VOLSTANO, bishop of WORCESTER, saint. — Benedictine monk, born at Long Itchington, in Warwickshire (England), ca. 1008, died at Worcester on 19 January 1905.
He studied at the monastic schools of Evesham and Peterborough; he was ordained ca. 1083. Declining the ecclesiastical dignities offered him by Brithege, bishop of Worcester, he entered the Benedictine Order at the monastery of that city, where he held various offices until he became prior of the Cathedral. On 8 September 1062, when the see became vacant through the transfer of Bishop Aldred to the Church of York, he was consecrated bishop of Worcester by election of Edoardo III the Confessor, 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 retaining their sees, representing the ideal link between the ancient period of the Anglo-Saxon Church, symbolized by the names of Beda and Cutberto, and the new period, whose principal exponents were Lanfranco and Anselmo.
V. prayer, preserving, even in the administration of the diocese, the asceticism that had characterized his monastic life. He was canonized by Innocent III on 14 May 1203. Feast day: 19 January.