4. SAINT AELFHEAH «THE BALD», BISHOP OF WINCHESTER

Our holy Father Aelfheah succeeded St. Birnstan as Bishop of Winchester in 934. Nothing is known about his early life. Once, on the first day of Great Lent, he was exhorting his flock to live in abstinence and chastity. But one man mocked his words, and said that he would sleep with his wife that night. «You know not, wretched one, what the morning will bring,» said the holy man. The next morning, the man was found dead in his bed.

St. Aethelwold used to tell another story about St. Aelfheah's zeal for observance of the fasts. There was a man who used to drink when he liked during Great Lent. One day he asked the bishop to bless his cup. He refused, and the fool drank without the blessing and went out. By chance a bull was being baited outside; it rushed towards him and gored him to death...

This saint was the spiritual father of two other saints, Dunstan and Aethelwold, and it was he who ordained them both to the holy priesthood, together with another man named Athelstan. After the Divine Liturgy, he turned to the people and said: «I have ordained three priests today, two of whom will attain to the Episcopal dignity, one in my see, the other in another diocese.» Then Athelstan said: «Am I one of the two who will reach the Episcopal dignity?» «No,» said the bishop, «nor will you continue in the holy life in which you began.» And so it turned out.

St. Aelfheah reposed in peace in 951. He is commemorated on March 12.

Holy Father Aelfheah, pray to God for us!

(Sources: Saxon Priest B., Vita Dunstani; William of Malmesbury, Gesta Pontificum Anglorum; David Farmer, The Oxford Dictionary of Saints, Oxford: The Clarendon Press, 1978, p. 14)