Wigstan
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Wigstan (Template:IPAc-en, Template:IPA; died c. 840 AD), also known as Saint Wystan, was the son of Wigmund of Mercia and Ælfflæd, daughter of King Ceolwulf I of Mercia.
History
Like many Mercians of the period very little is known about Wigstan. He was the son of Wigmund and Ælfflæd, both the offspring of Mercian kings, Wiglaf and Ceolwulf I respectively. Wigmund, according to the Croyland Chronicle, died of dysentery before his father King Wiglaf, making Wigstan heir to the kingdom of Mercia. However, when Wiglaf died c.839, Wigstan declined the kingship preferring religious life and monastic orders instead. Beorhtwulf, possibly Wigstan's great-uncle, became king instead. William of Malmesbury claims that Beorhtwulf's son, Beorhtfrith, wished to marry Wigstan's widowed mother, Ælfflæd, but Wigstan forbade the union as they were too closely related.<ref>Wasyliw, Patricia Healy. Martyrdom, Murder, and Magic: Child Saints and Their Cults in Medieval Europe, Peter Lang, 2008, p. 78Template:ISBN</ref> As revenge Beorhtfrith went to visit the young King ostensibly in peace but, when the two greeted each other, he struck Wigstan on the head with the shaft of his dagger and his servant ran him through with his sword.
Veneration
The site of Wigstan's martyrdom has been variously claimed to be Wistanstow, Shropshire,<ref>St. Wistan, Prince of Mercia, Martyr, in Butler's Lives of Saints</ref> and Wistow, Leicestershire, with Wigston being the nearest town which happens to be derived from his name.
Wigston was one of the places where the body of St Wigstan remained overnight on the way to Repton for burial. A small shrine was set up to honour him, which became the site of an annual pilgrimage on the saint's feast day. It was replaced by a chapel in 1086, which, in turn was replaced by a church, now closed.<ref name=pilgrimage>St Wistan’s Pilgrimage Walk</ref>
Wigstan became a famous saint and Repton became a centre of pilgrimage as a result, which led Cnut the Great to move Wigstan's relics to Evesham, where the Template:Lang was written by Dominic of Evesham, a medieval prior there.<ref name=vale>"Timeline", Vale of Evesham Historical Society</ref><ref name=Writings298>Jennings "Writings" English Historical Review p. 298</ref>
The saint's relics were relocated to the Abbey at Evesham.<ref>On St. Wigstan see ‘The Medieval Hagiography of Saint Ecgwine’, p.79 & p.83. This notes that Abbot Ælfweard occupied himself with increasing Evesham’s prestige, and instigated the translation of Saint Wigstan to Evesham, and Evesham Abbey and the Parish Churches: A Guide, p.8. E.J. Rudge, p.13 notes that Ælfweard entreated King Canute to present the abbey church with the relics of Wystan. George May (1834), p.47 refers to St Wulstan. Also see The Victoria History of the County of Worcester, p.387 and ‘The Mitred Abbey of St. Mary, Evesham’, p.12.</ref> His vita (meaning "life", a history recording reputed acts of sanctity) has been attributed to the Benedictine chronicler Dominic of Evesham, an early 12th-century Prior at Evesham. The edifice of the abbey (including the tomb of the four saints and many monastic buildings) were demolished during the Dissolution of the Monasteries.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
Noted Edwardian artist Margaret E.A. Rope was commissioned for the windows in the parish church of Wistanstow in Shropshire dedicated depicting SS Wistan and Anne.
St Wistan’s Way
St Wistan’s Way is a four-mile pilgrimage starting at the medieval church of St. Wistan's in Wistow and proceeding over the Grand Union Canal to Wigston.<ref name=pilgrimage/><ref>"St Wystan’s Way: Wistow to Wigston", British Pilgrimage Trust</ref>
See also
- Anglo-Saxon crypt tomb at Repton, Derbyshire
- British poet W. H. Auden was named in honor of Saint Wystan,<ref>video clip of W. H. Auden reading a poem, bearing his full name, accessed 20 September 2020</ref> A family connection with both Repton School and Wistanstow church in Shropshire is noted by Auden's biographer Humphrey Carpenter.<ref>https://liberalengland.blogspot.com/2007/03/martyrdom-of-st-wystan.html Liberal England blog</ref>
- Mick Sharp's book The Way and the Light: An Illustrated Guide to the Saints and Holy Places of Britain makes the case for Wistow as the likely location of St Wistan's martyrdom, attested to in the legend of the miraculous appearance of human hair on the anniversary of his death, 1 June.
Notes
Sources
- Template:Cite journal
- Walker, Ian, Mercia and the Making of England.
- Yorke, Barbara, Kings and Kingdoms of Early Anglo-Saxon England. London: Seaby, 1990. Template:ISBN
- Zaluckij, Sarah, Mercia: the Anglo-Saxon Kingdom of Central England. Logaston: Logaston Press, 2001. Template:ISBN