, he was among the few Saxon ecclesiastics who succeeded in keeping their see, representing the ideal link of connection between the ancient age of the Anglo-Saxon Church, symbolized in the names of Bede and of Cuthbert, and the new one, whose principal exponents were Lanfranc and Anselm.

V. distinguished himself by pastoral zeal and fervor of prayer, preserving, even in the care of the diocese, the asceticism with which he had imbued his monastic life. He was canonized by Innocent III, on 14 May 1203. Feast on 19 January.

Bibliography4 works

BIBL.: sources: William of Malmesbury, De gestis pontif. Anglorum, ed. by N.E.S.A. Hamilton, in Rerum Britanniae medii aevi script., LII, London 1870, pp. 279-89; the Lives written by William of Malmesbury, by Florence and a third anonymous one in Acta SS. Januarii, II, Antwerp 1643, pp. 238-49; the first also in Acta SS. Ordin. 1. Benedicti, IX, Venice s. a., pp. 818-40. Studies: R. Challoner, Britannia sancta, London 1745, pp. 55-65; R. Stanton, A Menology of England and Wales, ibid. 1887, pp. 25-27.

Alessandro Pratesi

@incollection{ec12_volstano_vescovo_di_worcester, author = {Pratesi, Alessandro}, title = {Volstano, vescovo di worcester, santo}, booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica}, volume = {XII}, pages = {1609--1610}, note = {Cited by column}, publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico}, address = {Città del Vaticano}, year = {1954}, url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/volstano-vescovo-di-worcester-santo} }

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