People began writing about Dunstan within a century of his death. This manuscript is from the British Library's collection. Although he died on May 19 in 988, Dunstan has affected our world, more than a thousand years later. Born in 909 to an aristocratic family, he didn’t fit in at school. Today, however, we would recognize him as a polymath. Dunstan was an advisor to kings—and in and out of favor with some of the Saxon royals, at times exiled—and a restorer of monastic practices. In addition, he was a metalworker, skilled in creating church bells. He was a painter; the British Museum has a manuscript he illuminated. And a musician. Dunstan compiled a coronation service which for King Edgar, the earliest English coronation service for which we have the full text. It is still the basis for all coronation services. As a bishop, he sponsored missionaries to countries in Scandinavia. (Remember, this was the time of Danish raids on England!) Although he was appointed Archbishop of Canterbury by one king, he fell out of favor with the next one, and went to teach at the cathedral school in Canterbury. The Church has this prayer for his saint day: Direct your Church, O Lord, into the beauty of holiness, that, following the good example of your servant Dunstan, we may honor your Son Jesus Christ with our lips and in our lives; to the glory of his Name, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
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Saints Alive!
I have been privileged to offer Noonday Prayer at my church, usually on Thursdays, which doesn’t matter because it’s on Youtube forever. [It’s amazing what can be done with a smartphone and a smart, helpful parish administrator!] The service is brief, with a place for a meditation. We usually look at the Episcopal calendar of saints, who are nearly always honored on their death dates, not their birth dates. Here is a hymn by medieval saint Hildegard of Bingen to set the mood.
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