Saint Dunstan Archbishop of Canterbury

c. 909 - 988

Also known as Dunstanus

Archbishop of Canterbury who led the monastic and ecclesiastical reform of tenth-century England.

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Commemorated as

Our Father among the Saints Dunstan, Archbishop of Canterbury

Life

Dunstan (c. 909-988) was a tenth-century English churchman who served successively as Abbot of Glastonbury, Bishop of Worcester and of London, and finally Archbishop of Canterbury. He is remembered as the leading figure of the English Benedictine monastic reform, a movement he carried through with the bishops Aethelwold and Oswald during the reign of King Edgar.

Beyond his administrative and reforming work, Dunstan was celebrated as a craftsman and artist, working as a goldsmith, silversmith, manuscript illuminator, and musician. The coronation rite he devised for King Edgar in 973 remains the foundation of the British coronation service. Venerated in the Orthodox Church as a pre-schism Western saint, he is commemorated on May 19, the day of his repose.

Customs & Traditions

A monk-bishop who was himself a smith, honored as patron of blacksmiths and metalworkers; English lore traces the lucky horseshoe over the door to his legend of shoeing the devil and exacting a promise never to enter where a horseshoe hangs.

Timeline8 momentsReadHide

c. 909Birth in WessexDunstan was born around 909 at Baltonsborough in Wessex to Heorstan and Cynethryth. By tradition he was kin to Aelfheah the Bald, Bishop of Winchester, and possibly to Athelm, Archbishop of Canterbury, though that connection is uncertain.
c. 940Education and the royal courtAs a youth he studied under the Irish monks who then occupied the ruins of Glastonbury Abbey and received minor orders while serving at St Mary's church. His learning and artistic gifts drew him to the court of King Aethelstan.
943Holy Orders and the hermitage at GlastonburyAfter being humiliated at court and suffering an illness, Dunstan took Holy Orders in 943 with his kinsman Aelfheah and lived as a hermit at Glastonbury, working as a silversmith and in the scriptorium. He became renowned as a musician, illuminator, and metalworker.
943-957Abbot of GlastonburyAppointed abbot after King Edmund survived a near-fatal hunting accident, Dunstan re-established monastic life under the Rule of St Benedict, rebuilt the Church of St Peter, founded a monastic school, and expanded irrigation works on the Somerset Levels. The abbey prospered as a center of learning, and his influence shaped ecclesiastical policy for nine years.
c. 956Exile in FlandersConflict with King Eadwig around the time of his coronation forced Dunstan to flee England for Flanders, where he stayed at the Abbey of Mont Blandin near Ghent. There he encountered continental Benedictine discipline firsthand, an experience that shaped his later reforms.
957-960Bishop and ArchbishopAfter Edgar was chosen king by the Mercian and Northumbrian nobles, Dunstan returned to England and held the sees of Worcester and London. In 959 Edgar raised him to Archbishop of Canterbury, and in 960 he received the pallium from Pope John XII at Rome.
973The coronation of King EdgarDunstan devised the coronation ceremony for King Edgar held at Bath in 973. This rite became the basis of the British coronation service that continues to the present day.
988Repose at CanterburyAfter Edward the Martyr's assassination in 978 and the succession of Aethelred, Dunstan withdrew from political affairs to Canterbury, teaching at the cathedral school and practicing his crafts. On Ascension Day 988 he foretold his death, and he reposed on May 19, 988, at about seventy-nine years of age, and was buried in his cathedral.

Contributions & Legacy

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The Benedictine Reform

Dunstan was the foremost of the three reforming bishops -- with Aethelwold of Winchester and Oswald of Worcester -- who renewed English monastic life in the tenth century. His own formation as a monk at Glastonbury and his exposure to continental discipline at Mont Blandin in Flanders gave the movement its model: a return to the Rule of St Benedict and the restoration of regular communities.

As Archbishop of Canterbury he carried the reform across the English church. He forbade simony, ended the custom of clerics appointing their relatives to office, oversaw the rebuilding of monasteries, enforced clerical celibacy, replaced secular canons with monks in cathedral churches, and required parish priests to be properly qualified. The movement he led made the reformed monasteries centers of learning and renewed the discipline of the wider church.

Craftsman and Artist

Dunstan was as well known for his handiwork as for his office. He worked as a goldsmith, silversmith, and metalworker, and was active in the scriptorium as a manuscript illuminator; he is thought to have been the artist responsible for the celebrated image of Christ in the Glastonbury Classbook. He was also esteemed as a musician.

These skills made him, by later tradition, the patron saint of English goldsmiths and silversmiths. The same reputation gave rise to the folklore that surrounds his name, including the well-known legend in which he seizes the Devil by the nose with his blacksmith's tongs.

Relics & Shrines

Dunstan was buried in Canterbury Cathedral. After the original cathedral burned in 1074, his relics were translated to a tomb near the high altar of the new building. He was formally canonised in 1029.

His relics remained at Canterbury until they were destroyed during the English Reformation. Glastonbury Abbey at one time claimed to possess them, a claim regarded as false.

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