Big-Hearted Alphege Refused to Ask the Poor to Ransom Him
Alphege depicted in religious art.
AS A YOUNG MAN, Alphege hungered for a holy life. This pursuit of holiness would send him on a path to fame. He had been born into a noble family around 954 and inherited an estate. Ignoring the tears and pleas of his widowed mother that he remain with her, he entered a monastery in Gloucestershire. The monks’ way of life did not seem strict enough to him, so he withdrew to a solitary place near Bath to live as a hermit. People small and great came to him for advice and prayers. Some young men, finding inspiration in his austere lifestyle, joined him. It seems he became the abbot of a revitalized monastery at Bath. In 984, Archbishop Dunstan urged Alphege to become bishop of Winchester. Alphege objected that he was only thirty, but Dunstan eventually prevailed.
Virtually everything we know about Alphege as a church leader relates in some way to the invasion of the Northmen (Norwegians and Danes). While at Winchester, he had the first of his notable encounters with Northmen when King Ethelred the Unready sent him to negotiate with Olaf Tryggwesson, the leader of Norwegian invaders. Alphege persuaded Olaf (who had become a Christian) to promise never again to invade England. Olaf kept his word, which may be a reason why heathen Northmen hated Alphege.
After twenty-two years at Winchester, Alphege became the archbishop of Canterbury. He made a trip to Rome to receive confirmation of his position there, and then he returned home, where he undertook his one notable act in his official capacity as archbishop. This was to hold the Council of Enham where the church discussed how to deal the havoc wrought by the Northern invaders.
Alphege was archbishop only six years before the Danes invaded. Through the treachery of a churchman named Alphmaer, the city of Canterbury was betrayed into the hands of the Danes, who massacred men, women, and children and plundered and burned the cathedral. Alphege hurried to the scene of the worst slaughter and pleaded with the raiders to spare the lives of the people. Instead, the Danes seized him, treated him cruelly and imprisoned him for seven months, promising him freedom if he would raise an enormous ransom.
Knowing what a burden the ransom would be to the poor folk of England, Alphege refused. However, as opportunity offered, he spoke to the Danes about Christ and holy living. Most scorned his words, but Thorkell the Tall listened. Shortly after Alphege’s death, he became a Christian.
At a drunken feast on this day, 19 April 1012, the Danes repeated their demand for ransom. When Alphege again refused, they pelted him with bones, stones, and other hard objects. The Danes’ leader, Thorkell the Tall, pleaded for the bishop’s life by offering everything he owned except his boat, but he was ignored. A Dane named Thurm smacked Alphege in the head with an axe, ending his agony.
Grateful Saxons recovered his corpse and recognized him as a martyr and saint because he had given his life for the cause of justice. In 1023, King Cnut, a Dane himself, moved Alphege’s body to Canterbury where it was interred with great ceremony. In this way, Alphege’s search for holiness made him the most popular English saint before Becket.
—Dan Graves
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Alphege's encounter with the Vikings was not the end of the story. For more about the Vikings, see Christian History #63 A Severe Salvation, how the Vikings took up the faith
