5 - Eadfrith

Summary

Ædfrith, the fifth

Ædfrith succeeded him. He came from a line of Saxon nobles. It was only his body that gave men any expectation of refinement or greatness, for his works were contemptible and crass. He began as prior, but once he had been chosen and made abbot, he put behind him the rigour of the cloister, and fecklessly passed his days in feasting and idleness. He stayed in his chamber, was rarely seen in the cloister, and never deigned to appear in the vchoir. And in this change of behaviour he tried to put off the new man and recover the old man and his acts. In keeping of the possessions of his church he was laggardly; in acquiring new ones he was lame, and as a shepherd he was pernicious example to his sheep. However, he did acquire a lovely chalice, of which the workmanship and materials were both wonderful, and this he offered to the Blessed Alban, for the receiving of the body of our Lord.

The building of the chapel of St Germanus

Also during his abbacy he did give his permission, but not his help, for the building of an oratory in honour of Saint Germanus, by Wulfo of holy memory, prior of St Alban, a man whose sanctity was admired.

The original foundation of an oratory of St Germanus by Wulfa, prior of St Alban; and the laudable death there of the same and of the abbot recalled in the same place

For the dwelling in which Saint Germanus had stayed for some time, after he had reverently lifted the body of the holy martyr from the earth, had lain shamefully derelict, as it was in a sunken space next to the city wall where marshes and reeds made extensive dwellings impossible. And the ruined building had barely left any traces by which to remember St Germanus.

And so, as I have said, the abbot gave permission for an oratory to be built, and for a long time a monastic brother of exceptional holiness by the name of Aucanus, who raised three boys from the dead and cast out three demons, lived a hermit's life there. He cultivated his vegetable patch, and existed on a remarkably spare diet of herbs, vegetables, water and prayers of which he never grew tired.